Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikipedia charity chairman resigns after pornography row

Why ?

Have you forgotten Section 230 of Communications Decency Act ?

Toby

On 1/11/15, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen@gmail.com> wrote:
> can someone shut this guy up?
> Thanks,
> GerardM
>
> On 11 January 2015 at 07:37, Toby Dollmann <toby.dollmann@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9447161/Wikipedia-charity-chairman-resigns-after-pornography-row.html
>>
>> Wikipedia charity chairman resigns after pornography row
>>
>> The chairman of the charity responsible for promoting Wikipedia in
>> Britain has resigned after he was banned from editing the online
>> encyclopaedia, following rows about the inclusion of pornography.
>>
>> By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent
>> 3:55PM BST 02 Aug 2012
>>
>> Ashley van Haeften resigned as chairman of Wikimedia UK today, citing
>> concerns the controversy over his ban could cause divisions among
>> Wikipedia supporters.
>>
>> "I have discussed this matter with [Mr van Haeften] this morning,"
>> said Jon Davies, the chief executive of the charity, which distributes
>> £1m of donations from Wikipedia supporters annually.
>>
>> "He is keen that there should be no division in the Wikimedia UK
>> community over his role as Chair, especially at a time when so many
>> great things are being achieved.
>>
>> "He has therefore resigned as Chair."
>>
>> The Telegraph reported this week how Mr van Haeften had been banned
>> indefinitely from contributing to the English version of Wikipedia by
>> ArbCom, an elected committee of senior editors.
>>
>>
>>
>> ArbCom applied the sanction after finding he mounted personal attacks
>> on people with concerns about explicit material on Wikipedia,
>> including about material he had posted. He was criticised for
>> including a "highly inappropriate" link to pornography in the
>> biography of a living person.
>>
>> Wikipedia carries a large quantity of explicit material, despite
>> promoting itself as an educational website suitable for
>> schoolchildren. Critics such as Larry Sanger, a co-founder of the
>> website, and people attacked by Mr van Haeften, have argued for
>> filters or age controls to be introduced.
>>
>> Mr van Haeften, who works as an IT project manager, was also found by
>> ArbCom to have violated a series of editing rules, including by using
>> multiple accounts to change pages after he had asked for a "clean
>> start".
>>
>> His resignation follows a call by members of Wikimedia UK for an
>> Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss the controversy. They said
>> the decision of the charity's board to keep Mr van Haeften on as
>> chairman despite his ban from contributing to Wikipedia "not a
>> sufficient response to this situation".
>>
>> An EGM could still go ahead, however, as the call was for a vote on a
>> resolution "to remove Ashley Van Haeften from the Board of Trustees of
>> Wikimedia UK", not only to strip him of the chairmanship.
>>
>> "By not resigning as chair immediately after the ArbCom decision was
>> announced I am afraid that [Mr van Haeften] made an error which can
>> now only be corrected by his resignation from the board altogether,"
>> said one Wikimedia UK member.
>>
>> Mr van Haeften remains on the Wikimedia UK board. A new chairman will
>> be elected at a meeting this evening.

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