Why are links to Wikileaks dot org banned?

a reply to: Silicis n Volvo

It has absolutely nothing to do with how much a website makes. Any website.

If a website violates US Federal Law and ESPECIALLY National Security related laws? Money doesn't even hit the radar as an issue to worry about..... Prison time for all connected and the immediate obliteration of the website in question is what will start things out.

If some are willing to work years to build something up and then throw it all down the crapper for ONE story...ONE issue...when there are many many issues that need open forums to discuss? Then so be it, for other folks and other places. It's what keeps the courts in business, after all. People who think breaking the law is optional or somehow negotiable.

Errr... Nothing negotiable about it when one is operating on open and official levels of business. It's just suicide by federal agency and court order. Nothing more gets accomplished. Just one big waste of potential and resources.

Kinda sad.. where we are, what we've had to loose along the way to keep our tiny pieces of comfort, the things we've sacrificed to huddle in this dark corner of the web together.. to assure ourselves that we are safe.

We, You.. me.. the folks that own ATS.. are Never safe, never have been, if they wanted to hurt us they have many different ways to do such a thing.. much obviously would be false/planted.. or dug up from our past and hit with a new law implicating many just for being here or having posted/interacted with certain flagged (or deceased) individuals

But the wikileaks thing is just a cop-out, sry.. but when you look at things without a narrow spectrum you can see the gaping hole in the official story of why we cannot link to another part of the web.

and besides.. this is a CT site.. one of the LAST true CT sites.. many are falling, changing.. and not for the better. much of the catalyst for that rather sudden (on some sites) "turnaround" into facebook 2.0 or 4chan for CT's has been precidental changes like the one we see here on wikileaks.. it's as if the very core of what makes us a CT community is being slowly ripped out... like a spine.. like OUR spine. every week.. we loose another vertebra.. another tool for critical thinking.. soon all we will be able to speak about is "what's on tv"... and cats.

You do see what im saying here.. im trying to be fair, im trying to stick up for another link in the chain.. as it seems so many these days simply turn to jelly as soon as we are told NO about something that actually matters.. it's happening all to much now. I do understand the path chosen for us.. I just don't like it very much.. as it's an affront to why many of us even bothered to...

Deny Ignorance.

You cannot just block truth, to those that seek it.. that kind of makes you the bad guys, and bringing up $$ is detrimental to that cause as well.. many of us, don't speak that lingo anymore, we noticed the rot at the core (which is $$ and the corruption it causes) and try daily to remove ourselves from such a paradigm.. as that's the old system and is detrimental to the thing we seek... which is truth.

I don't expect a change.. but i would like you to think long and hard as to where ATS stands, whom it stands for.. and why.. as i said previously.. this is pretty much the LAST place left.. if you doubt me.. go look about.. things are ugly out there, it's why i came "home".. even if i don't recognize much of the place i left.

None saying you cant discuss wiki leaks topics or post what they say.

You just cant link to them.

There is ALOT of wiggle room here.....

a reply to: Xarian6

Unless you have a bunch of money, and plan to donate it to run the website this discussion can't be had without bringing money up. It takes money to run the site and keep it free, which Springer has said repeatedly it always will be.

I know money is the popular demon right now, but the simple truth is, no money, no ATS. So yes, advertisers do play a role. If they all pull out because they don't like a link to Wikileaks, ATS dies. Simple truth.

As the short furry one, and tothetenthpower said earlier, no one is saying you can't discuss the topics on Wikileaks, and in fact the major ones have all been discussed a lot on ATS. You simply can't link directly to the site.

The information doesn't change if the link comes directly from Wikileaks or through another website. The information is the sane either way.

a reply to: freelance_zenarchist

I just became aware of this, and I think this really brings up a good point in terms of the increasingly diluted quality of content here (and elsewhere.. everywhere.. on the internet) It really isn't logical to me that this site would get shut down for LINKING.. when sites like hmm.. WIKILEAKS.. have been alive and well for years..

despite vicious attacks from nefarious entities such as Scientology and so on..

Anytime any information of any valuable quality gets put out there, there is a chance it could help people deny ignorance, but if people don't have the guts to stand up for their right to know the Truth, there will be just that much less truth out there..

I have come to find it a bit comical how "Deny Ignorance" is the motto around here, and yet every time I lurk around, I find myself in a bind about a few things that somehow seem off:

1.) The Ads on here seem to be 95% spam (if you want some marketing data from me: I've NEVER clicked an ad here. despite all of the insultingly obvious, yet hilariously inaccurate data phishing attempts)

2.) The "official ATS sponsored" shows seem to stick to very safe and explored territory. I'm no Alex Jones or David Icke fan, but isn't it kind of embarrassing that those guys actually investigate at times, and these young people doing shows on the internet, can usually only be bothered enough to talk to a supposed "expert" on the phone, or make a slideshow, rehash old info, draw some connections to new info, *add extra special effects.. and then start working on the next show.

3.) Legal issues are REAL, I understand this, but if you want to have a site that is supposed to be all about distributing Truth and all of its controversial (and often ugly) mutations, I think that worrying about getting in trouble for LINKING to possibly useful information, is not consistent with denying ignorance..

Were ATS to be threatened with getting shut down, simply for sharing INFORMATION, wouldn't you want to stand your ground? Isn't that pretty much one of the only pure fights to fight these days? Isn't the internet, by it's very nature, a network for sharing information..?

a reply to: HyphenSt1

It really isn't logical to me that this site would get shut down for LINKING.. when sites like hmm.. WIKILEAKS.. have been alive and well for years..

Just an observation here..but how would you ever describe Wikileaks as alive and well for years?? The site itself was pursued off the net entirely multiple times, had almost all avenues of funding shut off at the sources of transactions online and it's founder is currently hiding in a foreign Embassy in London.

He can't even cross an imaginary line on a BALCONY for fear SAS or others could drop from the very sky above and snatch him up like a twisted Bungi jump in reverse. (The Balcony of the embassy apparently doesn't remain entirely on "foreign soil" in the legal sense).

Assange is someone I'm back and forth on, but generally respect as a citizen journalist doing what the big media would have done as well, had they been handed something like that as a cold walk-up. He's given up his life and everything productive about it, outside the single focus on his survival and staying out of United States custody as a result of his choices tho.

Certainly not living well or in safety.

a reply to: Silicis n Volvo

When denied, it is a violation of our natural right to participate in a lawful government. Yet, another violation of Constitutional law, and international treaty.

Very sad.

Might be time to start looking at defunding the whole organization. Unless they start doing their jobs, and force the oligarchy out. National Security is defending the laws of the union first. All other agendas, second.

It's simple....

We can't afford to defend ourselves against a copyright infringement suit or, worse yet, go to prison because we unknowingly hosted classified information.

I thought that ATS was a UK based site, not US.

Enjoy your freedom folks

originally posted by: tothetenthpower

It's nothing to do with anything, other than not putting ATS at the whim of the government and justice department.

How anybody could see that as anything but smart site policy is beyond me.

~Tenth

Like you say its not complicated..... this is a conspiracy site, you know, the sort of site where conspiracy theorists hang out.
And by their very definition, they are suspicious.

Do I really need to point that out?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Silicis n Volvo

And what if that gets ATS shut down in the process? Now what have you accomplished? ATS doesn't get the protections that a journalism site or journalist gets.

Fox, or the other MSM get protection if they link to that information, ATS doesn't. Where they can print those stories and get away with it, ATS could get in trouble and potentially shut down for the same thing.

That would be a great outcome - then a player's cards would be laid out on the table for all to see.

originally posted by: gusdynamite
That would be a great outcome - then a player's cards would be laid out on the table for all to see.

There are a lot of players.

There's only one ATS.

originally posted by: Majic

originally posted by: gusdynamite
That would be a great outcome - then a player's cards would be laid out on the table for all to see.

There are a lot of players.

There's only one ATS.

While perhaps widely considered the most pleasant experience of all 'conspiracy' stye websites, another would take it's place or it would adapt.

One player's cards on the table is better than no cards at all.

a reply to: gusdynamite

If only we were all so willing to sacrifice others for our beliefs.