Internet forum censorship

stockhausen · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:56

It appears that Atos Healthcare, a French private company given £100 million of public money a year by the Government to assess whether disabled people are fit for work has used its legal muscle to close down two critical forums in less than a week - ATOS Register of Shame & the CarerWatch Forum.

Basher · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:59

Source?

The bigger scandal is that Atos removed the fish from their logo

alx · 23 Aug 2011 at 15:59

How did they get them closed down? Are those forums government run or something?

Kristoph · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:01

If I ever want to find a stockhausen post I just search for 'tories', 'tory' or 'margaret thatcher'

anything I don't mind · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:04

"two critical fora"

what is fora ? is that at an acronym ?

Gackt · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:04

Kristoph said:
If I ever want to find a stockhausen post I just search for 'tories', 'tory' or 'margaret thatcher'

Or Torygraph.

Tefal · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:04

from a quick google they broke their agreement with their hosting service so when atos emailed them they took down the forums.

http://issuu.com/atosvictims/docs/legal_letter_from_atos?mode=a_p

joxang · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:05

It was a libel suit. I think (do correct if wrong) the problem was the 'register of shame' site was a place where people could just post the real names of healthcare professionals and carers whom they believed had done them wrong, or denied them benefits, and **** off.

Not exactly a reliable sounding place and not surprising they got the host to shut the site down.

Dunks · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:05

Gackt said:
Or Torygraph.

Grauniad too.

Cosimo · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:05

groen said:
"two critical fora"

what is fora ? is that at an acronym ?

The stuff that grows in the ground.

Vampyre · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:07

groen said:
what is fora ? is that at an acronym ?

Fora is the correct plural of 'forum'...just about the only interesting thing in the OP's post!

Westyfield2 · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:08

stockhausen said:
two critical fora

Critical? Really?

I can't think of one Internet Forum that is critical, let alone these two I have never heard of...

RomanNose · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:16

Westyfield2 said:
Critical? Really?

I can't think of one Internet Forum that is critical, let alone these two I have never heard of...

This forum is critical, where else can you go to get information regarding Queen Wasps and where to get a mac 10 in under three minutes?

LordSplodge · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:20

It's a shame this is a Lolstockhausen thread as it raises some interesting issues. I've been keeping my eye on it via Twitter over the last day or so.

See: http://t.co/E2ChMP8

Phil99 · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:22

Vampyre said:
Fora is the correct plural of 'forum'...just about the only interesting thing in the OP's post!

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/forum#DWS-m-en_gb-msdict-00002–043217

Spelling help

The plural of forum is usually spelled forums; the plural fora (as in the original Latin) is chiefly used when talking about a public square in an ancient Roman city.

Hxc · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:25

They shouldn't have used shocking free forum sites if they wanted to be taken seriously.

Basher · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:27

LordSplodge said:
It's a shame this is a Lolstockhausen thread as it raises some interesting issues. I've been keeping my eye on it via Twitter over the last day or so.

See: http://t.co/E2ChMP8

Interesting how? Some people seem to have been making unsubstantiated claims against Atos who have, quite rightly asked their hosts for the sites to be shut down.

joxang · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:29

Basher said:
Interesting how? Some people seem to have been making unsubstantiated claims against Atos who have, quite rightly asked their hosts for the sites to be shut down.

Unsubstantiated claims about individual employees by name. Not nice.

EDIT: Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and OTs who assess disability benefit claimants. You might think you have a 'disability' and deserve benefits, but the rules that the professionals follow might disagree. Doesn't mean you can post their personal details on a forum and shout out how useless (<- mild form) they are.

RomanNose · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:29

Never understood libel laws to be honest, if someone says something that is false about you why not just sue them for the damage caused? And not the fact they have said something false about you.
I also find it incredibly stupid that websites are responsible for what their users post, it's complete ****.

Basher · 23 Aug 2011 at 16:31

joxang said:
Unsubstantiated claims about individual employees by name. Not nice.

Exactly. If I was Atos' legal department I would do exactly the same. There is no justification for publishing individual names like that.

Internet forum censorship

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