Internet forum censorship

Destination · 23 Aug 2011 at 18:53

stockhausen said:
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.

It is good that they sought to close down libelous forums rather than sue the posters, who should be seeking work now rather than posting on internet forums and indeed attending court for libel.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention stockhausen, otherwise I wouldn't have known the devious methods these job dodgers are now employing.

LOAM · 23 Aug 2011 at 19:07

Damn you Thatcher, Damn you!!!

sigma · 23 Aug 2011 at 19:36

LOAM said:
Damn you Thatcher, Damn you!!!

Tefal · 23 Aug 2011 at 19:39

I blame the libdems

platypus · 24 Aug 2011 at 10:38

Last edited by stockhausen; 23rd Aug 2011 at 17:00. Reason: General tidying up in line with reader's suggestions

Well I'm blown :eek:

!

Vampyre said:
Not going to argue with the might of the OED! Although I would imagine this is a relatively recent change as a forum (as a venue for discussion) is so called because of the fora in ancient Roman cities.

No, fora is the latin plural of the noun forum. "Internet forums" are so called because of forum.

Hmm re-reading this I can't tell if you were saying that forum derives from fora or vice versa.

According to the OED website the plurals of datum (data) and bacterium (bacteria) still follow the Latin rules, but the plural of stadium can be either stadiums or stadia...should just be one rule for all...bit like benefit scroungers really

Indeed, but thats what makes language so awesome

.

Mr Jack · 24 Aug 2011 at 11:08

Atos are an absolute disgrace.

robgmun · 24 Aug 2011 at 11:12

stockhausen said:
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.

Piky scroungers trying to fight back, ATOS do a good job of making sure that people don't rip-off the public.

EDIT - lopancakehausen

Basher · 24 Aug 2011 at 12:28

Mr Jack said:
Atos are an absolute disgrace.

I know, the logo was much better when it had the fish in it.

LordSplodge · 24 Aug 2011 at 12:42

robgmun said:
Piky scroungers trying to fight back, ATOS do a good job of making sure that people don't rip-off the public.

Except there is no real guidance for mental illness & many other not easy to categorise into 'tick boxes' or the fact that people can be assessed by people without any real medical training.

Baby out with the bath water comes to mind.

Haggisman · 24 Aug 2011 at 13:44

LordSplodge said:
Agreed with a caveat.

If somebody commits libel then a company has the right to take legal action. People should accept that sometimes words have consequences.

Definitely, and any members who were posting libellous content should be dealt with as such.

My issue is the overly aggressive action of shutting down the whole forum; customers who have been treated badly should have a medium in which they can post their experiences, and the internet should in theory be the ideal medium for this.

In much the same vein as the quote from V for Vendetta (modified from Thomas Jefferson's original):

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."

This should also apply similarly to corporations, if they treat customers badly, expect the repercussions, rather than just silencing people however they wish.

Anyway... I'm rambling now