Why You Need To Own Your Content
In recent weeks we have seen attempts at censorship and bans by many websites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Ravelry. Facebook banned InfoWars’ Alex Jones and NOI leader Louis Farrakhan, YouTube has banned white supremacist videos, and Twitter banned “dehumanizing language.”
But I was taken aback by the decision made by Ravelry, a popular knitting and crochet website, to ban all content supporting Trump.
“This includes support in the form of forum posts, projects, patterns, profiles, and all other content… We cannot provide a space that is inclusive of all and also allow support for open white supremacy,” the site said in a statement explaining the decision. “Support of the Trump administration is undeniably support for white supremacy.”
While it is well known that I don’t like Trump, I don’t think this was a good move for Ravelry. I would have just banned all political speech, regardless if it is liberal, conservative or anywhere else on the political spectrum, and I bet most people would have supported that. Besides, it’s a crafting website; people should be able to go there and learn about a new project, not get into political mudslinging.
Sure, all of these privately owned businesses and websites have a right to ban or censor whoever they want. But this can turn into a slippery slope because, quite frankly, all of these websites can ban or censor anyone for any reason. I still find it fascinating that so many people invest so much time, resources and content on these websites that they use for free, and not really understanding that all their investment could go away in a blink of an eye because the website said so.
Clearly, these companies don’t really care about protecting your content either. Ravelry would have been better off focusing their energy on dealing with copyright infringement and piracy on its website. They don’t seem to ban users who steal patterns or project images on their website and present them as their own on other sites. But, I guess fighting Trump is a bigger priority for a crafting website?!
One of the reasons I became a web designer was because I wanted to own my online content. I like using social media, but I use it to redirect to my content on my website that I built and paid a server for. I am even learning how to build my own server so one day if I need to have total online freedom, I will know what do it. I guess you can call me a digital survivalist.
When you build and own a website you have power and currency. When you are just using someone else’s website, you have no power.