Portland Indymedia Wire Taken Over By Extremists
Indyhelper | 18.01.2016 23:18 | Indymedia | Other Press | Repression | World
All the email lists have been deleted:
Compare:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050201170739/http://lists.indymedia.org/ with
http://lists.indymedia.org/ This is for all indymedia, but happened around the same time Portland stopped having general meetings.
Questions are asked on the Portland wire, but these articles are deleted; they are not even in public accessible "compost":
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2016/01/431434.shtml Recently it was learned, in March 2015, the wire was denounced by the person running their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10152899807213645&id=79668503644 https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CMUDfZ1E-0QJ:http://www.facebook.com/httpportlandindymediaorg-79668503644/timeline/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us "March 20 2015
Portland Indymedia has become a haven for antisemitism and conspiracy theories and is either unwilling or unable to filter itself. It should either disband or fundamentally rework itself."
Whoever is in charge of authorizing use of the "indymedia.org" domain needs to be told that the Portland group is
1. No longer operating as a transparent collective
2. Exploiting the Indymedia brand for their own agenda
Attached:
-screen of Facebook page warning of anti semites using portland indymedia
-screen of deleted thread asking where meetings are
Whoever owns the indymedia.org domain and servers needs to know the Portland group should be shut down until the can prove they serve the community.
http://argentina.indymedia.org/uploads/2016/01/pdximc-racists-facebook.jpg 
http://argentina.indymedia.org/uploads/2016/01/pdx-meetings-deleted.jpgmid.jpg
Indyhelper
Homepage:
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2016/01/886460.php
Comments
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Interesting
19.01.2016 15:27
I wonder if that has ever happened before with Indymedia ?
Ben
good question
19.01.2016 23:38
good question
History repeating itself
20.01.2016 08:15
Former Bindy collective member
Again ?
20.01.2016 08:59
Seems familiar. If Portland allows a known police informer to continue to remain as a member of the collective they will have copied the newswire here almost in its entirety.
.
Update from Netherlands IMC
30.01.2016 09:09
There's an update about this story on the bxl copy, with an allusion to the disappearance of Seattle IMC:
26 janvier 00:11, par anon
A bee has confirmed no meetings :
>The PIMC General Meetings have not been happening lately. [1/21/16]
Nice bit of honestly. OTOH there is a tldr screed about how YOU ARE THE MEDIA
Written by "workerbee3" implying 1 and 2 exist, which is dubious. This would be a good peice except it sidesteps the fact it is no longer functioning as YOU ARE THE MEDIA. They even admit why :
"The birth of facebook as well as other social media websites, along with corporate media using the tools of commenting sections by providing a forum for the ’peoples voice’ has taken a toll on indymedia original services. These days afford us all the ability to have your own blog or website or to use a plethora a websites that are catering to folks who want to share stuff on the internet. These public | personal site are easily available to everyone now days. "
Later the writer suggests :
"In order for the imc sites to work well and function, (we) the people should be writing our own news articles and reporting, videoing, documenting and using our voices for what we see is going in ’our’ neighborhoods and regions. Share your information in a firsthand reporting narrative. Use this site to promote community and social justice activities and to share factual information. Covering the who what when where in your own words - will more likely get your article featured and/or will keep it on the front page "newswire" rather than in the compost bin.
By reserving these pages for individuals who are "being the local reporters" the PIMC newswire thus empowers people to "Be the Media". While we all know these days, there is vast massive amount of information being shuffled along across the internet. It is not part of PIMC mission to facilitate the shuffle nor provide a platform for random "free speech" or rants and opinions. It is a local news reporting site where your voice will be heard. "
Heard by whom ? No one reads that site except to laugh at it. And they just admitted social media has taken traffic away. That is a permanent change. It’s not coming back.
This person might mean well, but they’re in deep denial. And any comment with questions will be censored, while tin foil conspiracy garbage goes up in record time :
"As your website was once interconnected with all IMC’s, the degradation of the entire network, whether through direct action by the Feds in the case of Seattle Servers,"
The Feds did not take down Seattle IMC. If that has happened, the story would still be on every surviving IMC wire. This is one of the few surviving stories about the Seattle wire :
From all accounts incompetence and cronyism took it down, not the Feds. But the myth of the "mystery" lives on in another dishonest and/or delusional comment :
"You Folks Are Doing A Great Job 24.Jan.2016 14:17
blues
I more-or-less expect my materials to get composted sometimes. I am old and have quietly helped organize many little progressive campaigns. I have seen the vital need to analyze situations before making decisions. Prompting people to think before they decide and act creates a special kind of controversy.
Thank you so much for your response, #3 ! Please keep up the great work.
(I wish I really knew what happened to the Indy site in Seattle. Such a shame.) "
Anyone who’s been around as much as "blues" should have known about the Seattle situation. And, needless to say, bumbling the management of the wire is not a cogent definition of "good work".
The issue of the compost bin is also worrying :
"2016 Compost Bin is coming soon
author : Workerbee e-mail:e-mail :
Coming soon to the Compost Bin will be a folder for 2016. "
That’s not how the compost bin works. It’s not a folder that’s created over a month into the next year. IIRC it’s just part of the site code or architecture. Like a spreadsheet. In short this sounds like a coverup. Someone in charge of the site has been deleting material and they were caught. The extra special compost folder is to cover it up. Go ahead and check way back for previous years :
This composted article in 2013 was dated Jan 10, with no indication a "special folder" needed to be created :
The management of that IMC wire looks shady. I understand the nostalgia that makes people want to cling to someone after it’s time has passed. But, if there is no readership and so little community involvement they have to admit they haven’t had meetings for months, clearly its time has passed.
anon
Irony is ironic? Does Indy have a future?
31.01.2016 21:35
Is that irony? Or are you alluding to the demise of the Seattle wire? Which most IMC are strangely quiet about considering the Seattle WTO protests were the birth of Indymedia. I'm sure most don't know or are expecting someone with more info to weigh in, but even at this late date it is relevant, if for no other reason that to answer honestly if Indymedia is still an effective activist tool.
I know the DC IMC was taken over by a guy called Luke Kuhn who had a disturbing association with racist groups.
(warning:some Ron Paul apologism, but some interesting perspectives on the DC indy scene)
Some say Kuhn was misled, others say he's a fake activist or mentally challenged. Whichever it is, the DC IMC failed as a collective. It shouldn't matter if Luke was for real or not; the collective should have been able to keep an individual or small group from taking over.
Which brings up another issue: is the organization of the IMC collectives inherently flawed, attracting exploitive groups with an agenda who are willing to manipulate the organization for their own gain? Or is the model sound, but the people involved were too naive or hesitant to use the tools to prevent trouble makers from getting a foothold?
This isn't just an Indymedia problem. Many open groups, historically welcoming to "free thinking" types, are having a crisis of identity. The Sceptic community was shaken when Micheal Shermer's history of drunken predatory behaviour came to light. Harlan Ellison groped someone on stage. Many of these communities predate Indymedia but are now scrambling to set down standards of behaviour and rally the political will to enforce those standards. What is baffling is it took this long and social media to motivate them to do it. Clearly there was always a small group of entitled assholes used to exploiting those groups and now they're shocked they're being called out.
The "entitled assholes" in political communities were attracted to Indymedia because of it's open inclusive structure. Early members full of idealism saw this openness as an asset and couldn't imagine it as a liability. That failure of imagination opened the door for the extremists to come in, then act like they owned the place. And if anyone objected, they'd squawk "Freeze Peach".
It is appalling that this worked. The trouble makers should have been shut out in a "New York" minute. Not debated, not voted on...just shut out...the minute there was evidence they were pushing, endorsing extremism or extremist propaganda. 'No Pasaran' should be at the core of any progressive principles, but it obviously wasn't. Or it wasn't understood. Or people had a misguided belief that the collective management would eventually work, even long after it was clear it wasn't. Any type of idealistic organization must face the fact, no matter how well thought out your principles/methodolgy are, they can be "hacked" and exploited by unprincipled people. As history stands, the Indymedia collectives have been ineffectual in defending themselves from this kind of manipulation.
Or, almost as bad, when the problem is recognized, it's attributed to the Feds or MI6 infiltration. Not to dismiss real monitoring of activists by government agencies, in most situations where new wires are thrown into chaos, fall apart or are taken down can be traced to the banal everyday corruption, cronyism, and incompetence. In the case of extremist groups taking over a wire, they rarely have the technical and financial resources to keep it going. And since they alienated everyone else in their coupé, the wire is almost certainly doomed to oblivion.
The worst threat to Indymedia isn't the "feds" or "agents", but the Indywires collective inability to effectively manage itself. Combine that with predatory extremists looking for easy pickings, the naive volunteers who believe them at face value, and social media networks taking over the self publishing niche, the chances of Indymedia surviving another 10 years as a relevant media is slim at best.
Prak
Looks like Indybay isn't open to discussion either?
31.01.2016 22:18
All that's left is the text below striked out:
Does Indy have a future?
by Prak Sunday Jan 31st, 2016 1:49 PM
Responding to : Interesting 19.01.2016 15:27 So a small unrepresentative clique with extremist views took over the newswire and pushed out the majority. I wonder if that has ever happened before with Indymedia ? ---Ben
What the hell is happening? There's nothing offensive in what i wrote? WTF?
Prak
Full response:
31.01.2016 23:46
Are you alluding to the demise of the Seattle wire? Which most IMC are strangely quiet about considering the Seattle WTO protests were the birth of Indymedia. I'm sure most don't know or are expecting someone with more info to weigh in, but even at this late date it is relevant, if for no other reason that to answer honestly if Indymedia is still an effective activist tool.
I know the DC IMC was taken over by a guy called Luke Kuhn who had a disturbing association with racist groups.
(warning:some Ron Paul apologism, but some interesting perspectives on the DC indy scene)
Some say Kuhn was misled, others say he's a fake activist or mentally challenged. Whichever it is, the DC IMC failed as a collective. It shouldn't matter if Luke was for real or not; the collective should have been able to keep an individual or small group from taking over.
Which brings up another issue: is the organization of the IMC collectives inherently flawed, attracting exploitive groups with an agenda who are willing to manipulate the organization for their own gain? Or is the model sound, but the people involved were too naive or hesitant to use the tools to prevent trouble makers from getting a foothold?
This isn't just an Indymedia problem. Many open groups, historically welcoming to "free thinking" types, are having a crisis of identity. The Sceptic community was shaken when Micheal Shermer's history of drunken predatory behaviour came to light. Harlan Ellison groped someone on stage. Many of these communities predate Indymedia but are now scrambling to set down standards of behaviour and rally the political will to enforce those standards. What is baffling is it took this long and social media to motivate them to do it. Clearly there was always a small group of entitled assholes used to exploiting those groups and now they're shocked they're being called out.
The "entitled assholes" in political communities were attracted to Indymedia because of it's open inclusive structure. Early members full of idealism saw this openness as an asset and couldn't imagine it as a liability. That failure of imagination opened the door for the extremists to come in, then act like they owned the place. And if anyone objected, they'd squawk "Freeze Peach".
It is appalling that this worked. The trouble makers should have been shut out in a "New York" minute. Not debated, not voted on...just shut out...the minute there was evidence they were pushing, endorsing extremism or extremist propaganda. 'No Pasaran' should be at the core of any progressive principles, but it obviously wasn't. Or it wasn't understood. Or people had a misguided belief that the collective management would eventually work, even long after it was clear it wasn't. Any type of idealistic organization must face the fact, no matter how well thought out your principles/methodolgy are, they can be "hacked" and exploited by unprincipled people. As history stands, the Indymedia collectives have been ineffectual in defending themselves from this kind of manipulation.
Or, almost as bad, when the problem is recognized, it's attributed to the Feds or MI6 infiltration. Not to dismiss real monitoring of activists by government agencies, in most situations where new wires are thrown into chaos, fall apart or are taken down can be traced to the banal everyday corruption, cronyism, and incompetence. In the case of extremist groups taking over a wire, they rarely have the technical and financial resources to keep it going. And since they alienated everyone else in their coupé, the wire is almost certainly doomed to oblivion.
The worst threat to Indymedia isn't the "feds" or "agents", but the Indywires collective inability to effectively manage itself. Combine that with predatory extremists looking for easy pickings, the naive volunteers who believe them at face value, and social media networks taking over the self publishing niche, the chances of Indymedia surviving another 10 years as a relevant media is slim at best.
Prak
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