Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

Yesterday there were two items appearing in the Dutch news almost simultaneously: the famous Dutch television host Paul de Leeuw ‘would not be put in court’ for putting the following tweet on twitter when the marriage of Swedish crown-princess Victoria took place:

‘Are you also secretly waiting for the moment a black Saab crashes itself into some sort of monument? Not that I wish for it to happen, but at least something would happen then!’

The OM, the ‘National Prosecutors Office’ (website) the next day said Paul the Leeuw would not be sued for making this tweet on Twitter. Would not be sued? Can you be sued for just saying something, an innocent joke? What the hell has the National Prosecutors Office to do with an innocent tweet? Don’t these people have anything better to do? Are we supposed to feel better now that we know they actually investigate tweets, to see if they can be legally sued? The guy made a joke, for christ sake.

Then, simultanously, this item appears in the dutch news. Dutch Broadcasting Network ‘TROS’ fires Cornald Maas for putting the following tweet online:

‘What nice export products we Dutch have, Sieneke, Joran van der Sloot and the PVV’

Cornald Maas was working for the TROS as a commentator and he also commentated the Eurovision songfestival for the Netherlands. So this guy is FIRED for making a joke on twitter? What is wrong with these people?

Isn’t it obvious that social media are becoming increasingly more dangerous and narrow minded. Yesterday I took a peek at a fake facebook account i created after not having looked there for about two months. Now every post you make there says ‘flag’ under it, so you could be nicely reported for anything you could possibly say.

I am actually glad they threw me out of facebook. It is becoming a very narrow minded instrument of moralistic social control and twitter doesnt seem any better judging by these news items. Think about it, I am a well known dutch author, and they simply deleted all my work ‘because someone complained’ and they wouldnt even tell me what the reason was for deleting my profile!

I dont want weird government agencies to gloat over my family pictures, thank you very much. I dont want ‘prosecutor agencies’ weighing every joke and remark I make on the scale of their legal apparatus. Having such agencies controlling everything you say in your own home is RIDICULOUS and UNACCEPTABLE. Yes, I articulate that, because people somehow seem to start to think this is all normal.

My book was one of the bestly reviewed books of 2008. I was nominated for the Buddingh price and won two other poetry awards. It means nothing to facebook: it simply deletes all my work, all my poems, all my thoughts, because some monkey had some moralistic issue with something I wrote. And they wouldnt even tell me what it was. There was no chance of appeal, nothing. Justice doesn’t exist in their world, just low-brow moralism.

That seems exactly the road we are on: a road that leads to a world where low-brow moralism of the most stupid sort rules and justice is simply a thing of the past. Too complicated, too nuanced, to much maintenance costs.

Facebook and Twitter increasinly are becoming control instruments. I actually started to develop a new social environment, called ‘Soulsat’, because I do like the technology, I just dont like the morons who happen to control it. I will try to get it online in the coming months.

The article (dutch) about Cornald Maas

The article about Paul de Leeuw

To my english friends who somehow haven’t heard yet: I was banned from facebook. I dont have any idea why, one day i tried to log in and i was simply banned. I mailed facebook and they said ‘I violated the facebook rules’ and ‘they couldnt be specific about it’ and ‘it wasnt possible to appeal’. Oh really. Well, bye-the-bye then. I’m obviously not gonna waste my time with an institution that cares so less about my work they’d delete it without blinking their eyes. Moreover, I’d be very careful with organisations that think they can ban known writers ‘without giving reasons’ and ‘without chance of appeal’. It sounds like China or Iran, or even worse – I’m sre in those countries one still has some sort of possibility to appeal.

Anyway it was a good boost to get rid of that stupid addiction where you constantly wonder what others are doing and constantly have to spread information about yourself, thus weaving a network of consent that actually imprisons the soul. I have decided that I wont use social networks anymore unless I build one myself and control it – which is exactly what I am currently doing.

Today I wanted to watch the dutch soccer team play against denmark in the worldcup. I was zapping through turkish channels to see where it was on air, and to my surpise there was a game going on Holland-Danmark with already 3-0 for Holland on the scoreboard. I blinked my eyes and saw that it was actually some turkish channel letting a guy play his playstation game full screen and putting soccer commentators next to it, like it was the real thing. They probably couldnt get the broadcasting rights and thought this is a good way of getting some viewers anyway.

Elia was the star of the game, of course, and the wobbly ball some jerkoff thought would perform better. In Europa there’s 10 advisors and spindoctors for every journalist asking questions. There;s probably a whole crew of geniusses employed to design special balls for the world soccer championship. Knowing europe these will be people who know zilch about football but got that position because they have a wonderful resume filled with other wonderful positions they got in the same way: by having wonderful references. And in the end these are the guys that come with the wobbly ball, climate change, biodiesel and other unintelligable nonsense.