Campaign: Brazilian bloggers vs. a WordPress ban

Written by Mary on May 6, 2008 – 9:39 pm -

Description: After an unauthorized sex tape was posted on a Brazilian WordPress blog, a judicial order to shut down the blog was issued. This would mean a block on all WordPress blogs in Brazil, as they all share the same IP address.  Blocking that one IP would mean that no blogs on the WordPress platform would be accessible from within Brazil. Similar blocks have been imposed before in Brazil, and bloggers want to make sure it won’t happen again.

Digital Activism tools: blog, Orkut group, blog badge

How These Tools Are Being Used: The social networking site Orkut is extremely popular in Brazil, so an Orkut group has been formed (you need a Gmail account to access the page).   There is also an anti-ban blog, which explains the issue.  Finally, as it is an issue that affects bloggers, a blog badge has been created to oppose the potential ban.

Outcome: WordPress has not yet been blocked in Brazil, but it is too early to judge the success of the campaign.

Hat Tip: Paola Goés’ post on Global Voices Advocacy


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Posted in Americas, Blogs, Campaigns, Digital Images, Social Networks |


One Response to “Campaign: Brazilian bloggers vs. a WordPress ban”

  1. By Paula Góes on May 6, 2008 | Reply

    Thanks for mentioning this, and I have an update: WP has changed its terms in condition in order to make it possible to ban the blog in this case and others using the same trick, “cloning people’s ID”. In short, it was a clone blog, to make people believe that it belonged to someone else.

    Here is a link to the latest news:

    http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/06/brazil-wordpress-amends-tcs-and-avoids-blanket-ban/

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