BackerClub Forums

Beware of Kickstarter trolling...

I ran across a Kickstarter effort within Comics - "The Muhammad Returns". I consider it hurtful and hateful - even as a non-Muslim. However, I strongly support the 1st Amendment. I wrote the person noting his right to free speech, but asking him to reconsider the project.

His response was immediate, hateful, and slanderous.

Your thoughts - what is considered tolerable on Kickstarter? What are the limits of free speech on Kickstarter?

You might report the project and include the response you got. I'm not overly clear on exactly how much racism/sexism/anti*anything a project has to be for it to be pulled from Kickstarter.

The 1st amendment only applies to the government NOT to private corporations. This is an ongoing issue in discussions with social media giants over rape, murder, and other hate speech. They cite the 1st amendment but it doesn't apply to them. A corporation gets to decide what it will tolerate on its site just like an individual blogger determines what comments will be allowed through.

Kickstarter makes its own decisions on how much it will tolerate (and how much it enforces its own rules) You can check out the below to see how/if they address the issue:

Kickstarter Community Guidelines: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/community
Kickstarter Terms of Service/TOS: https://www.kickstarter.com/terms-of-use
Kickstarter creator FAQ: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creator+questions
Kickstarter creator Handbook: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/handbook

Notice I'm not surprised? They've let some pretty anti-women projects run. Why not racist hate?

Tasha,

Thanks for the reply and thoughts.

I found a few threads across the Internet on this person. Let's say that he's not a person I'd befriend. (Not that he would have any interest in befriending me or anyone else I know.) He's not very tolerant.

I don't think there is any chance his project will be funded. So it brings up a thought - which would be more troubling to him...his effort falling flat? or his effort being pulled by Kickstarter?

TashaTurner wrote:The 1st amendment only applies to the government NOT to private corporations. This is an ongoing issue in discussions with social media giants over rape, murder, and other hate speech. They cite the 1st amendment but it doesn't apply to them. A corporation gets to decide what it will tolerate on its site just like an individual blogger determines what comments will be allowed through.

The catch with a corporation doing too much in the way of setting rules and enforcing them is can end up being held responsible for what's on their site and losing "common carrier" status in the process. For example, the phone company doesn't regulate what is said over their service and thus can't be held responsible for what is said over it's service. A magazine controls what articles appear in it's pages and how those articles are edited, and as such can be held responsible for what it prints.

The more a Facebook or Kickstarter intervenes in what is said/sold over it's service, the harder it is for them to claim they're not responsible for what they DID allow on their site.

Then again, I haven't been paying that close attention to court decisions recently, and more and more services have SOME restrictions (not selling illegal drugs on Amazon, etc.) so I don't know for sure how this area has evolved in the courts.

ShadowCub wrote:

TashaTurner wrote:The 1st amendment only applies to the government NOT to private corporations. This is an ongoing issue in discussions with social media giants over rape, murder, and other hate speech. They cite the 1st amendment but it doesn't apply to them. A corporation gets to decide what it will tolerate on its site just like an individual blogger determines what comments will be allowed through.

The catch with a corporation doing too much in the way of setting rules and enforcing them is can end up being held responsible for what's on their site and losing "common carrier" status in the process. For example, the phone company doesn't regulate what is said over their service and thus can't be held responsible for what is said over it's service. A magazine controls what articles appear in it's pages and how those articles are edited, and as such can be held responsible for what it prints.

The more a Facebook or Kickstarter intervenes in what is said/sold over it's service, the harder it is for them to claim they're not responsible for what they DID allow on their site.

Then again, I haven't been paying that close attention to court decisions recently, and more and more services have SOME restrictions (not selling illegal drugs on Amazon, etc.) so I don't know for sure how this area has evolved in the courts.

I don't believe have a policy against rape/murder threats or projects to fund books in how to take down feminist which might rape/murder threats would put any social media or crowdfunding site at risk. I might be wrong...