THE BEAT GOES ON

I believe in brevity, but some positions cannot be expressed in a zombie-tweet…

Taboola lays it out in the TOS. It may as well just say, “we’ll cut you off for anything we don’t like”.

3. Acceptable Use Policy: Publisher agrees that it will not, either by itself or by authorizing or encouraging others to do so, directly or indirectly: (a) use, post or promote the Widget or any Recommendations in association with any material or content which is, or which may be reasonably considered to be illegal, unlawful or infringing under any applicable laws, pornographic, obscene, promotional of illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia, gambling-related, weapon or ammunition-related, violent, libelous, defamatory, indecent, seditious, offensive, invasive to privacy, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, possibly capable of inciting racial hatred, discriminatory (racially, ethnically or otherwise), in breach of confidence or any other right of any third party, or lacking in necessary authorizations, approvals, consents or licenses;….

There are multiple issues/problems with this type of legal language. If Admin was up to the time, money and psychological costs, an action could be filed and, most likely, won. If I was the attorney, I would subpoena a list of all Taboola customers and then use that to show that there is inconsistency in how the contract is applied to each customer. I have no doubt that all sites carrying the approved narratives, and belittling commenters that don’t, are shown unequal leniency.

The contract language itself is vague to the point of being non-binding or invalid or both – “…any material or content which is, or which may be reasonably considered to be illegal, unlawful or infringing under any applicable laws…”.

“Might be reasonably considered to be illegal”? There is no standard to measure here. It’s either illegal or not.

Also, at least in the TOS, I see no term or termination clauses. Maybe those are in the actual contract.

Although the internet is extremely valuable to open conversation and truth, a majority portion has been co-opted by centralized Rentiers. Rentiers will dictate what is acceptable – law, morals, ethics are irrelevant…until/unless forced to be considered. Centralized and politcally connected Rentiers will impose overbearing “rules” and claim they are backed by law until challenged.

I have read TBP for years. I don’t recall ever seeing content, “…which is, or which may be reasonably considered to be illegal…”.

Murray Rothbard might be tempted to take this apart point-by-point. I know I am.

1.) Porn? No. Although, there was that picture of the german woman out in some public square, full nude/full shave (and rather attractive) out protesting Muslim behavior. It wasn’t porn though.

2.) Obscene? Well, you did post Rachel Levines picture…but refrained from posting governor Pritzker’s tranny-brother picture, if I remember.

3.) Promotional of illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia? No. But on Netflix, there is a cool documentary with the likes of Sting and others citing the fact that psychadelics might be a good start on changing the world for the better.

4.) Gambling-related? No. We all “gamble” daily by living in a country where “laws” like MCA could be used for secret detention indefinitely on zero charges.

5.) Weapon or ammunition-related? No. Those comments are few, at best and all that I have seen are education related or clearly flippant/funny/unserious. And they are comments – not Admin induced site features. Maybe it’s the ammo.com ad…

6.) Violent? No. A few posters dance around the edges, but again, comments. Not Admin/Site.

7.) Libelous/Defamatory? No. Posters/comments? Maybe, but posting/comments, again, isn’t the site or admin. The same type of “libel” is posted on mainstream comment sites.

8.) Indecent? If only Carlins 7 dirty words arrest weren’t shot down in court. Other than profanity, I have never seen indecent images/text at TBP.

9.) Seditious? No. But we do notice, have opinions, and bitch about traitorous behavior.

10.) Offensive? This word is vague and capricious to the point of having no definition in this context.

11.) Invasive to Privacy? Never seen anything on TBP that caused privacy concerns for any commenter, admin, or lurker.

12.) Abusive? See 10.

13.) Threatening/Harmful? Other than monkeys throwing verbal shit at each other once in a while? No, nothing.

14.) Vulgar? See 10. Although, anons come by once in a while and drop stuff that someone might construe as potentially vulgar. Maybe those anons are Taboola trolls?

15.) Possibly capable of inciting racial hatred? Besides the fact that it’s capricious and undefined, would that include words like, “blackhole” and “blackmail” and/or talking about the Washington Redskins, and the like?

16.) Breaching 3rd party rights, licenses, consents, authorizations or approvals. No.

As we all know, lockdowns were in style long before corona and applied to thoughts and words first – it’s why we come to TBP.

Taboola carries that tradition proudly in the spirit of the great propaganda masters.