America Online posts
- Artist/Author/Producer: America Online members
- Confronting Bodies: America Online
- Dates of action: Current
- Location: USA
- Description of the Art Work
- America Online Postings
- Description of incident
- Members of America Online are subject to having posts pulled for
violating "Terms of Service." The Terms Of Service are vaguely worded, and simply instruct
members not to use vulgar or insulting language or to talk explicitly about sex.
Forum hosts are responsible for reading member posts and pulling posts that
violate TOS. However, when members request access to some standardized list of
terms and content that could help them avoid violating TOS, they are met with a
puzzling repetition of the vaguely worded TOS guidelines. If such a list exists,
hosts are apparently not allowed to acknowledge its existence or distribute it;
if not, member posts are subject to the individual whims of forum hosts.
Furthermore, hosts inform members that "you agreed to TOS when you signed onto
America Online," when in fact there may be no legal basis for making such a
statement (at no point upon signing onto AOL does a member receive an explicit
description of what counts as a TOS violation, and whether or not an electronic
assent counts as a binding contract seems to be under some contestation.)
Members have reacted by inventing euphemisms only to have them pulled for
content, protesting directly to forum hosts only to be met with the rote
repetition of TOS guidelines, and leaving AOL. Organized activity has been
sporadic and thus far unsuccessful in getting AOL to state clearly the
boundaries within which members are required to operate, or to present them with
a specific contract.
- Results of incident
- Unknown
Source: Anonymous Submission
