Is my.barackobama.com trollproof? No, you just need to work at it

Back on the 22nd, "Bill Hawkins" started a blog at Barack Obama's site and posted an entry (my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/billhawkins) entitled "Which hate sites should be banned?" The post suggested that BHO take his push to drive hate off the airwaves to the Internet as well, and solicited BHO fans to list some sites that should be banned. Perhaps as a coincidence, I saw this post immediately and watched it over the next several days. Unfortunately, I was shocked to learn that the post only received one comment, and that was generally supporting free speech.

Now, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever who "Bill Hawkins" is, but just in case "Bill Hawkins" is a made-up name and this was a troll, I want to assure others that the weak response doesn't necessarily indicate that trolling BHO's site isn't going to be fruitful. What "Bill Hawkins" should have done is promoted it in some way or some. I'll be sure to recommend that to "Bill Hawkins" if I ever meet him.

The original post is still on BHO's site and is in the extended entry.

"Bill Hawkins'" post follows:

Recently, Obama spoke out forcefully against hate on our airwaves, and promised to do something about it:

The 12 million people in the shadows, the communities taking immigration enforcement into their own hands, the neighborhoods seeing rising tensions as citizens are pitted against new immigrants... they're counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling our airwaves – rhetoric that poisons our political discourse, degrades our democracy, and has no place in this great nation.

I trust Obama, and I know that as president he's going to work with the FCC to make sure that hate is driven off our airwaves. However, that's only part of the problem. There are plenty of websites that spread hate as well.

For instance, as I read this story about a college professor tracing smear emails back to freerepublic.com and other sites, I became more and more outraged. How could a site like that be allowed to even exist? All they do is spread lies.

I feel that Obama must do more. In addition to speaking out - and supporting action - against those who spread hate on the airwaves, he also has to speak out against those who spread hate on the Internet.

I encourage my fellow Obama supporters to offer detailed proposals on what actions President Obama should take against these hate sites. I also suggest we start a list of the most noxious hate sites for future reference.

Together, we can stop the hate!

Bloggage · Mon, 07/28/2008 - 13:32 · · Importance: 1