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Flickr User Banished for Criticizing Obama

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Posted on Jun 9, 2009
Flickr / +lyn

Shepherd Johnson’s Flickr account, along with an estimated 1,200 photos, vanished shortly after he started hassling the president via the White House’s official photostream. Yahoo, which owns the popular photo sharing site, won’t comment, but Johnson says he lost access after posting 20 or so negative comments, complete with links to images of torture.

Gawker:

Flickr user Shepherd Johnson was browsing the official White House photostream one night when he decided to post a politically-charged comment. Then another, then another. Soon, without warning, Yahoo’s photo-sharing service deleted his account, complete with 1,200 pictures.

An unrepentant Yahoo won’t say what, exactly, Johnson did wrong. His comments were about Barack Obama’s support of a bill allowing the government to suppress torture photos. They were attached to seemingly relevant images from the president’s recent trip to Cairo to ring in a new era of U.S.-Middle Eastern relations.

“I thought, this is an opportunity I can use to let the administration know how I feel about some of its policies,” Johnson told us in a phone interview.

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By Rodger Lemonde, June 11, 2009 at 1:12 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I am the first to defend free speech but when you are talking through some one else’s media terms of service kick in. If it is your time and your dime then no matter how repugnant your view I defend your right to express it.
But in my publication I will decide what goes in and what doesn’t.

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By Mary Ann McNeely, June 11, 2009 at 12:52 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free speech.  You can, however, yell “Fire!” in a movie theatre; just ask George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. But if you call Obama a liar, an opportunist, a coward, watch out!

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By RAE, June 10, 2009 at 5:04 am Link to this comment

Looks as if “free speech” is down for the count this time.

Of course, there never really was “free speech.” Every time you open your mouth there’s a cost or a benefit.

What I’d like to see etched in stone is a system which results in a FAR GREATER COST for those whose “speech” is not true, and FAR GREATER BENEFIT to those who offer us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

How did we get this backwards?

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By godistwaddle, June 10, 2009 at 2:52 am Link to this comment

Obama is an Italian fascist—not anti-Semitic, not racist, but warlike—holding the fort until another German fascist (Bush) can take over the capitalist empire.  Corporations are not going to allow their whore to be screwed without compensation to be passed to those corporate pimps.

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By PaulRevere, June 10, 2009 at 1:50 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

amother day, another sign that obama is no change from bush whatsoever…

either by himself or his willing media enablers…

to wit:

no prosecution for torture
continuation of kangoroo military tribunals
where hearsay becomes hard evidence to put you away for life or worse
we’re now in 3 wars (Pak) vs. 2 under bush (soon 4 Iran)
no release of torture pics with GIs raping kids in front of their parents
Refusal to release !llegal wiretaping documents,  Bye bye IV th
geithner, a totally goldman sachs cabinet (or GOoP) gates, huntsman to China, etc…
TARP, trillions for banksters, nothing for you (“Boo hoo, social security is almost bankrupt!”)
no prosecution or even investigation for lying, evidence destroying CIA (torture tapes)
Dismissal by obama of Valerie Plame suit (via CREW) against bushies
new uSSa general in Afghan is knee deep in torture
the financial markets are more rigged than ever by the presidential PPT (plunge protection team)
no usury limits on your credit cards
no single payer at the health care table, only insurance scamsters
“WAR with Iran in NOT off the table”
no pay cap for taxpayer bailed out CEO !
and on and on and on…

We’ve been had !

this is no change at all!

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By Fred, June 9, 2009 at 9:30 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I don’t think it’s exactly “censorship” when a website bans you.

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