IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Vertrouwen is goed, controle is beter.

I think the discussion should definitely still exist but maybe moderation can be a bit more present just to make sure people don't get doxxed.

"Be serious, it is urgent need to do it". If this was not so pathetic, it would be funny - but you don't seem to be the kind of person who understands humor.

Anyway, first you do not have a question, you have a request. For some reason you decide to put your request on the site itself, instead of simply contacting info@indymedia. Do you realize how ironical it is that you are willingly putting your 'request' to close the comments section... to be discussed on Indymedia? Probably you don't.

So, the reason for requesting to simply close down the comments section, and radically change the nature of the site by ditching Open Posting altogether, seems to be this: "the security of people in the movement is under danger because of comments!". Really? How come? Can you explain? The 'people in the movement' (whoever they may be, and whichever 'movement' you self-identify as being part of) don't have to put stuff on Indymedia. They chose to do so, because they hope to reach some audience, because they don't want to put their postings (only) on commercial sites with trackers and stuff, or sometimes because they feel that anonymous posting helps in obfuscating the traces they left while doing some action that may or may not be illegal and may or may not be subject to police research.

Now: how on earth would anonymous comments, posted as a reaction to an anonymous posting, be "a danger to the security of the people"? You seem to have a deep lack of understanding of how police work in this country. Even if the cops would decide to help themselves to nail someone for some action, by putting a comment that says "Pietje is the one who did this action" (technically they can do that), there is no way this would ever hold in court. No way. For such a method to be effective it would need Pietje herself be so stupid as to start panicking after reading the comments and phone all their friends and say "shit someone put my name in relationship to this action we did the other day". We all assume that Piet is not thàt stupid, and in any which way there is no way Indymedia could protect them from such stupidity.

(As a side track: it is not unthinkable that police use several methods like this one as part of their repressive work. But as you may have had the occasion to understand so far, they don't really need fake court prosecution to do the repression work. If they want to nag Pietje because they hate Pietje and Pietje is, say, a vocal activist, they will do it and be very nasty. No need to misuse the anonimity of Indymedia, everyone knows where Pietje lives, because Pietje is such a vocal activist. Example given (it's been quoted already here recently): the case against Joke Kaviaar was clearly purely repressive. The cops picked up some sentence in a writing signed by her, and made this an excuse to get the paperwork from a judge to be able to raid her house, probably hoping to find evidence of more serious stuff there. They found no evidence, and in the end she was sentenced nevertheless, a clear coverup for the cops f*up. Conclusion: activists are responsible for doing covert illegal actions in a safe and serious way, but they are always at risk of repression anyway.)

No, the biggest danger for brave Pietje who gets involved in possibly illegal actions, and makes a posting on Indymedia to explain why this action was undertaken, is and stays Pietje herself. For extensive info on how to claim illegal actions "safely", please consult the internet (Pietje should give special attention to things like 'how to avoid disclosing details about individuals by using collective writing and automated language correction'). Indymedia.nl, as far as I know, does not claim or pretend that they facilitate anonymous claims of illegal actions, it is clearly not what the platform has been set up for. Pietje still can use it for that purpose, but doing that safely relies on Pietje, and definitey not on the comments section being open or closed.

Having said all that, everyone who will read your request will assume that the real reason that you want to have the comments section closed, is because you cannot stand people not agreeing with your postings. It would be interesting to hear / read why people having different opinions is so terribly difficult for you.