RE: Steemit Pedophile Ring Exposed
"Child porn ring" may be an exaggeration, but it is not unwarranted. Without such a title, it was very much possible for this post to have gotten lost like the million others uploaded everyday. Naked images posted for sheer shock value, is PORN. Whether it's child porn, or adult porn, it should have no place on Steemit. There are enough platforms to satisfy ones urge to jerk off, and everyone is more than welcome to see it, but in PRIVATE. It should have no place on a social platform.
Secondly, this post is simply asking other likeminded people to help prevent Steemit from turning into another porn site. You don't agree, that's perfectly acceptable, don't do anything about it. No one is asking anyone to blindly convict someone, it merely expresses the authors opinion and her suggestion to rectify something that offended her.
So read, assimilate and then take your action. I saw the posts in question, and I feel they are offensive, so they need to be flagged. I am not flagging followers, for punishing anyone other than the wrong doer is equally wrong. But, as offended as I was with the naked pictures, I was equally offended by @wix 's comment of calling it sexy. So yes, I flagged that as well.
Lastly, today what you are calling "not even child porn" and or just some "topless" pictures, are how it will start. Accept this today, and soon we will have our feeds flooded with pornographic spam. And I personally, am not ok watching crap like this, on Steemit.
More than 1 person involved. I exposed a poster and three voters. That would make four accounts thus a ring.
It is child porn, it is underage girls showing their nipples, and an underage girl in thong in a post marked nsfw. Never mind the countless other posts I did not mention of girls camel toe shots who are well under 18 including a famous under 18 year old tennis player. It is child porn.
Topless photos of underage girls is the definition of child porn.
Do you know what people think when you say "Paedophile Ring"? It's not "three people may have innocently or maybe knowingly upvoted some ambiguous potentially sexualized images of older teens".
Totally agree. Thats how it all start. accept it near the boundaries first, then it explodes out of control.
Also @therealwolf, if you found other unacceptable pictures in the same blog, wouldn't it be better not to upvote at all? There are plenty of posts that deserves your upvote on steemit. These posts get forgotten or ignored because they have nothing that catches your eyes. Yet, here you are upvoting a picture that sits among many "unacceptable others as you call it", and now you are complaining that you were accused of supporting child porn.
The way I see it that, even if @titusfrost didn't bring your name as an accomplice, someone else eventually will flag you one way or another and it could have become worse.
I say, you should be thankful to @titusfrost for bringing up the subject now so you can have a chance to unvote, unfollow and defend yourself here, with people that maybe willing to listen to you now. However, using insults and attacks will not get you anywhere. Neither appealing to people think that something close-but-not-yet-enough-to be-child-porn is okay will help.
Who says he found the other pictures?? That's a baseless assumption. Not everybody checks a bloggers previous posts before upvoting.
I copied this from one of @therealwolf replies:
(Oh you "exposed" someone - what the actual fuck? How often do I need to tell that the picture I "upvoted" was not child porn. The other pictures are not ok - BUT I DIDN'T FUCKING VOTE FOR THEM. How often do I need to tell you this so you understand.)
He says here that the other pictures are not ok but he didn't vote for them.
I am not accusing him of pedophilia or anything. All I am saying is that he made a choice to vote something while he knew other contents were not ok. For all I know, he could have veered off that blog altogether without voting anything. Upvoting some of the contents will only give @iamgod more incentive to post more. No?
He probably checked that after he was accused of being a paedophile! If you read his post asking for mercy from the accusers and self acclaimed jury, you would see in his comments he says he did not see those posts.
Downvoting was the right thing to do to discourage @iamgod. That doesn't mean those who upvoted should be sentenced by association. I believe in innocence until proven guilty. There is evidence against @iamgod, but upvotes are not evidence of anything. They could have been questioned in private for their upvotes, but instead they were publicly slandered, shamed and potentially shunned if they have lost followers. I know if I was accused of something like that just for a careless upvote I would be mentally distraught right now as @therealwolf is. It can be traumatising to lose your reputation to something so shameful especially when innocent!
I absolutely agree with you on the latter part. That would be a horrible experience to live through.
I can ask @titusfrost to accept and upvote @therealwolf, that doesn't mean it will be done since I have no power over him or anyone else. And even if @titusfrost did honor my request, that doesn't mean other steemians will trust @therealwolf without him actually working to gain that trust back.
I think that, despite whether you believe that what @titusfrost did was right or wrong, attacking him or flagging him will not solve the issue. It will only make him and others who believe in him to stand stronger with him in his stance. This will only cause separation and hatred. I say this because, if I let my emotions rule over me now, I would distrust all those saying that those pictures are not child porn. Because I honestly see them as such. I abhor pedophilia and I was angry that some pictures which I didn't want to see were posted on the comment section to force me to see them.
I emphasize, this is only if I let my emotions rule over me. But I am trying to think from your perspective or @therealwolf perspective to be more precise. I certainly wouldn't want to be in his place. That is why I am trying not to take a too strong stance against him and I want to giv him and other upvoters the benefit of the doubt. Hence, I still suggest @therealwolf to work on building his reputation again with the others that are willing to accept him, such as yourself. I am also happy to help his reputation grow by upvoting him if he posts quality contents.
Something has to be done here to solve the issue. Attacking each other is not the solution anymore. An apology from @titusfrost for using strong words against the voters may be needed. But also an apology from those attacking @titusfrost will be needed as well. Finally, an apology from @therealwolf for making wrong voting decision and a lesson learned to upvote quality content in the future will show his sincerity to everyone.
This is just a suggestion!
I didn't flag as any kind of attack. I disagree with the rewards on the post. I don't think posts accusing people of being paedophiles should be paid for even if it's true. It only encourages people to accuse people of ludicrous things to bring attention to their profiles and get paid despite the damage they cause to the people involved.
I don't expect titusfrost to apologise. Righteous people are stubborn. And since I have not posted anything slanderous or personal against him I don't know what we would be apologising for. None of us posted to our followers calling for people to flag. We acted independently to ensure that anybody reading this post can see by the comments that all is not as it seems.
I disagree that @therealwolf owes anybody an apology. He has already expressed it was a misunderstanding. Nobody should have to apologise for upvoting porn. All it was was a little bit of bum. I wouldn't even call that NSFW.
I appreciate your opinion and the opinion of others.
As for the rewards for this post, maybe @titusfrost could share them with the voters (if he wish), so he won't be making a lot of money out of it.
Again, just a suggestion!
I appreciate that you're trying to find a resolution here. Most of the commenters have been lured into a witch hunt so I wouldn't even want people rewarded for that either. I'm fine with it though, I'm not looking for a solution, just making sure that those accused have a good defense since they need it and the accusations are far more severe than the (lack of) evidence.