Pirate Party Banned From Social Networking Site

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that as the European Parliament elections loom, StudiVZ, Germany's largest social networking site, has opened up to political parties for election campaigning. That is, if you aren't the Pirate Party. "The other political parties were allowed to have a special account to show they are an organization and not an individual. The Pirate Party, however, was not allowed to have one and instead operated on a standard user account registered by an individual. StudiVZ noticed that the Pirate Party account was not a "real person" and despite it having a thriving network with hundreds of followers, it was summarily deleted. This means that it is impossible for the Pirate Party to have a presence at all on the largest social networking site in Germany." Update: 05/02 19:17 GMT by T : Reader riot notes: "FYI: I just translated the press release to English."

goddard

[Anonymous Coward]

Goddard's Law right out of the gate. This has to be a record.

Aye

[Anonymous Coward]

One such member was quoted saying

"Aye. We just want to run for pARRRRRRlament!" No ninjas were found for comment.

Big mistake, StudiVZ!

[Locke2005]

Prepare to be boarded by the cutthroats and brigands of The Crimson Permanent Assurance!

Re:StasiVZ

[lucas_picador]

Sweet! So far this thread has produced comparisons between a social networking site's account deletion policy and both 1) the Nazis (see above) and 2) the Stasi. Can I get a Joseph Stalin up in here? Some Genghis Kahn metaphors? Or have those already popped up below my filter level?

Re:Zeitgeist

[MarkvW]

Oh yeah, its a really short step from the denial of internet access to wholesale slaughter and genocide.

Re:Zeitgeist

[jockeys]

Godwinned.

Re:Zeitgeist

[guyminuslife]

That's not the end of it. Those goddamn Nazis running the German government have also banned the National Socialist Party.

Re:Zeitgeist

[lucas_picador]

There are plenty of people alive the lived under them and remember a time when openly joining a political party other than the Communists meant jail time.

Dude, totally! And like, someday Germans will get to tell their kid about how joining a party other than the officially sanctioned ones could, like, totally result in not being able to get your Facebook feed updated with official party event invitations! You could only get invitations to events from some other person setting up a non-official facebook group for the party, which meant you wouldn't get the little blue background bar invites in your facebook feed! And sometimes the javascript didn't work right to update your Twitters, so you'd totally have to get it sent to email instead! Dark times, dude, dark times.

I'm sorry, but: do you really not feel that these comparisons are maybe just a little bit silly?

Re:You have no idea how bad it is...

[Vinegar Joe]

Do YOU know why your neighbor is coughing? DO YOU???

Pubic hair caught in her throat?

Doesn't he always?

[zooblethorpe]

God is dead! -- Nietzsche

Nietzsche is dead! -- God

Cheers,

"Polite society"?

[John Hasler]

I thought this was about social networking sites.

You're biased.

[The Rizz]

You're a member of "The Ninja Party", aren't you?

Re:Zeitgeist

[eltaco]

+1 OHHHSNAP!

Relax it's all about letter rationing

[AnalPerfume]

There is a limit on the number of "r"'s allowed and the pirates seem to go through them at quite a rate. Perhaps we could allow them in if they paid for each additional "r", but then we'd be seen as profiting from one party and not another so we can't win either way.