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Who's That Queer?
 In the wake of the AOL Privacy Violation...annoy.com has decided to challenge the military, by mocking its policy. And by using its own ammunition. We have published an image of a gay servicemember, who essentially violated the policy by letting us know that he is gay. "Telling" us. And we have removed any identifying information, and challenge the military to try and guess who it is. Not only will we demonstrate what privacy means, but also will pretend that we too are bound by the military policy, and WE WILL NOT TELL. Not only because the military has a flawed understanding of First Amendment and privacy issues, but because as electronic publishers, it is our duty to highlight the issues that impact our industry. We will ensure that those responsible for violating the laws that protect our corporate and individual freedoms are held accountable and taken to task. annoy.com was conceived with this purpose in mind, and will continue to chart the untested and frontierless reaches of cyberspace. And to the military's Naval Investigative Service and Criminal Investigation Department or Naval Criminal Investigative Agency, or whatever the fuck you're calling yourselves today. A hearty good luck!
ADDENDUM
The report adds, "Annoy.com says the E-mail was sent 'to challenge the military by mocking its policy.'" Annoy.com said nothing of the sort. No one at annoy.com has spoken to either news organization, and the alleged email campaign is not an officially sanctioned part of this challenge. We do not know whether or not it was Steve Case who sent the email in question and do not reveal information about the users of annoy.com. Ziff-Davis and CNN did not ask, perhaps wisely, because annoy.com does not tell.
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| RELATED LINKS
Vital Information Regarding the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Dont Pursue Policy
January 01, 1998
October 24, 2001
February 20, 2001
January 8, 2000
October 24, 2001 RELATED MATERIAL America Online Should Have Known Better
| | NOISE
In response to the Navy's now-delayed discharge of Senior Chief Petty Officer Timothy R. McVeigh for being gay, ApolloMedia's Annoy.com has launched what it's calling a "'Who's That Queer' Competition" by posting a photograph of a gay active serviceman and daring the military to identify him. The serviceman's face and name tag are obscured in the playfully erotic photograph, taken in a shower.
The case of the naval sailor facing dismissal after private information about him was allegedly leaked to Navy investigators by America Online took another bizarre twist Tuesday as prankster Web site Annoy.com launched an E-mail protest against the Navy -- one that dragged AOL's chief executive into the spotlight.
The tone of the letter struck the wrong note with Fein, still smarting from a ZDNet headline that dismissed annoy.com's response to the Timothy McVeigh/America Online anonymity fracas as a "porno spam scam."
"In the interests of my own commitment to free speech online, the last thing anyone needs is Ziff-Davis attempting to control the medium or the message," Fein says. |
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© Copyright 1997-2025 ApolloMedia Corporation. All Rights Reserved. annoy.com Site Information |
Under the sensational header New porno spam scam, both Ziff-Davis News and CNN report, "To promote
its "Who's That Queer?" protest against the Navy's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay service members,
the site sent out E-mail featuring the subject line "Steve
Case (stevec@aol.com) has sent you an annoying postcard" and
linking to an online "postcard" showing two naked men
standing in a shower stall and a man clad in a military uniform
standing nearby."