Vimeo kowtows to gay sex offender, deletes conservative news outlet’s videos
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| Deutsch: Logo des Videoportals Vimeo (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
LANGLEY, British Columbia, 14 August, 12 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Video streaming service Vimeo has deleted over 200 videos from the account of a Canadian conservative internet news service after a homosexual activist and registered sex offender with a habit of threatening pro-life organizations with legal action complained to Vimeo about the content of the films.
Last month, RoadKill Radio News interviewed Brian Camenker, president of the pro-traditional-family organization MassResistance.com, about a $1 million lawsuit brought against him by Adam Flanders, a homosexual activist and registered sex offender in the State of Maine. Flanders is pursuing criminal charges against Camenker for posting on MassResistance.com a letter that Flanders wrote and submitted to various media outlets five years ago — when he was 20 — that detailed his sexual experiences with a minor at a gay youth club. Flanders was convicted and served jail-time for the “sexual abuse of a minor.”
Adam Flanders
In the half-hour interview, hosts Kari Simpson and Ron Gray listened as Camenker outlined the details of the lawsuit. The recorded episode was uploaded to Vimeo on July 17. RoadKill Radio News maintains that it “in no way defamed Mr. Flanders” but that it “merely interviewed Mr. Camenker about Mr. Flanders’ recent (and unsuccessful) campaign to censor MassResistance.com.”
“Our interview included the fact that Adam Flanders is a convicted sex offender. The State of Maine verifies this with their own publicly-accessible Sex Offender Registry, which is posted as one of the terms of Mr. Flanders’ conviction. Mr. Flanders voluntarily and without provocation confessed to this crime in writing and personally distributed copies of this confession to the police, pro-family groups, and local media.”
In addition to his conviction for having a sexual relationship with a minor, Flanders has also been convicted of assaulting with a knife one of the boys with whom he had a sexual relationship, as well as the boy’s father, in 2008. The Daily News also reports that Flanders was convicted again in late 2011 on two counts of violating the terms of his release and sentenced to yet another two-and-a-half-years in jail, which was suspended in favor of probation.
Three days after RoadKill posted the interview, however, Vimeo removed the episode, saying in a letter obtained by LifeSiteNews: “Your video ‘RoadKill Radio News: Is Convicted Child Molester Adam Flanders SWAT-ing a Concerned Citizen over Free Speech?’ has been removed for violating our Guidelines.”
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That same day, RoadKill Radio News invited Flanders to present his side of the lawsuit. Flanders refused, saying that he was the one who had complained to Vimeo for hosting the July 17 episode that had what he called “offending content”.
“I’m not interested in interviewing with you,” wrote Flanders. “I archived your video and I am including it in the lawsuit, particularly where Mr. Camenker is the subject of the interview. Following my complaint, Vimeo agreed with me that your video violated their Terms of Use and removed the offending content.”
In his letter, Flanders threatened RoadKill Radio News with legal action for conducting and broadcasting the interview with Camenker.
“I’m warning you to stop defaming me with your false claims of child molestation and perjury, etc. While I am currently preoccupied with my case against Mr. Camenker and Mass Resistance, there is nothing preventing me from pursuing litigation against you at a later date. I’m confident the court will make a finding of defamation against Mr. Camenker and Mass Resistance. You would be wise to Cease and Desist your current course of conduct against me.”
But RoadKill Radio News ignored Flanders’ threats and interviewed Camenker a second time, posting the episode on Vimeo.
On August 8, RoadKill Radio News suddenly received notice from Vimeo that all its videos had been removed and that the account would be closed as of August 15.
Vimeo spokesperson Christina Toth told RoadKill Radio News in a letter obtained by LifeSiteNews that “we have reviewed your account and determined that a number of your other videos violate Section 7 of our Terms of Service, which prohibits the posting any material that ‘contains hateful, defamatory or discriminatory content or incites hatred against any individual or group’. As a result of the above, we will terminate your account when your Plus subscription ends, on August 15, 2012.”
RoadKill Radio News’ Kari Simpson told LifeSiteNews that Vimeo will be pursued “for a breach of contract.”
“We are not going away. We will fight this one to the bitter end. We have our lawyers. We will go after Vimeo. If Flanders has defamed us, then we will go after him as well.”
Simpson told LifeSiteNews that people like Flanders are not the problem in a case like this: “The problem is corporate America pandering to sex-activists. That’s our issue. It’s a sad commentary on the state of corporate America when one sex-activist with apparently huge problems can convince a company — by simply saying ‘poor me, I’m gay’ — to kowtow to his will.”
In an August 8 letter to Vimeo, Simpson pointed out that Flanders is a “registered sex offender, and seeks to silence and undermine organizations that report truthful accounts on matters relating to his convictions and activities”.
In addition to RoadKill Radio News and Mass Resistance, Flanders has threatened Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) with legal action for posting his letter and recounting Flanders’ actions against Mass Resistance. Flanders has also threatened LifeSiteNews with legal action for publishing an article about the same case. Flanders’ intimidation tactics reportedly were successful pressuring conservative news site WorldNetDaily to remove two articlesthat it had published about the same matter.
Simpson told Vimeo in her letter that “it is a sad commentary on progressive politics that Vimeo has fallen victim to the complaint made by Flanders, a typical but old and common tactic used by sex activists to silence those who expose their lies.”
“You [Vimeo] would be wise in the future to check your facts before reacting in such a precipitous and harmful manner,” she said.
Contact information:
Vimeo, Christina Toth
Christina.Toth@vimeo.com
