284 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
284 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
technology
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internet
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8320468
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-----
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# How a teenager spawned internet monster LittleGossip.com from his bedroom
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## The founder of controversial social networking website LittleGossip.com
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accused of encouraging the bullying of vulnerable young people can be revealed
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to be a teenage entrepreneur who lives at home with his parents.
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![The founder of a controversial social networking website accused of
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encouraging the bullying of vulnerable young people can be revealed to be a
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teenage entrepreneur who lives at home with his parents. ][1]
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The site allowed young people to anonymously spread vicious rumours about
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their peers online Photo: ALAMY
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By Patrick Sawer, and Philip Sherwell in New York 9:00PM GMT 12 Feb 2011
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It is the website that has brought anger and tears to family homes and
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classrooms across Britain.
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[LittleGossip.com][2], which allowed young people to anonymously spread
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vicious rumours about their peers online, ran into a storm of criticism with
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teachers and charities saying it was fuelling bullying and causing misery.
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The furore surrounding the site was so great that last week, it closed down,
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blaming "malicious and unwanted" comments people were leaving there.
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Now, _The Sunday Telegraph_ can reveal the founder of the site was a 19-year-
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old former public schoolboy, while living at home with his parents.
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Ted Nash, who describes himself as an internet entrepreneur and
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philanthropist, designed and launched LittleGossip in November last year,
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working from the £800,000 farmhouse near Taunton where he lives with his
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father Andy, 53, a prominent west country businessman and chairman of Somerset
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County Cricket Club, and his mother Linda, 52.
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## Related Articles
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* [Facebook 'rewards insults'][3]
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16 Oct 2010
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* [Sister of cyberbullying victim backs shocking advert][4]
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14 Jan 2010
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He said he had wanted the site, which generated 33,000 hits in its first hour
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online, to "become another popular social networking site for light-hearted
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banter as happens on the well established sites like Facebook and MySpace".
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However it quickly became a vehicle for abusive messages, including insulting
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remarks about alleged sexual and drug-taking activities of classmates and
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fellow students.
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In the majority of cases the target of the abuse was named, while the writer
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remained anonymous.
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Mr Nash's company has made £125,000 in the past five months from sales of
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games and "apps" - or applications - for Apple iPhones, including "Fit or
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Fugly", in which users submit photographs of individuals for a beauty rating,
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and "Rack Stare", in which the player controls a male character trying to ogle
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a female without her noticing.
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Explaining why he had withdrawn from LittleGossip, Mr Nash said: "It quickly
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became apparent that some of the users were abusing the site and using it for
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malicious purposes - something I disagreed with. It's a sad comment on society
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that a well-intentioned site can be spoiled by a malicious minority who use
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freedom of speech for the wrong reasons."
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The teenager took the site down on November 12 - four days after its initial
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launch - by which time he had been approached by a company registered in the
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Central American tax haven of Belize, called Platinum Century, which offered
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to buy him out.
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He said he agreed to sell the LittleGossip internet domain name and site to
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Platinum Century, who he said paid him a nominal fee which did not cover his
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initial investment and start-up costs.
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Exactly who was involved in the running of the site after its sale remains a
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mystery.
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_The Sunday Telegraph_ has established that before last week's closure
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Platinum Century operated LittleGossip from QuadraNet, an internet host
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company in Los Angeles.
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QuadraNet, which advertises itself as "the ultimate data centre", also hosts
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the chan4.org forum used by the Anonymous cyber-activists who staged online
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attacks in support of WikiLeaks. 4chan.org site has also been associated with
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fake terror and school shooting threats, porn uploads and hacking attacks on
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targets ranging from Sarah Palin to Justin Bieber, the Canadian pop singer.
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Mr Nash said the inspiration for the site had been the American television
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series Gossip Girl, which chronicles the in-fighting and rivalries of a group
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of privileged high school students in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
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His father Andy, a marketing consultant and a director of The History Press
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publishing group, said: "Ed was horrified by what was being done to his site.
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"He came to the right decision to take it down and cut himself off from it. On
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hindsight perhaps he should not have sold LittleGossip on. Perhaps he should
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have wrapped it up completely, but he's certainly not involved any more."
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In December, Platinum Century relaunched the site. But again, it quickly began
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to attract abusive and derogatory messages about individuals at hundreds of
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schools and universities around Britain.
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The storm of negative publicity which followed the relaunch forced
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LittleGossip to introduce a tick-box system, with users having to click to
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confirm they were 18 or over.
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The site also promised to remove schools from the list of institutions about
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which users could post gossip.
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The website's terms and conditions said posts should not be "sexist,
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homophobic, racist or otherwise harassing or intentionally harmful to specific
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people".
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However, younger teenagers remained able to flout the age restriction and
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schools continued to appear on the site. Earlier this month it was found that
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at least 78 UK schools and 155 sixth form or further education colleges, where
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many under 18s study, were still on the site, with their students still able
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to post messages.
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Meanwhile, offensive comments continued to be posted on LittleGossip. A
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typical one referred to a named girl in Year 8 at a school in Berkshire as an
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"ugly bitch".
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In one entry on the Cambridge University section the writer claims to have had
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sex with a named undergraduate "with his girlfriend... in the bar a few
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hundred yards away."
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The Bristol University page contained an allegation of rape and a description
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of a female student as a "boring bitch that can't have fun. ever".
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At Kingston College, in Surrey, police were called after a post on the site
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threatened the rape of a teacher. Peter Mayhew-Smith, the college principal,
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became so concerned about the effect of the site that he contacted Vince
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Cable, the Business Secretary.
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Bianca Coughlin, a second year student at Exeter University, said she was
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horrified when she read what had been written about her on LittleGossip.
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"Having attended a girls' school for seven years, I am no stranger to rumours
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and unkind gossip. But the concept of concreting this in print along with
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someone's full name is nothing short of slander and bullying," she added.
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"It's probably naive to suggest shutting down LittleGossip will prevent
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further websites appearing in its place, but anonymous attacks on people's
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reputations should not be ignored, regardless of how old the poster is."
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Miss Coughlin, 19, says students of her age have cause to be especially
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worried about the type of messages which appeared on LittleGossip: "There has
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been a lot of fuss about minors using the site, but university students
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applying for jobs and fitting into a new environment are equally vulnerable to
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this kind of thing."
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Antonia Gardner, 18, a first year undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge,
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who was described as a "clever Barbie" in one post, said that many students
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and schoolchildren found it extremely distressing to read what was said about
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them online.
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"I appreciate that some people have nothing better to do with their time than
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make up pointless rumours, but I know people who find the stuff on there
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pretty hurtful," she said.
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"It's fine when the messages are a bit of fun, but people can use it to lie
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without any evidence for their claims - it's a recipe for social chaos."
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QuadraNet refused to say how much LittleGossip was paying for its services.
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But a similar dedicated server normally costs between £90 and £155 a month.
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A spokesman for QuadraNet said: "We haven't received any complaints about the
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website. As long as the customer responds to abuse complaints promptly I don't
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have a problem with the website staying on our services."
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Platinum Century last night failed to respond to questions about its decision
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to close LittleGossip.
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_Additional reporting by Joshi Eichner Herrmann _
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[What are these?][6]
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* Share: [Share][5] [ ][7] [ ][8]
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[Tweet][9]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/8320468/How-a-teenager-spawned-
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internet-monster-LittleGossip.com-from-his-bedroom.html
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Telegraph
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## [Internet][10]
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* ### [News »][11]
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* ### [UK News »][12]
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* ### [Technology News »][13]
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* ### [Patrick Sawer »][14]
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In technology
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[![China and the internet][15] ][16]
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### [History of Chinese cyber attacks][16]
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[![][17] ][18]
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### [Founders of The Huffington Post sued for 'stealing website
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blueprint'][18]
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[![Brink hands-on preview][19] ][20]
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### [UK video game chart 16 May 2011][20]
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[X][5] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][6]
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Share:
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* [ ][5]
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* [ ][7]
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* [ ][8]
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* [Tweet][9]
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* Advertisement
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![][21]
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Advertisement
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sponsored features
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[EDITOR'S CHOICE »][22]
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[![Gil Scott-Heron][24]][23]
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Composer, musician, poet and author whose writing provided a vivid commentary
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on the black American experience.
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Advertisement
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var puffs_8254837 = new Array();
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