Today I received a cease and desist notice related to my recent comments about the attitudes and behaviors of some people within the IndieWeb space. I have complied with the notice and removed all requested content. And I’ve been advised to say nothing further, so, that’s it.

— Adam Newbold, Silenced

This is chilling.

(edit: Adam has now taken down the linked post. Given that this involves a legal issue I am now unsure if I should edit out the quote.)

@SimonWoods I would love to know the how and why behind this. But, due to its nature, it seems unlikely that we’ll get to know more. It sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 😕

@SimonWoods what the? Is this what I think it is?

@aeryn Without good further communication, there’s a chance we’ll never know. The silence around here has become deafening.

@SimonWoods yeah. I mean. I didn’t exactly agree or very comfortable with the way things were handled on either side. But this is not the way forward.

@AndyNicolaides Manton said he doesn’t know anything about it and I can’t imagine him lying about it.

@SimonWoods it seems like a lie. I left omg.lol because of this kind of weird behaviour… I’m queer but we don’t need nutjob “allies” like that.

@jeremybakernz If he is lying then he is torching everything he has built on the web. Given what he has said on Discord this seems highly unlikely.

I can’t speak to what makes a good ally (I try to support people as much as I can), and I hate that I’m saying this but each day I feel less comfortable that the public web is where genuine progress can be made on that front. It is still a good starting point for finding people but beyond that I have serious doubts.

@SimonWoods I left the omg.lol Discord - and my lifetime omg.lol account - because it was so pitchforkingly vile.

@SimonWoods FWIW, that Silenced link is now 404ing.

@adders Thanks. Have edited my post. And so the sickly feeling continues.

@SimonWoods Adam seems to have confirmed this isn’t about Manton.

@adders Yep. Still feels shitty; seeing people use legal threats to silence other people, especially given current events, is fucking awful.

Have also seen some ugly behaviour here on Micro.blog during these events, and that has left a mark.

Worst of all; there is still further context missing from the entire situation, and I’m not even sure everybody with an opinion is aware of that… and even if they were I don’t think it would change much in people’s behaviour. It’s crap all around.