In one short week, the Libertarian Republic news site was launched and has received over 30,000 unique views to original reporting and articles. This news site may be small, but it’s growing rapidly and because of that it has apparently become a target for Denial of Service Attacks. A DOS attack is an attempt to shut down a server or website by spamming the website for access requests and overloading the site with traffic.
The Libertarian Republic’s base programmer Scott Adams of “One Web Guy” reports that after one week, this news blog received repeated attacks from hackers specifically targeting the site. Adams reports that the “One Web Guy” founders servers were more than ready to handle normal traffic. However, web hackers with an axe to grind were likely upset with the pages strong viewpoints on issues of personal freedom and economic liberty.
Although it’s nearly impossible to stop DOS attacks, it’s a sign of how dangerous to the current establishment order that ideas libertarians propose are. Although expressing oneself online is a form of free speech, there are still people out there that want to suppress ideas and are willing to go to any lengths to make sure that some viewpoints are never heard.
In a related note, a recent viral meme has sprung up amongst the libertarian movement called, “Paper Joan” or “Joan the Silencer”, in which a situation where at the Republican National Convention in Florida this year a woman covered the mouth of a Ron Paul supporter trying to be heard with paper. A facebook page sprung up recently lampooning the woman and using her as an example of those who try to stifle free speech. “Paper Joan” is mocked by depicting various photos of famous figures speaking being silenced by her paper. Libertarian activists tired of being bullied have apparently turned her tactics against her and made her the subject of a viral shame campaign.
What do you think? Are there a great majority of people who are for silencing alternate viewpoints today? What can people do to stop things like Denial of Service Attacks and people like “Paper Joan”? Is public shaming like the example to the left a legitimate response? Leave your thoughts below.