Harry’s Place has been shut down by the service provider evidently because of a post that was put up about a UCU (University and College Union) activist (Jenna Delich) linking to a David Duke site, which she thought was a good place to find factual material on Israel and Jews. She sent this useful information round via the official UCU mailing list. Some of the UCU activists took exception to, well, not to Jenna Delich's ideas of research but that Harry's Place had pointed this out, and now a complaint has been made to the service provider (presumably about defamation) and the site has been shut down.
The material on this affair has been put up on a temporary site here:-
Note to self and others:- if you do inadvertently link to a neo-Nazi site or any other dodgy site for information and this is pointed out to you, apologise and say that you are totally mortified. In fact, it would be excellent if you felt totally mortified. Then the whole business will go away. But don’t sound huffy and annoyed like Jenna Delich – how were you supposed to know what a neo-Nazi site looks like? (Same thing applies if you produce leaflets talking about the Holocaust and omit to mention its main and best known victims. See comments to post here).
Also, if you have been found out, don’t resort to defamation laws or apply pressure through service providers. Many bloggers might dislike the site you are attacking, but there is some solidarity among bloggers – first of all they came for Harry’s Place, next they came for me – and they will flash this story around the blogosphere. From there it may be taken up by the mainstream media and you will look very bad trying to shut up critics, and especially bad if you are a union for academics.
More information on how to detect a neo-Nazi site here.
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