1772
The erasure of Luigi Mangione (substack.evancarroll.com)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by dexa_scantron@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Right now, on Stack Overflow, Luigi Magione’s account has been renamed. Despite having fruitfully contributed to the network he is stripped of his name and his account is now known as “user4616250”.

This appears to violate the creative commons license under which Stack Overflow content is posted.

When the author asked about this:

As of yet, Stack Exchange has not replied to the above post, but they did promptly and within hours gave me a year-long ban for merely raising the question. Of course, they did draft a letter which credited the action to other events that occurred weeks before where I merely upvoted contributions from Luigi and bountied a few of his questions.

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[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago

Didn't he confess though? That's quite a bit different than a pending trial.

[-] SolaceFiend@lemmy.world 25 points 22 hours ago

The presumption or admission of guilt does not and should not justify violating the Creative Commons License, nor perpetrating any illegal behavior agains any individual(s).

If JK Rowling went out and robbed a bank, or murdered an ex-Husband, in no world or timeline would that give a member of her publishing company the right to scratch out her name from any of her books and replace it with their own or someone else's.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

should not justify violating the Creative Commons License

Absolutely. Even a guilty verdict shouldn't justify violating the Creative Commons License. It should either be completely taken down/hidden, or left in-tact.

That's not at all what I'm saying though though, I'm saying that it's reasonable for the site to take action to hide the account. He's a public figure with an apparent confession, which is going to attract a lot of attention to that account that otherwise wouldn't be there. They shouldn't have done it this way since it violates the Creative Commons License, but I am saying that action to hide/disable the account is warranted.

[-] SolaceFiend@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

So far, all I've found is a 2018 publication by the Police Executive Research Forum, entitled "The Changing Nature of Crime And Criminal Investigations". It's a 67 page document, and I'm curious to see if it discusses how their investigation tactics may have changed, and if so, whether the aforementioned tactic is mentioned as being included.

[-] SolaceFiend@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

Another comment way down claims it's standard operating procedure for social media sites to disable/hide and account of a highly publicized murderer, particularly during investigations. However, the provided no examples nor sources or technical documents that detail this as something that is genuinely done as a standard procedure.

I'm kinda gonna do my own research on that, but I feel the validity of Stack's actions would to some degree depend on the results of researching that claim, and whether or not that is true.

It's kinda difficult to research something like that though when most highly publicized murders predated social media in its current form, so it would be hard to have a lot of examples despite there being a decent number of people who fit the bill, ironically.

[-] SmilingSolaris@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago

Pled not guilty. No he did not.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 22 hours ago

Pretty much everyone pleads not guilty, especially in a politically motivated murder charge (there's always a chance of a hung jury or jury nullification). That said, his manifesto could be considered a form of confession and will certainly be used as evidence to that effect.

[-] nomous@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago

He pled not guilty, it really is that simple.

Innocent until proven guilty.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago

I never said he was guilty, I said he confessed. A plead of "not guilty" doesn't necessarily mean you think you're innocent (i.e. you perjure yourself; the 5th amendment protects against that), it just means you want to go through a trial. You can confess and still choose to go through trial proceedings.

[-] nomous@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

I was not aware he confessed and can't find anything saying he did. Do you have a source confirming he's confessed?

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 19 hours ago

It's more his manifesto, which has a clear motive.

[-] nomous@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

So he hasn't confessed and you just believe what law enforcement and the media says?

Nah fuck that he's innocent.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

I doubt that. Regardless, that's not the point here, the point is that he's a public figure and shutting down his SO makes a lot of sense to avoid vandalism and whatnot. He is a very credible suspect in a high profile murder.

[-] spujb@lemmy.cafe 7 points 21 hours ago

To add, plenty of innocent people give false confessions of guilt. It’s a known pattern in human behavior especially under stress and duress.

I have no information to say whether this case is an example of that one way or the other, but just putting that out there.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 21 hours ago

I'm just saying that there's probably enough evidence that it's reasonable for a social media site to pull/hide his profile despite not being sentenced. He's obviously innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean his profiles are immune from vandalism and whatnot.

this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
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