It was a neat system, but life proved messier. In practice the rules produced the following anomaly: subscribers could file hate-filled messages that would, in the name of free speech, go up on the board. Responses that attacked the messengers of hate were deemed unfit to print because they were personal. Before too long, a few anti-Semitic remarks showed upon Prodigy. “Wherever Jews exercise influence and power,” one subscriber wrote, “misery, warfare and economic exploitation of the host people follow.” The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith publicly denounced Prodigy’s policies last week.
At first Prodigy stuck by its rules. After a few days of deliberation–did Prodigy want to be known as the home of hate, the rabid byte, the screen of screed?–the company was willing to lay down stricter guidelines. Prodigy would no longer be a forum for racist remarks. Comments deemed " grossly repugnant to community standards" would be banned, the company declared, and that included anti-Semitic statements. Still, spokesman Geoffrey Moore maintains: “We may or may not agree with the views expressed. But as long as they are expressed with civility and as long as they don’t go over the line that we’ve described, we will allow them.”
Other bulletin-board operators don’t try to control things as tightly. Bob Mahoney, who runs the Exec-PC bulletin board in Elm Grove, Wis., says controversy keeps people on line–and keeps them thinking: “Get a little adrenaline going, and things get interesting.” At the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link of Sausalito, Calif., conference “hosts” censor participants only after their behavior has drawn complaints, says Cliff Figallo, managing director.
Some computer cognoscenti might chuckle at Prodigy’s woes, but they’re not happy to see the giant Rounder. “If they fail,” warns Mitchell Kapor, cofounder of the computer civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, “it will be that much more difficult to attract any major investment for on-line services.” Prodigy has 1. 1 million subscribers and it estimates that about 60 million Americans have the equipment to log on from work or home. But the electronic landscape is still difficult to enter and can be a raunchy place to visit. Prodigy’s Moore says the company advises parents to lead their kids by the hand “as if they were walking into a neighborhood that might be strange.” They also might teach them not to hate the strangers.
