Newgon: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:52, 27 February 2023

Newgon Organization (aka Newgon, primary benefactor of the Yesmap server and campaign) is an informal activist organization first set up at Newgon.com by Daniel Lievre and Jillium on Jun 8, 2007. Newgon, which has no official membership, was founded after Google's censorship campaign against a number of MAP blogging sites, and was most active until around 2010 and again after 2021. The organization's purpose is to produce concise information resources relating to MAPs and minor-adult sex, for the use of online guerilla activists and trolls. It has also hosted forums for general discussion of these themes, private forums to organize information campaigns, and helped organize groups of MAPs and allies who seek to raise awareness online. The organization's projects are maintained by the Newgon Support Team. Any websites it publishes or funds are registered and hosted with high-end freedom of speech providers and proxying services for the purpose of privacy.

The Newgon.net domain hosts the informational wiki you are currently reading, along with an archived webmagazine/blog. Yesmap.net points to properties of, and projects supported by Newgon, such as the Matrix homeserver.

Notability

Newgon is notable for being the first website to host an article defining a MAP. As detailed in the article, Newgon's cofounder, Daniel Lievre and supporting contributor, BLueRibbon were the first authors to regularly use the term, on a now defunct blog known as ANU/ATC (AttractedToChildren.org) in early 2007. The term became somewhat popular in the community, entering academic parlance via organizations such as B4U-ACT, who had already previously contributed to the success of the parent term, "Minor Attracted Adult", which was cited in some academic works. MAP entered the public lexicon in 2018 via social media. Newgon is also responsible for publishing the first concept of a gradient MAP Flag, with the current flag's predecessor being submitted to a seemingly incomplete 2009 competition for a united symbol.

Pre-2014 Archiving

In an article that quoted Neal Baer, the producer of Law and Order: SVU, the gay news site afterelton.com claimed that a 2009 Hardwired edition featured a "pedophile rights group" based on Newgon.^[1] Our founder was portrayed as the "pedo-rights kingpin" Kevin O'Donnell, played by Garret Dillahunt.^[2]
The group is probably most famous for its 2007-8 subversion of Wikipedia via a private mailing list, private forum and guerilla sockpuppet infiltration campaign. Our article, Wikipedia censorship of MAP related topics covers some of those activities.
Newgon was mentioned in the article "Creepedia" by American Greatness^[3], "A journey into the dark corners of the deep web" by TNW^[4] and in an edition of MalcolmOutLoud. It is often compared, albeit in pejorative terms to Wikipedia.
The site was a favorite with Google Groups polemicists and has been criticised repeatedly on Wikipedia itself. It has been listed on various Hidden Wikis and alternative Hidden Wikis (onion sites).

Post 2021 Reopening

Materials produced by the site have been shared by some alternative right trolls in an effort to sow confusion and division among their opponents (often mainstream Liberals and the LGBT community). This is a developing trend at this point.
MAP awareness raising on Twitter saw an increase in Newgon.net references and meme usage. The organization is often suspected of being involved in pro-c agitating within the MAP Movement, and is considered off-limits on certain forums because of its stance.^[5] In reality, Newgon advises and provides resources/information to an activist cell called PCMA, which seeks to make it easier for MAPs to conduct awareness-raising campaigns online, be they related to pro-c or agnostic modes of activism.
An experimental publicity/engagement campaign is planned under the Yesmap banner, with future projects such as a blogging service proposed but not currently supportable due to staffing shortages. The aim of this campaign is to refine knowledge and hone skills for future efforts.
In early May, 2022, Newgon briefly ran a Twitter account at @NewgonOrg - gaining almost 100 followers over a 3-day period, and 15-35 likes on some of its content. Despite posting a mixture of research, anti-stigma and moderate pro-choice material, the account was soon suspended after a mass-report campaign. Newgon re-created their Twitter account in August 2022, as @Newgon2007, lasting for just over three weeks before being suspended on 100 followers. The content of the second account was almost entirely composed of retweets without comment. Newgon immediately created an account under @MAPSafety, aimed at distributing a list of 200+ harassers to Minor Attracted People in order to prevent specious mass-report campaigns and censorship, but it was again banned. Newgon again created a Twitter account @NewgonOrg2007 in the wake of free-speech advocate, Elon Musk's takeover in late October/early November, 2022. In this instance, the organization accused the conspiracy-fringe child protection campaigner Alaric Naudé of circulating lies that necessitated their re-emergence, laid into Jon Uhler as a "religious lunatic" and took responsibility for a range of viralized psy-ops that took place over the preceding 10 months, stating that they were carried out in response to censorship. The account requested to enter into a "dialogue" with the incoming content-moderation committee over the Terms of Service, with the implicit offer being their withdrawal from those "baiting" strategies.^[6] This account was suspended in late January, 2023.

Gallery

See also the gallery in Minor attracted community, for a small selection of sometimes Newgon-related campaigns.

TNW's 2012 investigation
Original May 2022 Twitter Account
Reaction to the original account
Typical content that followed
Various people on social media have expressed concern about the information scheme emanating from Newgon
Newgon's 2nd Twitter account (Aug 2022) arrived with a challenge that Twitter ultimately refused
Organizational account addresses the unusual family history of a conservative journalist who tweeted approvingly about killing pedophiles
Professor Newgonsky almost becomes a meme on Anti-c Mastodon
Paranoid polemicist and third-tier academic, Alaric Naudé has used an influence diagram to explain how he believes that Newgon is part of a "pedophilia normalization movement" connected to Disney and Michel Foucault.
In late 2022, Naudé, and the conservative feminist/"gay" assimilationist front-group, Gays Against Groomers were involved in an outrage campaign against Newgon^[7]
After thanking the aforementioned organization for their help, Newgon then trolled them back with Bill Maher quotes
One of various initiatives in 2023

Potted history

Daniel Lievre, a homosexual ephebophile, states that in 2005, his interest was piqued by a mention of NAMBLA on Rotten.com an old-fashioned, now defunct website featuring comment threads on shocking and bizarre content. He found out about Vereniging MARTIJN after some research and volunteered to proof-read a couple of their English articles. He then set about perfecting his debating abilities in multiple explosive threads on a forum which we are almost certain was the IIDB (Internet Infidels Discussion Board). This inspired him to set up a Debate Guide on Google's free hosting service, with a collaborator from the Netherlands. To make his writings more accessible, he then set up the now de-archived debateguide.blogspot.com and another blog that riduculed "anti pedophile" vigilantes. After just a few months, this blog was removed in a general purge of 30-50 similar blogs after mass reporting campaigns. His google pages were then removed as well, although he did have some success address squatting for others who lost their blogs.^[8] After a few dead-ends, Lievre was directed towards NearlyFreeSpeech.net, a paid host that (at the time) was only concerned with the legality of its content. Using this service, and the help of others, including a web administrator using the name Jillium, he rehosted his Debate Guide, which was soon to be followed by a blog, wiki and forum.

After ceasing blogging activity, NewgonWiki then hosted a webmagazine, which provided a digest of news articles, activist updates, academia, as well as editorials. Organisations such as Absolute Zero and SOSEN were frequently ridiculed. This ran for over a year, as the general projects expanded. However, from around 2010, the project seemed to go into decline, with forum outages, administrative departures and lower participation in core projects. In 2013, NearlyFreeSpeech.net posted a warning that they would terminate site services due to the politically sensitive nature of the content, but a new host and administrator could not be found at the time. This resulted in Newgon.com going offline for a while, but the site was re-hosted by an anonymous person in late 2013, after which it was shuttered due to lack of activity and archived at Newgon.net by mid 2014.

In late 2021, previous associates of Newgon.com and its network of activists launched a plan to rebrand Newgon.net and open the forums, with a start date of late 2021 or early 2022. Instead, a private discussion group was set up, and a public chat room was hosted in order to meet the demands of modern communication.

Individuals

From what little information we have, there seems to have been a few individuals who frequently volunteered for Newgon in the early years. They were all linked to the early MAP blog ANU/ATC, thus playing an important role in coining and popularizing the MAP neologism and founding this website in their teens:

Daniel Lievre (Founder/Originator/Admin)

He is enigmatic and hard to research, because he often used pseudonyms to mock his trolls, or female pseudonyms to extract information - for example, from Wikipedia Admins. According to his written profiles, he was 19, and a University Student from Plymouth, in the UK. We know he was preoccupied with community-building and site moderation, and tended to be a forward-thinking activist and troll who created multiple identities on news sites, Wikipedia and various online fora. He was an occasional BoyChat poster.

Jillium (Founder/Admin)

Jillium was another young activist, who started at around 17 years of age. His location was unknown, and he tended to be very quiet on forums, preferring to compile large anthology lists for the Wiki. He was known as a competent web admin. Jillium also posted on GL forums and was a very effective Wikipedia activist, with a deep knowledge of the MediaWiki software and interface.

BLueRibbon (Contributor)

Another blogger (ANU founder) in his late teens - he was non-affiliated, but submitted a lot of information to our legal sections. Also known as a BoyChat poster, he was known to be active in the wave of Wikipedia MAP activism some of our current contributors took part in. First person known to regularly use MAP.

Newgon Organization's position youth

Newgon was founded by the above a group of teenage MAP activists, and maintains an unusual and nowadays unique line on the subject of youth (at least for a MAP/ally-led organization).

While Newgon opposes all offending, their pro-youth rights agenda favors a revised elective age of consent at 12. Newgon maintains that what for MAPs is a self-interested position is nevertheless "evidence-based" - pointing to the testimony of MAP Allies and researchers. The website makes repeated references to adults' positive testimonies of sexual relationships in their youth; controversially arguing that they should be treated as de-facto youth-advocacy. Youth perspectives are also encouraged and permitted in public discussions, since the site has strict controls against "adult material" and is supported by international conventions and other human rights agreements operative in the relevant jurisdictions.

References

[1] Afterelton Web Archive

[2] Kevin O'Donnell

[3] Creepedia

[4] Mail-order drugs, hitmen & child porn: A journey into the dark corners of the deep web - TNW

[5] Prostasia Fdn, Moderation position re. Newgon

[6] NewgonOrg2007 archive

[7] MAPs against Groomers account

[8] BC Lievre - BlogSquat

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@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 *Materials produced by the site have been shared by some alternative right trolls in an effort to sow confusion and division among their opponents (often mainstream Liberals and the LGBT community). This is a developing trend at this point.
-*MAP awareness raising on Twitter saw an increase in Newgon.net references and meme usage. The organization is often suspected of being involved in [[pro-c]] agitating within the [[MAP Movement]], and is considered off-limits on certain forums because of its stance.<ref>[https://forum.prostasia.org/t/requesting-resources-like-memes-and-infographics-to-share-with-others-on-the-topic-of-hebe-ephebophilia/2672/5 Prostasia Fdn, Moderation position re. Newgon]</ref> In reality, Newgon advises and provides resources/information to an activist cell called '''[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA]]''', which seeks to make it easier for MAPs to conduct awareness-raising campaigns online, be they related to pro-c or agnostic modes of activism.
+*MAP awareness raising on [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]] saw an increase in Newgon.net references and meme usage. The organization is often suspected of being involved in [[pro-c]] agitating within the [[MAP Movement]], and is considered off-limits on certain forums because of its stance.<ref>[https://forum.prostasia.org/t/requesting-resources-like-memes-and-infographics-to-share-with-others-on-the-topic-of-hebe-ephebophilia/2672/5 Prostasia Fdn, Moderation position re. Newgon]</ref> In reality, Newgon advises and provides resources/information to an activist cell called '''[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA]]''', which seeks to make it easier for MAPs to conduct awareness-raising campaigns online, be they related to pro-c or agnostic modes of activism.
 *An experimental publicity/engagement campaign is planned under the ''[[Yesmap]]'' banner, with future projects such as a blogging service proposed but not currently supportable due to staffing shortages. The aim of this campaign is to refine knowledge and hone skills for future efforts.
 *In early May, 2022, Newgon briefly ran a Twitter account at '''@NewgonOrg''' - gaining almost 100 followers over a 3-day period, and 15-35 likes on some of its content. Despite posting a mixture of research, anti-stigma and moderate pro-choice material, the account was soon suspended after a mass-report campaign. Newgon re-created their Twitter account in August 2022, as '''@Newgon2007''', lasting for just over three weeks before being suspended on 100 followers. The content of the second account was almost entirely composed of retweets without comment. Newgon immediately created an account under '''@MAPSafety''', aimed at distributing a list of 200+ harassers to Minor Attracted People in order to prevent specious mass-report campaigns and censorship, but it was again banned. Newgon again created a Twitter account '''@NewgonOrg2007''' in the wake of free-speech advocate, Elon Musk's takeover in late October/early November, 2022. In this instance, the organization accused the conspiracy-fringe child protection campaigner [[Alaric Naudé]] of circulating lies that necessitated their re-emergence, laid into [[Jon Uhler]] as a "religious lunatic" and took responsibility for a range of viralized psy-ops that took place over the preceding 10 months, stating that they were carried out in response to censorship. The account requested to enter into a "dialogue" with the incoming content-moderation committee over the Terms of Service, with the implicit offer being their withdrawal from those "baiting" strategies.<ref>[https://archive.ph/3noXf NewgonOrg2007 archive]</ref> This account was suspended in late January, 2023.