Second Life Artists Protest Alleged Banning of Longtime SL Satirist

Kake Broek, a well-known and much-admired metaverse artist who uses Second Life to create images of topical satire, was reportedly banned from Second Life recently, allegedly for impersonating a Linden Lab staff member. I say "reportedly" and "allegedly" because this comes from Mr. Broek's own Flickr feed, where he's posted an e-mail, apparently from Linden Lab, to that effect. (See below.)

"Maybe 'cause sometimes I'm wearing overhead text, 'I'm not a Linden'," Kake claimed to me on Twitter over the weekend. "But clearly I'm just a common good citizen old clown invested in the grid [for] 11 years, never griefing, harassing, hacking or any aggressiveness. And anyway, this conviction is so enormously disproportionate. I'm shocked sad and so disappointed!"

In response to the reported banning, other members of the SL creative community have started an e-mail campaign to Linden Lab, asking for clemency on Kake's behalf -- and creating, of course, in-world protest installations (as above and below the break).

A Kake contribution to Avatars Against Trump

Kake's a fantastic satirist who makes great use of Second Life tools to mock real world political figures and current events (as above), so whatever happened, it's a disappointment if he's no longer able to return. At the same time, part of me wonders if this whole thing is just an extended work of metaverse performance art.

I'm reaching out to Linden Lab for confirmation, though the company usually refuses to discuss policy enforcement on the record. Meantime you can read the e-mail posted by Kake, which he says he received from Linden Lab. 

Comments

[irihapeti]

representing as a linden ? Gone and oh! well

people who do this kinda expressive work and then fall into the abyss they have created for themselves, remind of me of how a Bart Simpson concert goes. Opening with Love and closing with I Just Can't Help Myself.

[Kake Broek]

Many thanks for all your support ;~}

[Peachez Preiss]

This is a ridiculous thing for Linden Lab to do to someone who has contributed to the SL community. Second Life needs more KAKE! #FreeKake

[Paul]

Seems like this is a recurring theme with Linden Labs and its ongoing issues with the lack of clarity of TOS rules vs its ban hammer mentality, banning and making up rules to suit themselves. Often in conflict of themselves.

There is a very interesting newsworthy article happening with some residents in the SL Kid community where this is happening, including questioning of Linden Labs intention of asking for sensitive personal data in account closures, lack of policy and information in how it is stored and used and the problems of poor customer information re rights to appeal vs daily activity of Second Life.
Might be interesting to track down the story, I have heard bits of it and its quite a thought provoking subject that affects all residents in some way.