Second Life Bans Political Billboards from Public Lands After Pro-Trump & Anti-Trump Signs Choke the Virtual Sky

Photo credit: Animats

Another US Presidential election year, another clash of ideas in Second Life. As has been the case since 2004, the virtual world has recently been festooned with political billboards, much or most of them pro-Trump or anti-Trump -- though as with Facebook, it seems like the pro-Trump forces have had the upper hand.

"There was a couple of people setting up lots of mini ad farms for Trump and some places had been plastered in far right slogans and adverts," SL veteran "0xc0ffea" tells me. 

Some commonly trafficked areas in Second Life have devolved into a veritable battle of billboards, with "Re-elect Trump" and other Trump friendly signs such as "Police Lives Matter" having to share the same space with snarky rejoinders like: "Trump/Putin - Make America Hate Again". 

This time, however, Second Life owner Linden Lab responded, updating its policy on virtual world advertising to prohibit ad content that are "political in nature" from the SL mainland, which the company maintains. (This policy does not apply to privately-owned regions and continents.)

I've contacted Linden Lab for an official reply and will update this post if I receive one. It is a marked departure from Second Life during the 2016 election, when a skyscraper-sized Trump billboard spewing fireworks freely loomed in the sky, while Bernie Sanders' unofficial campaign headquarters in SL was invaded by swastikas and literal pro-Trump gargoyles.

To judge by user reaction in the official community forum and Second Life's subreddit, most seem agreeable to the banning of political ads -- both for being an eyesore, and reflecting their desire for a place online that's free from election news:

"I think it’s great. I’m not in SL for real life politics," Zack Massiel enthused.

Then again, groused BilliJo Aldrin, "I think it sucks. I had 47 Trump signs, all legal, all in accordance with the ad farm rules.  I had to pick them all up."

0xc0ffea believes that Linden Lab imposed this policy against all political ads to avoid accusations of bias, being a tech company based in liberal San Francisco -- and one that joined an amicus brief against Trump's "Muslim ban" policy.

"I think it's an impossible situation for them to moderate easily without ending up attacked over censoring 'conservative opinions', which do appear to make up the bulk of offensive/racist content that would warrant abuse reports," as she puts it to me.

This news comes, somewhat ironically, as Joe Biden rolls out an official campaign in Animal Crossing.

By contrast Linden Lab's new policy sets a controversial precedent for a platform that bills itself as enabling all free expression (short of hate speech, libel, and other exceptions). What in a virtual world, after all, constitutes "political"?

Photo credit: Scylla Rhiadra

"Most of this seems to be directed, as are the general advertising rules, at visual spam and ad farms," observes Scylla Rhiadra.  "I do worry, however, that this is vague enough to lead to more legitimate expressions of political opinions being abuse reported and removed. And what exactly constitutes 'politics' anyway?

"Here's an old pic of me I posted for May Day," she adds, posting a photo of her avatar (above) in front of a "Capitalism Cannot Be Reformed" flag from SL Left Unity, a long-running SL-based activist group. Famously, SLLU once protested the official Second Life headquarters of the fascist Front National of France. (But were not necessarily responsible for the machine gun fire and exploding pigs that subsequently beset the HQ.) 

"Is this 'political' in the sense that Linden Lab means?" she asks.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

The fact that it's political is an afterthought - sky spam, no matter what the message is, should be forbidden.

[Joey1058]

LL made the correct call. Last election was a novelty. This election would open the doors to every global candidate for years to come.

[Pulsar]

By the way:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dex/146/90/22
South: "Resist" on the roof and rainbow, equality, BLM flags.
North: believers of the QAnon delirium. Also a "no stupid people beyond this point" sign apparently facing the opposite direction. LOL. Until a couple of months ago, they had a confederate flag and flags anywhere against the safety measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infections.

This is going on since 2016.

[Han Held]

This move makes renting mainland completely worthless.

LL is throwing out the baby with the bathwater and shooting themselves in the foot (as if they don't have enough abandoned mainland parcels as it is)in the process -WTG LL!

[Jumpman Lane]

Hey Hamlet, looking forward to Linden Lab's official comment on this one. I can't comment until they do. I mean do I go with "And so the coddling continues..." or "Fear from The Lab! We SMELL it!" lol. Linden Lab's usual 'ignore it, we don't care stance' would seem to be de rigueur...I'd say. What are those pesky Lindens up to?

[Fionalein]

as animats pointed out here (https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/460124-political-ads-no-longer-allowed-on-your-land/?do=findComment&comment=2175027)

"The political sign restriction, as written, applies only to networked advertising. You should still be able to put a Trump 2020 or Black Lives Matter sign at your own house or business. Just not in bulk on ad sign parcels."

But we all the LL governance team... So the question remains: Will they actually be able to discern between networked advertising and private locations? Or will they we have governance roulette again and an AR outcome will be depending a lot on who's handling the case?

[Fionalein]

insert a "know" in above post'last paragraph first sentence =^^=

[Nodoka Hanamura]

@Han Held

Oh boo hoo, someone can't put up political agitprop eyesores that the overwhelming majority of residents can't stand. Go jump off the Mimas Bridge if it annoys you that much.

I for one welcome this. I come to SL to get away from this shithole we call Real Life. Not to be fucking innundated with bullshit from it, especially crap from groups like SLLU and the Trump groups and their unaffiliated butt-buddies.

If Activists leave over this, so be it. I'd rather Agni be without them and better off for it than flourishing having to see Pro and Anti-Trump agitprop everywhere I go.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

@Nokoda - This is the kind of attitude that worries me, and why I am concerned about the very vagueness of this rule, and the potential arbitrariness of how it might be enforced. Arguably, pretty much anything in SL can be seen from a political perspective -- certainly, for instance, misogynist sims and groups are "political," even if unaffiliated with a particular party. Where does one stop?

The SLLU (and I can think of some other broadly political groups that this would apply to as well) isn't clogging the mainland highways with signs. You can't see these signs from the highway, or from the map, or indeed from anywhere but, essentially, from within the sim itself. These are expressions of the SLLU's ideology, not public propaganda or political ads. You'd have to visit us to know that they are even there.

When was the last time our views intruded unwished-for upon your Second Life? Have they ever?

Don't like what we stand for, or what our signs say? Then, well ... don't come to our sim? Just a thought.

[BiliJo Aldrin]

I had 47 Trump 2020 signs on my networked advertising parcels. I'm pretty sure the political ad ban was a result of them not being able to touch my signs, yet still having an endless stream of ARs about them to deal with. The ban is a cheap way way out that diminishes everyone's second life.

[sirhc desantis]

Also waiting for clarification so I will knnow when to AR myself for my rainbow flag. It is most pos def political after all.

I think the Lab may be a little misguided here. Finding myself in agreement with both BillyJo and Scylla there is proof enough of that =^^=

[Han Held]

I don't have much to add that Scylla, BiliJo and sirhc haven't already covered.

I will say that I've had to live around very toxic political jerks on mainland ...and to cope, I made heavy, heavy use of derender. Worked for me, I didn't even notice that they left until I saw the parcels were abandoned one day ...

But the Virtual World that says "you can't put up Trump signs" today can come and say "You can't put up consumer rights information" tomorrow can later come to say "you can't put up anything the expresses a strong opinion on anything at all" the week after...

But hey! If that's what you want to pay money for -knock yourself out, Nodaka. Enjoy your sanitized mainland!

But there are better, more liberated options out there (beyond SL); and that's what I'll continue to enjoy (as I have for 10 years now!).

[Han Held]

..and for the record, while I don't live on Mainland now; I did live there for 9 years and today is the very first that I've heard of the SLLU (at first blush I thought you were making a typo of the much-maligned SLU -which now virtualverse.one)

From where I stand, I'd say they're a poor example.

[MaccyWinds BFF]

I love how my wall from 2016 still lives on in infamy. XDDDDDD

[irihapeti]

reading the ToS is clear that political signs are only banned on mainland advertising networks. They are not banned on private-owned parcels where the parcel owner does not act as an advertising network across multiple regions

so if I have a mainland parcel I can stick a Vote For Whoever sign on my front lawn. I can't do this on multiple parcels across multiple regions

a road trip on mainland shows this. People continue to put yard signs out on their home parcels which is ok for them to do

a thing also. There are a whole lot fewer signs (even before the advert network ban) this US election than there were in previous US elections. Bush vs Gore was I think the zenith of US election activism in SL, more so even than Obama vs McCain

[iisingh]

bush v gore was 2000 I think that was pre SL but I don't want to interfere with your altered view of reality.