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Added section on AO3 & racism with a *very* brief overview of key points & some comments, much more can be added
Also see [[AO3 Content Discussion (2016)]].
Also see [[AO3 Content Discussion (2016)]].
==Racism and the AO3==
Numerous discussions have arisen over the years, particularly as AO3's size, notoriety and clout has grown, about the handling of racist content, abuse and behaviour on the site. [[AO3 & Censorship]] is one meta essay published in 2018 that deals with the subject of racist trolls harassing AO3 users and how the site's content policy could be adapted to address this more effectively.
In 2020, the [[OTW and AO3 Racism Discussion (2020)]] was instigated by the global protests in the wake of George Floyd's death and the subsequent debates ignited about racism in all parts of life, including fandom. It gave rise to the [[Open Letter to the OTW on Racism in Fandom]], which led to a statement being published by the OTW Board, Chairs and Leads about steps that the OTW would be taking to address issues of racism both internally and within its projects. Many of these proposed steps concerned the AO3, such as tools to facilitate investigations by the Policy & Abuse team, and features to give readers and creators more control and protection, such as comment freezing and potential blocking and muting functionality.<ref>[https://www.transformativeworks.org/statement-from-the-otw-board-of-directors-chairs-leads/ Statement from the OTW Board of Directors, Chairs, & Leads], June 24, 2020. (Accessed February 10, 2022).</ref>
The blog post [[What's up with the AO3 and racism?]] was also published during this period, and summarises the main issues under discussion.
Other relevant essays/articles:
*[https://stitchmediamix.com/2019/06/27/fleeting-frustrations-7-archive-frenzy/ Fleeting Frustrations # 7: Archive Frenzy and Being (Un) Grateful To Our Fannish Foremothers (Stuck In 2002)] (June 2019)
*[https://stitchmediamix.com/2020/06/14/thread-collection-antiblackness-in-the-archive-6-14/ Thread Collection: Antiblackness in the Archive (6/14)] (June 2020)
*[https://stitchmediamix.com/2021/01/14/lets-talk-about-racism-in-the-archive-again/ Let’s talk about racism in The Archive – again.] (January 2021)
*[https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/2119 An archive of whose own? White feminism and racial justice in fan fiction’s digital infrastructure] (September 2021)
*[https://stitchmediamix.com/2021/09/08/where-are-we-now-ao3-anti-racism/ Over A Year After the OTW/AO3’s Statement of Solidarity: Where Are We With That Anti Racism?] (September 2021)
===Proposed Action===
====Removal of Racist Fanworks====
Many fans have called for the outright removal of racist fanworks on AO3, or questioned why AO3 continues to allow these works to exist/be published on the site.
{{Quotation|
Can we talk about how the AO3 doesn't actually have any real policies for how to handle racist fanworks OR racism from fans creating or consuming work on the platform and won't remove racist works (and rarely racist comments that DON'T have slurs in them) but then does this ish?<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191017050815/https://twitter.com/stichomancery/status/1105523071547527169 Thread by @stitchomancery], archived October 17, 2019.</ref>}}
This has engendered pushback from other fans arguing that this would undermine AO3's stance of maximum content inclusivity (with some advocating for new required warnings, or features to help readers curate their experience, as an alternative), leading to debates about whether advocating for anti-racist action is being misclassified as a push for "censorship".
{{Quotation2|The issue as I understand it is one in a conflict of core values. The [[OTW]] was set up partly as a reaction to censorship of fanworks on other platforms and therefore freedom of speech is one of its core values.
My understanding is that you strongly value “not giving racist people a platform to spread their content” and given your position I understand that. However, others may wish to ensure that other minorities that they find reprehensible do not have a platform. And so I am in the position of defending the publication of content including some that is to you offensive.<ref>{{source| url = https://zz9pzza.tumblr.com/post/173709044488/nkjemisin-diversehighfantasy | title = nkjemisin: diversehighfantasy:... | This page is intentionally left blank. |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20180510014518/https://zz9pzza.tumblr.com/post/173709044488/nkjemisin-diversehighfantasy |archivedate= 2018-05-10 }}</ref>}}
{{Quotation|
Thread, and the other comments are why I'm going to censorship.
Look, you are certainly within your rights to not want to hang out with people who have a race kink, I completely agree with you on that. But there's not a real way to censor anything on AO3 without creating even more potential problems.
If they would implement blocking, you could block people who post race kink and go on your merry way, you'd never have to see them again<ref>[https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/439985.html?thread=2618857649#cmt2618857649 Re: Twitter and Tumblr], fail-fandomanon, July 28, 2020. (Accessed February 8, 2022).</ref>}}
{{NQuote2|
Yeah - ultimately if you want an archive, it's going to have to be an archive. I've seen the anti-harassment stuff they're putting in place and I think it'll help curate fandom experiences, which is really the best way to handle a lot of this imo<ref>[https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/438735.html?thread=2611026895#cmt2611026895 Re: AO3 - racism and AO3]</ref>
|user =
|child = {{NQuote2|There is a number of measures that can help, like slavery warning, block lists, better bookmark search... but none of it will solve the issue ... [of] (structural racism in fandom), because it’s beyond AO3 capacity unless you give up the strong free speech stance of anything legal can stay.}}
}}
{{Quotation|
Anti racism is being framed as "pro-censorship" in fandom (as well as anti fandom in and of itself) so for the AO3 to do something about racism on its platform specifically - including get an unrelated professional to figure out how to protect fans of color - would be censorship.<ref>[https://twitter.com/stitchmediamix/status/1452730375176925185 Tweet by @stitchmediamix], October 25, 2021 (Accessed February 8, 2022.</ref>
[...]
This isn't just "some people have preferences and those preferences can be a bit messed up". They're openly going "AO3* can either be anti racist or it can be anti censorship... and we want it to be anti censorship"
(* a stand-in for fandom @ large actually)<ref>[https://twitter.com/stitchmediamix/status/1452730378997874690 Tweet by @stitchmediamix], October 25, 2021. (Accessed February 8, 2022).</ref>}}
The question of how works on the Archive would be identified as "racist" has also been the subject of considerable debate, as well as the issue of works by fans of colour that deal with racism and its effects being potentially caught in the crossfire.
{{Quotation2|The difficulty, is when you decide a particular category of fanfiction cannot be in the archive, then it is too easy to use that category to hunt down fanfiction someone doesn’t approve of.
If someone is moved to write a story against racism or pedophilia, do you want that fic to be banned? The precedent for just that exists.
[...]
Until there is Racism warning (which will need some guidelines or it will become meaningless), promoting tags that would give some reader control might be one step.<ref>{{source| url = https://peoriarhetoriapeoria.tumblr.com/post/173734970212/blad-the-inhaler-nkjemisin | title = | archiveurl =http://www.webcitation.org/6zIaqZ4C0| archivedate =2018-05-10}}</ref>}}
{{Quotation|I guarantee you that if AO3 banned racist fic or fic with racist themes, the absolute first thing that would happen is that you would have a wave of racists attacking fic by and about Black people. Oh, this fic talks about Character X dealing with the racism of the white people around them? That fic has racist themes and should be banned! Why do I know this? Because every time in history (real life or fannish) that I am aware of, whenever a group tries to enforce moral rules (however well-meaning) for the benefit of a vulnerable minority, that vulnerable minority bear the brunt of the problem and receive very little of the help the rule was designed to give.
The solution to this is twofold. First, lessen the harm that will be done when–not if–the rules are abused. If fics are removed, the author has been silenced. And while I don’t care about racism being silenced (I think that would be awesome) I am not willing to do that knowing that the innocent will certainly be targeted and silenced, as well. If the fic is given a warning label, the author has not been silenced–their content is still freely available.
Second, put some real thought into how you’re going to prevent abuse. How do you separate out the overzealous self-righteous white folks? How do you separate out the reports from racists who are sure that they’re not racist, they’re just telling it like it is, and are offended by having their racism pointed out and thus flag their attackers? How do you make the distinction between “this fic is racist and promotes racist themes” and “this fic is anti-racist and confronts racist themes” and “this fic is just including racist themes because it’s in canon”? They can be harder to tell in practice than you might think.<ref>{{source| url = https://beatrice-otter.tumblr.com/post/173742686932/peoriarhetoriapeoria-blad-the-inhaler | title = | archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20180510022522/https://beatrice-otter.tumblr.com/post/173742686932/peoriarhetoriapeoria-blad-the-inhaler| archivedate =2018-05-10}}</ref>}}
====Additional Warnings====
==Communities==
==Communities==