No Net Brutality is a Student Project

May 13, 2010 -

It turns out that No Net Brutality, mentioned here yesterday, was actually the work of six students for entry into a competition and ended up costing a grand total of $173.95 to produce.

It didn’t even win the competition.

Think Progress had claimed that the No Net Brutality was an astroturf movement backed by the telecom industry. A CNET article blows up those claims and includes a quote from David MacLean, one of the six students involved in the project, who said, “The Think Progress article is hilarious.

MacLean added, “We've had a really good laugh in the last day over this. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.”

Kristin McMurray, another student who contributed to No Net Brutality, explained further, “We have not had any contact with any telecom company during this campaign. The only funding we received was the $100 given to us by Atlas.”

No Net Brutality did disclose the $100 Atlas donation on its site.

The project came in third in the competition, finishing behind a project that supported education reform in Poland and another that dealt with sales tax rates in Washington D.C.

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Comments

Re: No Net Brutality is a Student Project

Submitted by thefremen on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 18:43.

Apparently you're a student project if you say you're a student project. Taliban? student project. Catholic Church? Student Project. Darma initiative? student project.

Re: No Net Brutality is a Student Project

Submitted by Austin_Lewis on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 09:59.

Think Progress making shit up? No way. I don't believe it.

It's so odd that a group involved in so much astroturfing feels it can label others for it.

Re: No Net Brutality is a Student Project

Submitted by Tenmar on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 13:25.

Except there is a problem here. The one American involved isn't a student and the contest is actually sponsered and run by a think tank.

http://stopthecap.com/2010/05/11/telescam-exposed-who-really-runs-nonetbrutality-com/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TeleScam+Exposed:+Who+Really+Runs+NoNetBrutality.com%3F

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinmcmurray

So they aren't "students" in the traditional sense at all, unless you count being a student meaning competing in a competition for Atlas Network. Whose website is down I might add and when it was accessible it was an empty shell website with no pictures or anything.

Also if you look at their facebook page and the "student" website they have proven that they don't understand what net neutrality really is. Hell I'm a conservative and something smells rotten here because they started as an advocacy group then stated that this is a student project and now have gone back to being an advocacy group. So the question here is this website nothing more than a farce? Do the people really stand behind it despite being nothing more than a think tank project? Should this type of project be taken seriously considering how they didn't even define net neutrality even on their facts page?

Also normally school projects even for business don't have their students post their work online as it is meant to be just be graded.

Shout box

Matthew Wilson: http://imgur.com/XzpWeWw here is the twiter exchange in question.10/19/2014 - 1:39pm

Andrew Eisen: I either don't remember or didn't see it. Still have a link?10/19/2014 - 1:38pm

Matthew Wilson: its the twiter exchange I linked too a few days ago.10/19/2014 - 1:29pm

Andrew Eisen: That link doesn't work. Browsed the Twitter feed but couldn't find anything. Did find someone claiming a Gawker writer advocated bullying but didn't say who or where.10/19/2014 - 1:05pm

Neo_DrKefka: Gawker loses advertiser MERCED ES https://mobile .twitter.com/TheRalphRetort/status/522813815260733441/photo/1 after Gawker writer advocates bullying of nerds with an anti Gamergate rant10/19/2014 - 12:32pm

Matthew Wilson: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/weaponised-charity a interesting audio log.10/19/2014 - 12:04pm

prh99: Also there is no story in rational and respectful discussion (where you can find it).10/19/2014 - 10:44am

prh99: Well they are probably doing it on Twitter and probably the GG hashtag so any voice reason gets drowned out by idiocy. Also it's far easier to broad brush a group.10/19/2014 - 10:41am

Wonderkarp: dont fool yourself, Technogeek. Remember Mass Effect 3? How about the ferver against Phil Fish?10/19/2014 - 10:18am

MechaTama31: None of which is the fault or responsibility of the people who are not trolling, harassing, threatening, doxxing, etc. So why is their opinion hostage to the people who are?10/19/2014 - 10:06am

Technogeek: If the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am

Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm

Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm

Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm

Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm

Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm

Wonderkarp: Zippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm

Monte: Seirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm

Monte: We have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm

ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm

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