Banned: MySpace deletes world's largest atheist group

Social networking site MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has sparked controversy by deleting the world's largest online atheist group following complaints from people who find atheism "offensive".

"Atheist and Agnostic Group" boasted 35,000 members until it was deleted on 1 January for the third time in as many years. It was founded in 2004 by Bryan Pesta, an assistant professor at Cleveland University who established it as a social network "specifically for godless people."

The group was closed down for the first time two years ago after an organised campaign by Christians persuaded MySpace to delete it. It was eventually restored and MySpace promised to protect it. This time, despite a petition from 500 users and repeated emails to customer services, MySpace seems reluctant to reverse its actions.

Pesta is understandably furious, particularly given the treatment Christian groups have received in the past: “When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace’s Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions.”

Last April the atheist group won the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy's Excellence in Humanist Communication Award and the chaplain, Greg Epstein, has expressed his displeasure at MySpace's actions: “It is an outrage if Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the world’s largest social networking site tolerate discrimination against atheists and agnostics – and if this situation goes unresolved I’ll have little choice but to believe they do.”

The decision has caused much debate on the Richard Dawkins website, where users have been discussing what action should be taken against MySpace. Suggestions include:

• Is there someone we can contact to complain?
• Should Professor Dawkins continue to support and promote these sites in the light of what has happened ??
• I'll be deleting my account at the end of the day when I get home.
• My account is now closed! My personal protest!
• But isn't Myspace just for ridiculous wankers anyway?
• Create multiple accounts and tag all of the as Atheist
• Fuck 'em I've no use for these social network sites anyway

Pulling all this together, we thought we'd run an opinion poll to see what people think should be done about this. Get your vote in at the top right of this page:

Also, check out Bill Thompson's web exclusive article "Facebook knows I'm an atheist", where he wonders what the consequences might be of letting social networking sites know about your unbelief.

Web Exclusive: Facebook knows I'm an atheist

In our latest web exclusive article, technology writer Bill Thompson reveals how millions of social networkers are identifying themselves as atheists on Facebook, and asks what the consequences of this might be.

There's been a lot written recently on whether Facebook users are risking their privacy by giving too much information away (see Tom Hodkinson's recent attack in the Guardian on the people behind the site), and Bill's article provides an atheist take on all this. Are the self-identified godless networkers leaving themselves open to snooping from both advertisers and the CIA, or are they doing their bit to help raise the profile of atheism?

New Humanist on Facebook

For those of you who have joined in with the whole Facebook craze, why not join the fledgling New Humanist group? It's in its early stages at the moment, but hopefully it can become a place where you can all comment on the magazine and point us in the direction of interesting news, things worth blogging, and so on.