alt.religion.scientology

In the wake of Time magazine's expose on scientology, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power" (May 6, 1991),  scientology critic Scott Goehring created alt.religion.scientology.  Goehring created the Usenet group partly in jest  and partly    because "I felt Usenet needed a place to disseminate the truth about this half-assed religion."   He signed the message with a forged address Miscaviage@flag.sea.  Miscaviage, a misspelling of Miscavige, is a reference to the former chairman of the Religious Technology Center, a church-affiliated organization that owns scientology's copyrights and trademarks.
 
        Not until the summer 1994 did the newsgroup lure netizens from across the globe.  The attraction was a forwarded copy of an electronic memo from Elaine Siegel, a representative of the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) of the Church of  Scientology.  Siegel sent the memo to scientologists on the net,  suggesting that they flood alt.religion.scientology and alt.clearing.technology with pro-scientology propaganda to counter negative criticism.  "If you imagine 40 to 50 Scientologists posting on the Internet every few days, well just run the SPs (suppressive persons) right off the system," said Siegel in her memo.  The debate reached a new audience as the memo was re-circulated all over the globe.  Many knew little about Scientology, but saw the memo as a threat to Internet freedom.
 
        The Church of Scientology is not new to controversy.  Since its creation by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1952, this cult in Christs clothing has consistently drawn media attention for its questionable theology.  According to the scientology interpretation of the scriptures, a persons immortal soul or "thetan" is confounded by thetans left over from a nuclear holocaust that occured 75 million years ago. The way one deals with thetans is through a series of costly church rituals.  By ridding oneself of engrams, painful visual experiences, one can become an Operating Thetan (OT).  The OT levels go as high as VIII.  Very few members, however, have reached this level.  One reason may be that doing so would cost over 300,000 dollars in so-called church donations.
 

The cancelbunny

        Sometimes there is good reason to forge cancellation.  Spamming, mass mailings inappropriately posted all over the net (most often for commercial purposes), is often targeted for cancellation.  A collection of individuals called the Cancelmoose gathers spams and deletes them.  Most of the time the Cancelmoose reports on canceled messages, providing the content of the message as well as the reason for cancellation.  What was happening on alt.relgion.scientology was entirely different. The messages that were being deleted were sent to only one newsgroup and they were being canceled on the basis of content.  Under U.S. Code Title 18, section 2701 concerning the "unlawful access" to stored communications, this was a felony offense.

        In many cases, the cancellation message said that the posting was "CANCELLED BECAUSE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT."  In most instances, however, the canceled postings contained either little or no copyrighted material.  One canceled message contained reprints of court documents from Spain which described "felonies of illicit association, threat, coercion, usurpation of functions...and inducement to suicide."  Dubbed by the Internet community as the cancelbunny, a synthesis of the Cancelmoose and the Energizer bunny, the flagrant censor continued to delete many articles critical of scientology under the guise of copyright infringement.  The church denied affiliation with the cancelbunny and later insisted system administrators had agreed to remove infringing material.  The church has yet to provide proof of this "agreement."
 

Search and Seizure

        In several cases the church has named the Internet service provider (ISP) in addition to the poster.  Although large organizations like Time magazine and The Washington Post can bear the financial burden of drawn-out litigation, most Internet service providers cannot. ISPs are often small locally-operated outfits that could not survive the economic pressures or protracted litigation.  The simple threat of litigation could be enough to control the flow of information.
 
        The Church of Scientologys rampant lawsuits are stifling the dissemination and discussion of information on the Internet at the forefront of the information age.  If this is a second inquisition, God seems to be carrying an electronic gavel.