Teen Anarchist Back Online Despite FBI & Big ISPs 

By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes
SHERMAN OAKS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.,

Sherman Austin has not been charged with breaking any laws,
but that hasn't stopped two of the biggest Internet service
providers (ISPs) from running the California teenager off
their property for his anarchist views.

Last month, after incarcerating Austin, 18, for more than a
week, federal prosecutors decided not to file charges
against Austin for publishing bomb-making information at his
site Raisethefist.com and hacking into several sites to post
revolutionary calls to arms. 

In recent days, however, Austin's anti-government message
apparently set off content radars at Yahoo's Groups service. 

A Yahoo representative would not comment on why
Raisethefist, an online message board that had 58 members,
disappeared from the service without notice last week. 

Yahoo "honors the spirit of the First Amendment and free
speech," according to spokeswoman Mary Osako, but she noted
that Yahoo's terms of service prohibit posting "content that
incites violence." 

In late December, Austin's account with America Online was
canceled by the online service, according to a spokesperson
for the FBI. The official said AOL took the action on its
own and not at the request of the FBI. 

Citing AOL's privacy policy, company spokesman Nicholas
Graham said he could not comment on the specifics of
Austin's situation. But Graham said AOL regularly cancels
accounts when subscribers violate its terms of service. 

Despite AOL's actions, Austin still uses the company's AOL
Instant Messenger service, switching nicknames frequently. 

On Jan. 24, heavily armed federal agents stormed the home
where Austin lives with his mother in suburban Los Angeles
and confiscated computer equipment used to operate his Web
site. 

After being offline for several weeks, Raisethefist.com has
reappeared on the Web and is now being hosted by
Seattle-based Hypodermic.net on a server co-located at a
facility run by Speakeasy Network. 

A graphic on the front page of Austin's site today reads
"Silence is defeat." 

Inside, Raisethefist.com features articles about current
domestic and international political events, including an
editorial entitled "Battle Plan" that discussed the need to
build a "peoples army." 

One section of the site offers stickers with slogans
including "Arm The Poor" and "National Security Is The
Threat." 

Pages formerly at Raisethefist.com that described how to
make crude bombs out of match heads, fertilizer, and other
common ingredients were not readily apparent. 

According to section six of the Yahoo terms of service,
users may not post content that is "unlawful, harmful,
threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory,
vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy,
hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise
objectionable." 

A Web page describing Hypodermic's terms of service was
shorter but similar in some respects. 

According to the Hypodermic.net document, the free hosting
company's administrators "are committed to providing our
users with a vehicle for free speech, however bigotry of any
kind is not tolerated. If you run a website that embraces
hatred, don't be surprised if you find it vanished from our
server." 

Raise The Fist is at http://www.raisethefist.com