The Internet: Scientology's Worst Enemy

Today, Scientology suffered perhaps its most humiliating defeat since it first began monitoring the internet. Last night, Tory Christman's YouTube account (ToryMagoo44) was suspended for undislosed reasons. YouTube gave no explanation except to say that she had committed a violation of the terms of use. Having seen just about all of Tory's videos, I can personally testify to the fact that there is no more truth to this assertion than there is to any of Scientology's other campaigns to shut down their critics. Tory did nothing in any way obscene, illegal, or hateful and if YouTube suspended her based on any such claims, then they had better suspend several million other accounts as well.

It has not been twenty-four hours since Tory's account was suspended and already, her account is back online. During that time Anonymous members and supporters posted videos anouncing the decision. These videos called for the veiwers to contact YouTube and tell them to cancel Tory's suspension. Aproximately eight hours ago, Tory posted a new video on her re-opened account. The video was dubbed "THANK YOU ANONYMOUS!" and in it, Tory asked any YouTube staff that might be watching the video why she had been suspended in the first place.

In the past, Scientology has been very good at intimidating and influencing buisinesses. It was in this way that they managed to stop a second airing of the South Park episode on Scientology. Reporters and journalists also describe having written stories about the cult and then having their work rejected the instant their lawyers discovered the potential law-suit. Ever since the CoS sued "Times" back in '91 very few commercial organizations of any kind have been eager to resist the will of the cult (to those who still do not believe Scientology is a superpower of the corporate world, I would like to direct your attention to the top-left corner of the screen, where you are quite likely to see a link to the official Scientology video channel). The fact that Anonymous convinced YouTube to reverse their actions before even a single day had passed is monumental to say the least.

This follows another major victory for Anonymous; on March 26, a website called Wikileaks released leaked every last one of the documents read in Scientology OT (operating thetan) courses. This creates an amusing paradox for the CoS: the traditional response to anyone making secret Scientology documents to the public is to simply say that they are lying, however, the CoS also claims copyrights on anything not intended for the public. So what is the CoS to do? Should it sue Wikileaks or claim that the documents are falsified? It would seem that the cult is trying to have its cake and eat it by suing for copyright infringements but at the same time claiming that the most vital of their leaked secrets are not actually true.

The dilemma faced by the CoS is almost enough to make a critic jump for joy. The free flow of information and the ability to anonymously criticize the CoS is simply too much for Scientology to handle. Even when the internet was just starting out, Scientology was scared out of its wits. Tory Christman once described how she and other Scientologists had been told to install programs to keep them off any critical sites (though they did not initially know that was what they were doing).

In the end, the internet is Scientology's greatest enemy, because it is a place where all the money in the world still isn't enough to stop a determined individual. It is the place where one voice can be heard by millions. It is the place where all that can be targetted is a screenname. Of course, all my rambling will never make this point as elegantly as one popular online flier with a picture of a protest and below it the phrase "Oh f**k, the Internet is here."