Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by JimmaDaRustla 4105 days ago
I got banned from theverge.com for suggesting that celebrities' Apple ID passwords may have been cracked by a brute force vulnerability with iCloud.

Permanent ban, no explanation, no e-mail. The fishiest part, someone (not verge staff) replied to my comment saying "enjoy your ban".

I've been weirded out by the power and bias of Apple employees and/or fans ever since.
3 comments
akfanta 4105 days ago
I don't know. Are you sure you didn't violate any other rules? The Verge might be close to Apple, but I doubt you'd get banned just because of that.
link
JimmaDaRustla 4105 days ago
I am/was a bit opinionated, but within reason. I never made threats or claimed anything I said was fact.

It seemed like there were a team of people who were on news sites denying comments like mine, probably just your average tech site commenters though. Some people were adamant that brute forcing (algorithms and dictionaries) would not be possibly and would take 20+ years to crack one password.

The real interesting thing to me was how it was permanent ban without warning and without ability to be appealed.

link
dublinben 4105 days ago
Do you know of any technology news sites that aren't as obviously partisan and pro-Apple? It's pretty clear from the volume and depth of Apple coverage that most sites are dominated by Apple fans among their staff and leadership.
link
JimmaDaRustla 4105 days ago
True. But it feels like a chapter out of 1984 when people can't make ambiguous opinions without someone knocking at your door to correct you and deny you your speech.
link
15155 4104 days ago
> chapter out of 1984

We've come full circle. Everyone here knows THAT advertisement..

link
JimmaDaRustla 4104 days ago
The irony!

I didn't even make that connection until you said something.

link
forgottenpass 4105 days ago
The fishiest part, someone (not verge staff) replied to my comment saying "enjoy your ban".

I wouldn't put too much thought into that. It's probably just someone that knows the unspoken rules better than you do. You see the same sort of flippant "enjoy your ban" posts on neogaf if someone transgresses the unwritten rule of getting within two or three degrees of separation from an unpopular opinion on a hotbutton political issue.

link