Democratic Underground is an

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

for members of the

United States Democratic Party The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled a wide cadre of politicians in every state behind war hero And ...

. Its membership is restricted by policy to those who are supportive of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates for political office.

History

On Election Day 2016, the forum was hacked by unknown parties who replaced posts with pro-Trump messages like " God Emperor" and a video that contained the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, ...

singing "Hold Back the Night" by the Protomen and a

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

showing then- Republican

Presidential Nominee In United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two different meanings: # A candidate for president of the United States who has been selected by the delegates of a political party at the party's national convention ( ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

pointing a gun at the viewer while using the

homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

slur ''

faggot Faggot, faggots, or faggoting may refer to: Arts and crafts * Faggoting (metalworking), forge welding a bundle of bars of iron and steel * Faggoting (knitting), variation of lace knitting in which every stitch is a yarn over or a decrease * ...

'' and saying " We're Making America Great Again."

Criticism

Discussions from posters at DU have drawn criticism. One example of this was the dialog about the 2004 tsunami disaster, in which a few posts explored the possibility of " earthquake weapons". The posts were reported on by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...

. An administrator also sent a letter to the ''Times'', which was printed. The site also saw criticism when, in 2003, a poster explained why they wished to see continued bloodshed in Iraq.

Copyright infringement lawsuit

In 2010, Democratic Underground was sued for alleged copyright infringement in a member's posting of a few paragraphs from an article in the ''

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal'' ...

''. The suit was brought by Righthaven, an entity that finds ''Review-Journal'' quotations online, buys the copyright for that story from the newspaper, and retroactively sues for copyright infringement. In response to the lawsuit, DU asserted that the quoted excerpt (five sentences of a 54-sentence article) was

fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

, and counterclaimed against Righthaven for

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

, barratry, and

champerty Champerty and maintenance are doctrines in common law jurisdictions that aim to preclude frivolous litigation: *Maintenance is the intermeddling of a disinterested party to encourage a lawsuit. It is: "A taking in hand, a bearing up or upholding ...

. DU is being represented in the case ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' by the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ...

, attorneys from the firm of Winston & Strawn, and Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers. After Righthaven lost a similar suit against

Realty One Group Realty ONE Group is a Laguna Niguel, California-based real-estate brokerage and franchising company. As of 2022, it employed over 18,500 real estate professionals in over 400 offices across the United States and Canada. History The group was ...

over 8 of 30 sentences quoted from a news article, Righthaven asked the judge in the case against Democratic Underground to dismiss Righthaven's claim against DU. On June 14, 2011, Judge Roger L. Hunt ruled that Righthaven be dismissed from the case because Righthaven had never owned the copyright of the article and gave Righthaven two weeks to explain in writing why it should not be sanctioned.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Democratic Underground homepageDemocratic Underground
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Internet properties established in 2001 Political Internet forums American political blogs