GeenStijl is a Dutch

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

founded on 10 April 2003. The logo is a pink coloured

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

within a

circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

. In the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...

, the term "geen stijl" (literal translation: no style) is used to describe an act by a person or organisation that lacks style or manners. GeenStijl often uses a provocative tone when referring to other Internet sites and blogs. Commenters on the site are called ''reaguurders'' which is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordssecond Balkenende cabinet The second Balkenende cabinet was the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands from 27 May 2003 until 7 July 2006. The cabinet was formed by the Christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the conservative-liberal Peop ...

. GeenStijl announced on their website that they would bus people from all over the country to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, where one of the cabinet parties was holding a convention. These people could sign up as new party members at the convention, and vote against the party's participation in the cabinet. This hoax created a media uproar; even the

NOS Journaal NOS Journaal is the umbrella name for the news broadcasts of the Dutch public broadcaster NOS on radio and television. The division of the NOS responsible for gathering and broadcasting the news is known as ''NOS Nieuws'', and is based at the Med ...

of the public television reported the event. At the height of their existence, the blog attracted around 75,000 visitors each day and was one of the top 10 news sites of the Netherlands. This popularity has receded somewhat currently, with Geenstijl being ranked as the 60th most visited website in the Netherlands, with an approximate global position of 12.000. In comparison, the website of the Dutch state-sponsored news network NOS ranks at about global position 5000 and is the 29th most visited website in the Netherlands, both as of 2 September 2020. The most visited Dutch news website is Nu.nl as of same date according to Alexa.com, at position 25. On 17 March 2006 the

Telegraaf Media Group Mediahuis is a newspaper & magazine publishing, distribution, printing, TV, radio and online media company founded in 2014 with assets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Germany. Mediahuis publishes daily newspaper titles in Belg ...

took a 40% interest in GeenStijl. The editorial team of

Dominique Weesie Dominicus Jacobus "Dominique" Weesie (born 12 October 1969 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch journalist and founder of the weblog GeenStijl and the public broadcasting association PowNed. Biography After finishing his HAVO education at the ''Krimpenerwaar ...

and Ambroos Wiegers both owned 50% of the shares, against 30% after the takeover. The deal was claimed to be worth €2.6 million. Not long after this deal, Telegraaf sold their interest after having changed their mind, retaining ownership of the site Dumpert. Other websites owned by GeenStijl were closed due to lack of visitors. Dominique Weesie said that he saw a market for a tough-talking,

politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

blog, when he started GeenStijl in 2003, because existing blogs used language that was too vulgar for the mainstream media. One feature of the blog is the use of intentionally misspelt four-letter words to reduce their shock effect. The site has been criticized for the

xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

and extreme nature of the comments it allows readers to post. Both the editors and the readers of GeenStijl have invented a wide range of names to refer to immigrants to the Netherlands that are generally considered to be stereotypic and derisive. They also use insulting words for right-wing people they believe to go over the mark though and in recent years inappropriate reader comments are ''jorissed away'' (as they call censoring of posts by their mods, the most well known used the nickname "Joris van Loghausen"). In combination with Weesie's network, who had been a reporter for the major Dutch newspaper ''

de Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, '' de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief s ...

'' for more than 10 years, this has proven a successful formula. Geenstijl soon followed up with web videos featuring

Rutger Castricum Rutger Castricum (born in The Hague on 29 May 1979) is a Dutch journalist and presenter, who was known as reporter for the PowNews television programme by the Dutch broadcaster PowNed and previously for the blog Geenstijl.internet service providers An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

began boycotting GeenStijl after the blog had published secret and private documents of Bonairean

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

Ernst Wesselius. GeenStijl claims it obtained the documents via the

P2P P2P may refer to: * Pay to play, where money is exchanged for services * Peer-to-peer, a distributed application architecture in computing or networking ** List of P2P protocols * Phenylacetone, an organic compound commonly known as P2P * Poin ...

software

LimeWire LimeWire was a free software, free peer-to-peer file sharing client for Microsoft Windows, Windows, MacOS, Linux and Solaris OS, Solaris. Created by Mark Gorton in 2000, it was most prominently a tool used for the download and distribution of O ...

, although investigators did not find this software on Wesselius's computer (but since LimeWire runs on the more general

Gnutella Gnutella is a peer-to-peer network protocol. Founded in 2000, it was the first decentralized peer-to-peer network of its kind, leading to other, later networks adopting the model. In June 2005, Gnutella's population was 1.81 million computer ...

P2P network, he may have had any other software application that connects to Gnutella as well). The ISPs stated that "this is a one time action, because the publication has infringed our sense of ethics". Access to the site from Bonaire has since been restored. GeenStijl started working on the television program SteenGeyl with public broadcaster BNN, in 2007. GeenStijl founder Weesie stated they were to spend "taxpayer's money." However, a dispute arose over the timeslot in which the program was to be broadcast, and production was halted. Two years later they started a successful campaign to get their own public broadcasting organisation under the name

PowNed PowNed is a Dutch broadcaster, which transmits radio and television programmes on the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system. Each weekday evening it airs a satirical news show called '' PowNews'' on Nederland 3, in which politicians and othe ...

, which began broadcasting on Dutch public television in September 2010. In May 2017 more than 100 female journalists, female politicians, actresses and other women called for an advertisement boycott of GeenStijl. The stated reason was because of the sex fantasies, some violent, that appeared on numerous occasions in the comments section.

GeenPeil

In 2015 GeenStijl launched

GeenPeil GeenPeil (Dutch "no poll") is a political initiative by GeenStijl ("no style" or "without style"), a Dutch weblog and political party known for its provocative content and its past hoaxes. The name refers to polling results. First initiative 201 ...

, a group which successfully campaigned to organise a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

on the EU-Association Treaty with

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Notes

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.geenstijl.nl Dutch news websites Dutch-language websites Internet properties established in 2003 2003 establishments in the Netherlands

GeenPeil

See also

Notes

External links