This past week, a backlash erupted on LinkedIn, in a thread where passionate open source developers began criticizing Pantheon. The developers and other Pantheon supporters who commented had just discovered that the website operations platform – which hosts more than 700,000 websites – is currently hosting websites of hugely influential anti-LGBTQ and anti-immigration organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law as hate groups. Center (SPLC).
The controversy arose after a digital strategist, Greg Dunlap, posted a link to the SPLC page that labeled a Christian conservative legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), as a hate group for their views on the LGBTQ community. On the page, SPLC described ADF as a proponent of “recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the US and criminalization abroad”, defending “state-sanctioned sterilization of transgender people abroad” and claiming that a “homosexual agenda” “will destroy Christianity”. and society.”
In his LinkedIn post, Dunlap tagged Pantheon co-founders Josh Koenig and Zack Rosen and asked them why Pantheon hosts a website for the alleged hate group. ADF also has ties to senior Republicans and has influenced Supreme Court opinions (including the decision to dissolve it Roe against Wade).
Before the founders could respond to Dunlap, several Pantheon supporters began raising concerns in the thread, including pointing out that Pantheon also hosts the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). SPLC labeled FAIR a hate group for having “affiliations with white supremacist groups and eugenicists” and making “many racist statements”. Among Pantheon supporters expressing disappointment with Pantheon hosting these designated hate groups were customers who said their organizations were now looking for alternative hosting services. There were also developers, known as “Pantheon Heroes”, who said they would stop assisting Pantheon’s open source projects and leave Pantheon’s program.
Koenig eventually responded, confirming that Pantheon would continue to host said websites and would not succumb to the backlash. Koenig wrote:
“This is a difficult and complex topic, but the short answer is that we decided from the beginning to be an open platform. That’s our origin: open source, open web, etc. We are used by a wide variety of charities, campaigns and political actors. It’s challenging when people we deeply disagree with on a personal level use our technology, but we’re not an advocacy organization nor do we moderate content. I also understand that this is frustrating and dissatisfying for many people, but we believe it is better to be honest and clear about our position.”
Some LinkedIn commenters noted that Pantheon’s terms of service prohibit the use of Pantheon services in a manner that is considered “abusive, threatening, harassing, hateful” or “offensive.” The terms also specify that Pantheon reserves the right to remove subscriber content at any time.
But in a separate document describing Pantheon’s “stance on content on our platform,” the platform says it’s “default position is to refrain from moderating what our customers publish,” meaning Pantheon will provide services to organizations with ‘values and perspectives that vary’. wide.” This policy says that Pantheon distinguishes between typical requests to remove content that violates the terms and other requests that ask Pantheon to “evaluate the mission or character of the organizations responsible for posting the content.”
“While our platform is particularly suited to media, political campaigns and advocacy groups, we deliberately refrain from bringing our personal beliefs and political views into customer interactions,” Pantheon’s post says. “As a company, we believe Pantheon can make a bigger difference in the world by supporting opportunities for positive impact than by limiting the use of the platform.”
Koenig told Ars that this policy is why Pantheon will continue to host ADF’s website.
“The Alliance Defending Freedom website was flagged during our escalation process as possibly violating our terms of service,” Koenig told Ars. “This process evaluates the content on the website, not the organization itself. While the views of this organization are in no way consistent with the values Pantheon espouses internally, the content reviewed on its website was found not to violate our terms of service.”
ADF’s senior advisor and senior vice president of corporate engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, told Ars that Pantheon “did the right thing by refusing to bow to cancel culture in the face of unfair attacks.” Tedesco discredited the SPLC as a “blatantly partisan activist outfit”, and ADF’s website states that ADF considers the label of the hate group to be a representation of SPLC’s “subjective opinion”.
SPLC did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
