Editing Alt.religion.scientology (section)

== Disruption by Scientology ==

=== Attempts to delete the group ===

In 1995, Scientology lawyers tried to get ARS removed from the internet.{{r|cusack2012|page=306}} Scientology lawyer [[Helena Kobrin]] attempted to remove the entire newsgroup from Usenet. On January 11, 1995, an ''[[rmgroup message]]'' (a command designed to remove a newsgroup) was posted to Usenet containing the following statement:

{{Blockquote |text=We request that you remove the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup from your site. The reasons for requesting its removal are: (1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices.|author=Helena K. Kobrin, Counsel for trademark and copyright owner{{r|Net.Wars|p=77}}<ref>
{{cite newsgroup|newsgroup=alt.config|author=Helena Kobrin|title=cmsg rmgroup alt.religion.scientology|message-id=hkkD29vI1.Mo9@netcom.com|date=12 Jan 1995 <!-- 03:10:49 GMT --> |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/alt.religion.scientology/LqslrCpjkV8/s7y2MbDjHicJ}}</ref>{{r|alt.scientology.war}}}}

This message was largely ignored (and openly protested) by system administrators who carried the newsgroup.{{r|Net.Wars|pp=77-78}} It also led to a declaration of war by [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]] group [[Cult of the Dead Cow]].<ref>{{Cite web |author=Swamp Ratte |url=https://cultdeadcow.com/news/scientology.html |title=A statement from Cult of the Dead Cow |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316225036/https://www.cultdeadcow.com/news/scientology.txt |archive-date=2006-03-16 |date=June 4, 1995}}</ref>{{r|cusack2012|page=306}} Rather than being removed from Usenet, the newsgroup exploded in popularity due to the not-yet-named [[Streisand effect]] phenomenon.{{r|hicks}} For a period during the first half of 1995, the newsgroup was one of the most popular and active on the entire Internet, with message traffic greater than the vast majority of newsgroups, averaging 65,000-75,000 users a month and 500-600 posts a day.{{r|bunny}}

=== Cancel bots ===

Articles posted to Usenet could be canceled by a [[Control_message#cancel|special control message]] (normally from the original sender). Starting in 1995, large numbers of rogue cancels were posted to ARS by a [[cancelbot]] dubbed "Cancelbunny", mainly against critical articles containing portions of the "Advanced Technology" documents. To counteract this, a program called "Lazarus" was created to alert original posters of the deletion, suggesting they repost their canceled message. A group of techies nicknamed the Rabbit Hunters traced the cancel requests to a single user, who got shut down, and later to a few others that had posted pro-Scientology content, leading to a report to the FBI.{{r|bunny}} 

Kobrin took to emailing users, threatening them with legal action if they didn't remove their posts and stop posting copyrighted material. The demands went unanswered, postings of even more extensive excerpts of Church of Scientology material ensued, and more non-usenet websites were created.{{r|bunny}}

According to the main Rabbit Hunter, "Half of the people on a.r.s. now are there because they're outraged about the cancel messages".{{r|bunny}}

=== Flooding the newsgroup ===

In an attempt to "drown out criticism of the church", pro-Scientology forces tried to effectively disable ARS by [[Spamming#Newsgroup and forum|flooding it with messages]] until it was unusable or too expensive to read for those with slow connections. The first floods started in May 1996 and were articles containing excerpts from the public relations book ''What is Scientology?'' Later, the messages simply repeated earlier posts. One of the flooders was tracked as originating through Yale, and Yale blocked the spammer account. In a nine-day period, an estimated 20,000 messages were sent and Yale blocked access to ARS.{{r|jones}}