Welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things which are happening. Before we get started, what do you think of Harry Styles’ new single, Sign of the Times? Do any of these reactions seem fitting?
There has been upset in fandom recently over changes at Livejournal. As io9 reports, Livejournal’s servers have been moved to Russia–where the company is located–and therefore a new User Agreement has been devised that states that site content is now subject to Russian laws. According to the io9 article, this means that the site has “officially banned “political solicitation”— which can mean anything that criticizes the Russian government, as well as pro-LGBTQ discussions.” Privacy may also be an issue: “Critics have claimed the user agreement puts users at risk of having their data accessible to Russian intelligence, in accordance with anti-terrorism legislation.”