[LATEST DEVELOPMENTS WITH THIS STORY (13/06/2020) FOUND HERE]
For a few days, an entirely legitimate and peaceful GB9BLM page has run on QRZ.com, supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement.
I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I found the page had been removed this afternoon.
I'm glad to say GB9BLM is attracting a lot of support on the bands - far more than previous SES calls I've operated. As a result of QRZ's actions, I've put in a request that all my callsigns and pages be removed from QRZ.com, who ought to be ashamed of themselves (but aren't).
I've asked QRZ.com for an explanation (see update, below), but on the face of it, this is really quite disturbing. This highlights the dangers of a hobby now dominated by a very small number of commercial websites, all of which are US-based, and all dominated by white men. They carry far too much power which they wield, it seems, entirely arbitrarily.
Fuck you, QRZ.com! I was always fed up with your (blocked) 30+ browsing tracker attempts every time I visited, anyway.
UPDATE: This ludicrous diatribe of an explanation emerged from an unidentified lunatic at QRZ.com. Look at the orange highlighted text. There is no such thing as an 'OFCOM database' that is so up to date that it includes a callsign granted just a few days ago. I also don't know of any OFCOM searchable database at all.
There is, though, a Wikipedia page that tells you GB prefixes do exist. But he knows all this, because when you enter a GB call into the QRZ.com database, it merrily accepts it as a valid UK call. Also, I'm as obviously not a BLM 'team' member as I am not, as Lunatic assumes, black.
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| According to QRZ.com, GB9-something wasn't on the OFCOM list. But this didn't stop all these appearing (a second page is not shown) without being banned on QRZ.com |
"[y]ou may find us racist, just as we may find you to be one as well. Just because you posted the BLM call sign, it doesn't prove that you're not one. You may deny that you're a racist, but in doing so, the activists are saying that it proves that you are. Your team wishes to paint every non-black person on earth as racist, and in doing so you have significantly diluted your argument. Never in my life have I seen a case where the unwillingness to actively participate in a movement conveys some sort of guilt by association. What ever happened to the right to one's own private convictions? I will not share my private convictions with you, and accordingly, you may not draw conclusions from that.
QRZ does not engage in political proselytizing and never in our 25 years have we supported any political cause. We openly deny such speech to all without regard to any sociopolitical affiliation. Your cause is no different in that regard.
The page in question was removed because the call sign appears to be ficticious. We have searched the entire Ofcom database and plainly see that no call sign has the GB9 prefix. Therefore, we are terminating your account for posting false information on the website, and, at your request we are removing all of your associated activity on the site.
Sincerely, QRZ "
So, we get 168 words about not supporting 'political' causes (which this is not, it's a social rights issue), but the specific reason for banning the page is a clearly fraudulent claim of the call being false! The trouble with deploying false justifications is that your true position always breaks through.
Here's my OFCOM approval, you dick. Funny how no other 'GBx' callsign I or anyone else ever operated was found to be 'fictitious', and how your own site accepts and identifies as a UK call any GBx call submitted to it - such as the 52 other GB9-something calls currently listed on your own site!
And try to get an education; it's 'fictitious', not ficticious.
