Newgon

Newgon logo from 2007

Newgon is a pro-contact MAP organization that calls itself an information center for the MAP Movement. Its website is a MediaWiki-based site archiving talking points and arguments for pro-contact MAPs.

History

Newgon was co-founded in 2007 by the pro-contact MAP activists Daniel Lièvre and Jillium after Google started censorship of small blogging sites. In 2014 the site was disabled, with the ISP requesting the administrator for contact. Soon, the site's domain expired and the site went fully offline.

In 2021 Newgon returned, relaunching by "previous associates of Newgon.com and its network of activists". In May 2022, an official Newgon Twitter account appeared.

Many Newgon activists have made social media sockpuppet accounts using various disingenuous tactics such as fabricating credentials or other significant information, targeted harassment, impersonating antis, impersonating anti-contact MAP activists (especially those who were visible opponents of Newgon) to attack or delegitimize them, spreading "ironic" bigoted rhetoric, arguing for stances they did not actually believe in, claiming certain opinions or events were far more common than they actually were, widely circulating dubious memes, lying, recycling pre-written lines while passing them off as organic and spontaneous, and pretending to be engaged in entirely independent activism efforts rather than encouraged and backed by and working for an entire organization. Several made Twitter accounts posing as researchers of sexuality. These efforts were geared toward generating as many clicks and mainstream outrage pieces as possible, supposedly with the goal of gaining visibility and thus recognition for the pro-contact MAP movement. Newgon members mainly targeted Twitter for its "visibility campaigns," but some also tried to do such activism (which Newgon believes constituted "tactical operations") on other sites.

The "Yesmap" Matrix server and its "Pro-c MAP Activist" ("PCMA") workgroup have been used to share choices of targets and coordinate such activity, along with distributing anonymous, cryptocurrency-bought Twitter accounts to members. The server is also used to coordinate attacks on and harassment campaigns of anti-contact MAPs on the fediverse. Newgon claims that "In 2023, PCMA and the Yesmap server, having achieved most of its publicity goals via the prior strategy, each moved independently towards a model of increasing visibility via community-building efforts such as expansion of the Fediverse".

According to Newgon, "PCMA (and some of its predecessors) have been criticized, mainly by anarcho-communist MAPs, for tolerating lively debate (eventually this was moved to a separate space) and controversial opinions. Some members have also sought to mobilize chan culture". This article uses euphemistic terminology to relativize PCMA's common usage of bigotry, harassment, and alt-right tactics, and reasonable criticisms of it—throughout 2021 and 2022, Newgon and its associated projects did indeed begin to be heavily criticized by many leftist-aligned MAP activists, mainly anti-contacts but also some pro-contacts, for their persistently problematic behavior.

Art Theft and Content Exploitation

Newgon is known for dubious behavior with regards to other people's art and content. Newgon prominently linked a blog post by the MAP Quinn in its article "Proship", causing them to "keep getting unwanted traffic from it". In quote-posts and threads discussing this, Newgon seemed remarkably unfazed by the distress individuals were experiencing.

Newgon used the art of NNIA user Maki for its Twitter account NewgonOrg2007 without asking or even crediting him. His art is now the full-screen background of yesmap.net, again without any consent or acknowledgment. In its Memes and Graphics page, Newgon displays the image and simply labels it "Background/desktop".

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  Discussion on Newgon's misuse of art/blog posts

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  Newgon found stealing art

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  Yesmap.net welcome page

Political stances

Newgon is known for its extreme and often conspiratorial viewpoints, suggesting that anti-contact people, among others, are "sex fascists", controlling the contact stances of major governments, and part of a "child abuse industry" or "CSA-industrial complex".

Misogyny

Newgon resorts to "triggered feminist" memes to present anti-contacts as "Social Justice Warriors"/"SJWs", promoting sexism and body-shaming to score points against imagined opponents. It devalues older or infertile women to present young girls as more desirable. Two of its "Memes and Graphics" are tagged with "feminazi" or "feminazis". Newgon says that it is "open" to "worldviews such as Men's Rights" and "Inceldom," and that individuals "politically engaged" in the New Right and Men's Rights are permitted as members for its "Yesmap" Matrix server. Newgon promotes the MRA blogger "Angry Harry". Newgon writes favorably on the incel movement and is dismissive of feminist critiques of toxic male entitlement.

Transphobia

Newgon promotes the transmisogynistic belief that the LGBT community forces cis gay youth to transition into girls. Newgon uses the transmisogynistic phrasing "women and transwomen".

Newgon referred to Allyn Walker as a "trans academic who was attacked for 'misappropriating queer experiences' by activists in his own University's trans umbrella organization," misgendering them with incorrect pronouns. After receiving backlash, Newgon corrected the pronoun to "their".

Newgon referred to the transfeminine activist ZeebDemon as "trans (female-identifying)" instead of simply "trans female", implicitly delegitimizing trans female identity as mere subjective "identification" which can be challenged by outsiders with superior interpretations of a transfem's gender experience, rather than a statement of fact which she herself is the foremost expert on. (Newgon does not refer to cis women or girls as "female-identifying," just "female.") After receiving backlash, Newgon changed the section to say "trans-woman" instead.

Newgon refers to ZeebDemon as "they", although her most recently archived Twitter and Tumblr bios did not state which pronouns she uses, and neither does her Freak.University profile. Her most recent public statements about her pronouns, including her NNIA.space profile and a past Twitter bio, say that she uses "she/her," with no mention of "they." Many transfem activists have discussed how referring to a transfem as "they" without explicitly knowing that she uses "they" pronouns is a form of transmisogynistic degendering, and that it is disrespectful, invalidating, and often a bigoted dogwhistle to not default to "she" for someone known to be transfem with no other information given. Although ZeebDemon has confirmed in a recent private communication that she now uses she/they pronouns interchangeably, Newgon could not have known this beforehand, and this concurred with a broader pattern of transphobic behavior and biases.

In its article "Transgender youth and attraction to minors," Newgon refers to transgender people as "trans-identified" people instead of just "trans". For two and a half months from 1:53, 26 October 2022 to 23:32, 10 January 2023‎, the article's section "Dissent among MAPs and Trans people" contained the (unsourced) sentence, "Some heterosexual male MAPs oppose medical transition on the basis that it 'mutilates' the bodies of girls, and should never be put ahead of other forms of less invasive and permanent bodily autonomy." Since 21:23, 26 October 2022, the section has also said,

Other MAPs have varying reservations about the philosophical compatibility of trans ideology as a whole, with liberation of boylove and minor attraction:

• They may see trans ideology as an extension of the war on masculine eros/the appeal of boys to men. For a more general perspective on male extinction, see Andriette, 2002.
• They may see gender-transitioning children, not as a prelude to increasing agency, but as part of the "bourgeois and desexualized" protectionist gaze of western orthodoxy, and thus entirely compatible with CSA norms.

These statements were all added by the Newgon Wiki account "The Admins". It could maybe, at a stretch, be argued that these were only presentations of other people's arguments which the writers did not at all endorse themselves. However, the tone of the presentations has noticeable positive slant. This is congruent with Newgon's known habit of presenting bigotry or abuse apologia in a way clearly intended as appreciative and to influence readers to become more in favor of it while still maintaining barely enough plausible deniability to be able to deflect accusations and further interrogation into their views and motives.

Furthermore, after these statements were found and harshly criticized by several NNIA users for their transphobia and adultism, a different editor, "Loli," removed all mentions of heterosexuals and girls, stating that their change "modified towards a more neutral/objective viewpoint regarding MAP community", belying the view that all discussion of bigotry by the wiki which does not entirely, explicitly state it is endorsing it is automatically neutral. They seemed to realize that the content of the article was especially indefensible even by their own standards, or at least by the standards of much of Newgon's support base. However, the parts about "mutilation," labeling transition "invasive," wanting to restrict bodily autonomy, and other "reservations" were left alone, not deleted.

The article's references for the latter (recommended for "perspective") include two BoyChat posts (by users "Sick Rose" and "Errant") and one article by NAMBLA activist Bill Andriette, all three of which contain transphobic screeds. Both BoyChat posts are in fact replies to a post made by Newgon activist/editor JohnHolt himself, soliciting feedback on the article and asking for suggested sources. The recommendation for Andriette's article, "Castrating the Church," originated from Sick Rose's reply post.

After reading these expressions of severe bigotry and oppressive sexual entitlement, JohnHolt simply replied "Thanks," expressed agreement with their views, and added them to the wiki, clearly viewing such statements as within the realm of the acceptable for Newgon. They become examples for "MAP" views, with the relevant passage in the article implying a dubious, mapmisic automatic association between MAP liberation and not believing that child sexual abuse is a real, serious issue. Confusingly, Sick Rose is used as one such example of a "MAP," although he does not identify as one and in fact strongly rejects the term as problematic.

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  The article as of October 26, 2022

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  The article as of December 7, 2023

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  Edits made since 12:03, 27 October 2022

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  JohnHolt's BoyChat thread

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  Sick Rose's reply

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  Errant's reply

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  JohnHolt thanking Errant and Sick Rose

Antisemitism

Newgon uses antisemitic caricatures in attempt to prove its points. One of its "Memes and Graphics" is tagged with the antisemitic dogwhistle "lizard people".

In attempt to deflect from accusations of having a "New-Right/Alt-Lite Philosophy," Newgon says that it has metaphorically "'holocausted' antisemites and a whole variety of race-obsessed people, including some left-wing racists immediately," comparing violent mass genocide to (supposedly) banning someone from a chatroom.

In its "Archive" page of material it believes "has value," Newgon recommends the defunct Wordpress blog "Holocaust21" to read for the "Antifeminist perspective". The version of the blog saved on the Wayback Machine proclaims that it was about "resisting the coming 21st century holocaust – Men's Rights, Youth Rights, Sexual Rights" and "promoting the idea that teenagers are adults and feminist inspired anti-sex & anti-children's rights legislation cloaked in the warped rhetoric of 'paedophile hysteria', 'rape hysteria' & 'child protection' is leading to a holocaust of men, kids & ironically even women. Why are there so few other blogs like this? Because men are scared of being murdered by feminist political predators, that's why." One article visible on the page begins, "As the UK descends further into a level of insanity that even those who lived through a Nazi concentration camp could not have predicted, the feminists have committed their first direct political assassination. The current wave of sexual harassment allegations…" This page, promoted by Newgon, appropriates the history of the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps in its crusade against "feminist bitches," "the feminist disease," and "feminist oppression" of "incels".

Through the Newgon Wiki, the moderators of PCMA released an "official statement on the 2023 conflict between Israel and Palestine" packed with numerous antisemitic tropes, dogwhistles, factual inaccuracies, and problematic arguments, exploiting the current Palestinian genocide to spread antisemitism. Among these include the wildly revisionist claim that "It should be noted that all scholars of the Holocaust acknowledge that the decision to annihilate European Jews and the planning to carry it out was kept top secret by the Nazi state. No statement from Hitler, public or otherwise, exists where he admits his intention to exterminate the Jewish people entirely. At this late date, we can say with firm confidence that such a statement will never be found; one also struggles with great difficulty to find openly genocidal public statements from other top Nazis," and suddenly inserting the claim that the French president Emmanuel Macron is "a former Rothschild banker." They attempt to exceptionalize genocide perpetrated by Israelis as uniquely and incomparably horrific among all other genocides and Israeli settler-colonialism as uniquely protected and powerful out of a false, antisemitic belief that Jewishness would lend special, unmatchable, overwhelmingly stifling strength to a state because Jews are somehow disproportionately powerful in society and have control over Western governments.

One of the signatories of the statement, "AnonymousLover," has made it more clear in social media posts that he believes anti-Israeli speech is censored and Western nations enact repression in support of Israel's violence because "Jewish billionaires and voters across the West largely support Israel.… Israeli intelligence is effective because Israel has Jewish sympathizers throughout the world it can draw on" and that Israel's backers in the American establishment are "super rich Jews." He dismisses the notion of critiquing antisemitic conspiracy theories and argues that posts claiming "anti-zionism isn't antisemitism" are merely "cope posts" (i.e., false), but indicates that he considers himself anti-Zionist, which implies he is admitting that he is antisemitic.

Racism

Newgon refers to Indigenous peoples as "primitive". Newgon takes issue with the fact that "most online MAPs, particularly of the younger generation, strongly reject ethnonationalist ideology and wish not to be associated with it in any way, nor even to share a space with it," arguing that "ethnonationalist ideology" is insufficiently harmful to warrant such ostracism. Newgon claims that "non-violent" "white identitarianism" should be considered a valid "freedom of conscience".

In a conversation in the PCMA server, multiple individuals, including one of its moderators ("HinamizawaShokogun22"), positively discussed a fediverse user with the username "AryanBoyLover1488." One user ("broken_lightbulb") said, "aryanboylover1488 sounds like a cool guy I wonder what their takes on race are." HinamizawaShokogun22 replied, "he did support israel," posted a screenshot of a report on one of AryanBoyLover1488's posts, and said, "this isn't what got him banned, it was hilarious af." The screenshot shows AryanBoyLover1488 saying,

"I stand with Israel because they are white. It's that simple. If I see a video of a white person being killed by a non-white person, my complete and full support is toward the white person. Leftists and libtards constantly call Israelis white colonizers and call for the end to Israel because of it."

The post contained a meme image with one individual accusing, "Y..y...you are anti white!" and another responding with a Hebrew approximation of the letters "TND", a far-right antiblack acronym standing for "Total [n-slur] Death".

In light of this, it appears additionally insidious and hypocritical that Newgon chose to host a reactionary statement feigning genuine concern for the plight of the Palestinian people, when elsewhere its members are perfectly willing and permitted to endorse violent racism against them as well as other non-white people.

The statement also encourages harmful and racist views toward the Palestinian struggle by denying the crucial role of Western geopolitical interests in motivating state support for the Israeli occupation, instead implying that Israel is only supported by the West because it is a Jewish state and that meaningful oppression is only enacted based on supposed Jewish interests. It claims that "Israel is not an asset to the US or the EU even from the perspective of their own strategic resource-based interests, but a massive strategic liability. And real discussion of that point is not only systemically kept out of the media, but gate-kept out of even pro-Palestinian leftist spaces by politically-correct leftists". AnonymousLover/GothboyAL makes this sentiment even more clear in a childlove.space post which completely denies Israel's importance to U.S. foreign policy and that "Israel is a White Supremacist State," calling these "politically correct room temperature leftist takes". These comments utilize the right-wing trope of complaining about leftist "political correctness," a line strongly associated in the current political climate with racists who believe that a "cancel culture" unfairly stifles racist speech and portray racial minorities as the ones who ultimately control society and discourse (or a Jewish cabal which promotes the interests of racial minorities). By trying to shift pro-Palestinian activism further to the right, trying to graft an ultimately white supremacist framework onto a struggle against white supremacist oppression, as individuals notorious for a history of other racist behavior themselves, the writers and signatories of the Newgon statement take efforts which would divert and weaken pro-Palestinian activism if they took hold, discouraging people from correctly identifying the causes of Palestinian oppression and thus effectively fighting against it. Their denial of the white supremacy in play in Israel's genocidal campaign and Western endorsement of it when white supremacy is in fact present amounts to apologia for white supremacy and Western imperialism.

The statement says, "It appears that the European elite cares more for the state of Israel than it does about Democracy, Free Speech, or even their own countries! Citizens and residents of Britain, France, and Germany appear to be free to denounce their countries as racist colonialist oppressors with no redeeming qualities that should be burned to the ground but when it comes to Israel? Now that's a different story!", showing a dismissive attitude toward the struggles of other racialized peoples, portraying them as much more safe and privileged than they actually are, and downplaying the tremendous oppression which the European colonial powers have enacted and continue to enact upon them.

Further callous exploitation of Palestinian trauma can be observed as the statement veers from criticizing U.S. President Joe Biden's backing of the genocide to attacking the Democrats for introducing a bill "that ends the statute of limitations at the national scale for real and perceived victims of CSA." The statement subtly invalidates CSA survivors by claiming that accusers falsely "perceive" abuse where there was none. It tries to portray accused child sexual abusers as widely disadvantaged, threatened, and oppressed and assumes an automatic, necessary connection between child sexual abuse perpetrators (or individuals who would be accused of CSA) and "real or perceived MAPs" (and refuses to allow the possibility that it could be anyone else). The authors weaponize genuine Palestinian grievances to shoehorn in a reactionary, fearmongering agenda against an imagined threat of widespread false CSA accusations and unjust legal ruin, using language which promotes bigotry against both CSA survivors and MAPs. They clumsily attempt to appeal to an audience of "MAPs" (whom they seem to conflate with CSA perpetrators, aspiring perpetrators, apologists, and/or a group functionally indistinguishable from actual perpetrators) and portray themselves as heroic representatives of a heroic, homogenous demographic of "MAPs" because "That the decision to release a statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict met unanimous assent from our moderation team is a solid indication of where MAPs stand," with a contrived argument that their posturing about Israel is specifically relevant to MAP issues (which they conflate with preservation of CSA's hegemonic status, along with several things that are actually children's issues, although interpreted through a narrow and ultimately anti-child lens) because "MAPs and all caring people should note that Gaza's population is extremely young, with 44% of the population being 14 or below. The planned expulsion and even extermination of at least a million children should provoke outrage and hatred in every child lover.… MAPs should refuse to fight wars for a system that hates them, especially wars on behalf of Israel. MAPs should speak out against child killers, including the child killers of the Netanyahu government" and that "MAPs residing in Western countries" apparently will likely be "propagandized or drafted to fight in this escalating conflict" so they apparently needed to share a dissuading "statement"—all while doing nearly as much as they can to back policies which would actually harm children, and especially Palestinian children.

Fatphobia/body-shaming

Newgon also frequently uses fatphobia and other body-shaming. Some examples also involve insulting an opponent's lifestyle as "unhealthy" and "unnatural", or even using fascist terminology such as "degenerate," "mental defective," and "inferior physiognomy".

Ableism

Newgon has taken part in spreading incorrect information about a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder that causes intrusive sexual thoughts about children and claimed it can be equated to finding children attractive.

• A Newgon graphic

  A Newgon graphic

Newgon claims that Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a "fanciful idea" "formerly or presently promoted to aid in categorizing 'ideal' victims and perpetrators". While labeling the (mapmisic) anti-CSA psychologist Joyanna Silberg as a "hostile" "pseudoscientist" and "unsympathetic activist" in its page of people who have "spread misinformation about pedophiles or promoted the ideology of Child Sexual Abuse in public," Newgon cites as its reasoning that she is an "advocate of Dissociative identity Disorder". Newgon recommends Bruce Rind's analysis that the Leadership Council, a (mapmisic) organization Silberg is a member of, provides inaccurate information about mental health issues because its members "advocate for the validity of repressed memories and multiple personality disorder (MPD)," labeling these as "alleged" problems. Newgon states that it has a "skeptical treatment of DID, a highly controversial and lucrative diagnosis whose purported existence is likely a function of personality types and sociogenic factors, rather than the traumas said to underpin it".

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  Strategist elaborating on his DID-denialist views

Newgon uses the term "mentally retarded" to refer to cognitively disabled people. Newgon hosts an image file "Retards.png," titled "Retarded or perturbed pedophile myth," and titled in the graphic itself as "The Retarded and Perturbed… 'Pedophile Degenerate.'" The text of the graphic seems to be trying to prove that pedophiles are more acceptable and less "degenerate" because they have relatively "normal" or greater intellectual capacities and executive functioning. In a guide to "Social Media and Trolling," Newgon recommends that users insult an opponent as "mid-witted, with an IQ between 80 and 110" and "retarded". Newgon says of two antis, "Achievement 'retard' unlocked".

Newgon insults its critics for supposedly having "OCD character traits". It attempts to denigrate and discredit MAP Wiki editor Iris for describing themself as mentally ill.

The Newgon activist JohnHolt insults "woke ASPD antisocial activists off Fedi". He tries to denigrate and discredit various left-leaning MAP activists for being so-called "psychopaths" and attacks them for identifying as mentally ill.

One of the "Informational memes" on the "Memes and Graphics" page, titled "Minors Beware" and tagged with "antis," "warning," "minors," "consent," "advice," "youth," and "guide", says,

MINORS - BEWARE THESE RED FLAGS! 🚩

Please memorize these red flags for sex-phobic, ageist hysteria. They will help you avoid mentally disturbed and manipulative personalities online."

🚩1: Those who refer to your or someone else's relationship as "grooming" or "harmful".

Their goal is to invalidate your freedom of choice and lived experiences. In other words, "gaslighting".

Newgon claims that "mentally disturbed" people are inherently to be avoided, conflating mental illness or pathology with being "manipulative" or problematic, and scapegoating them for perceived harms caused by anti-contact ideology along with various talking points popularly associated with anti-contact ideology.

It is also notable that Newgon claims any instance of someone else telling a minor a relationship is grooming or harmful is "mentally disturbed," "manipulative," engaging in "sex-phobic" "ageist hysteria," displaying a red flag, and dangerous, as if abusive, coerced, or forced relationships do not exist, as if no one at all would be helped instead of harmed by ever being told their or someone else's relationship is grooming or harmful. This implies that Newgon believes grooming and harmful relationships simply do not exist, and that any attempt at criticizing a relationship (even one clearly constraining a person's freedom of choice and causing suppression or erasure of their own subjectivity and lived experiences) would actually constitute an attack on freedom. It seems to be implying that victims of abusive relationships and gaslighting should simply be left to struggle on their own with indifferent bystanders instead of having access to help, any attempts at which would instead be an excuse to diagnose the critical individual as hysterical or insane.

The fifth "red flag" listed on the meme is "Those who group voluntary relationships and abusive relationships together": "They are not the same. If they attempted this with adult relationships, they would be accused of trivializing abuse." Yet, hypocritically, Newgon in fact does this itself in its first line, with no regard for any minors encountering the infographic who may be experiencing abusive relationships, who would suffer less harm if they were able to escape but might discard this option after being discouraged from heeding any critiques of their relationship.

According to a BoyChat post by JohnHolt, also the uploader of this meme on the wiki, he apparently believes this is a serious behavioral "guide for minors" providing meaningful and insightful advice.

Ageism

Newgon promotes anti-minor sentiments. Newgon pejoratively refers to MAP Wiki editor Iris as "a mentally ill teenager" in an attempt to discredit them. Newgon extends this line of criticism to young adults and younger activists in general as well. (Newgon never highlights an adult's adulthood, or the fact of someone having an older age, when trying to portray an opponent in a negative light.)

JohnHolt insults "naive young idiots who [rail against the norm] on Fediverse" in a BoyChat post:

Those of us who are accustomed to BC will know that you are most certainly coming from an egosyntonic place, but you might do well to recognize that impotently "railing against the norm" is one of the first stages of grievance/coping in egodystonia.

One thing I'll give you over the naive young idiots who do this on Fediverse, is that your analysis is couched in some experience and thus some historical literacy.

So we do not see, for instance the absurdity of a 19 year old MAP who rails against the demonization of paedophiles while praising victimologcal [sic] constructs such as satanic abuse and DID that contributed to that popular demonology.

But the similarity is eery.

Newgon trivializes abuse of children in school and the home, claiming that assaultive interactions "are never seen to cause mental torture, nor to have lifelong consequences." According to Newgon, the belief that "non-consensual play," "beatings," "bullying," "discipline," and other abuses of power over children will harm them is "totally unwarranted," "moral hysteria," and "reactionism." Newgon claims people should be happy about this and should "encourage" it by "erasing societal stigmas," but is vague about what exactly is being "stigmatized".

Paramisia

Newgon is dismissive of paraphilic identity labels it perceives as "new," "fringe," or based on "social justice theory".

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  Newgon invalidating zoosadism pride and a newly-coined chronophilia label

JohnHolt takes issue with NNIA for "celebrating" various paraphilic identities, including "erotophonophilia," "biastophilia," "biastomaps," "aptomaps" (MAPs attracted to the concept of "grooming"), and "zoosadism".

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  JohnHolt invalidating paraphilias

After seeing JohnHolt's post, the NNIA user who had coined "aptophilia" and "aptomap" discussed Newgon's paramisia. @[email protected], a fediverse account used by JohnHolt, quoted the thread with derogatory commentary. Newgon also hosts an image file with a caption accusing fediverse users who discuss aptophilia positively of being "disruptors".

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  on aptophilia

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  Newgon members misrepresenting aptophilia

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  Newgon commentary on aptophilia

Newgon attempts to denigrate and discredit MAP Wiki editor Iris for being a "self-describing biastophile (rape fetishist), and sadist - including in relation to animals". Newgon continues to promote conspiratorial "suspicion" about the coining of and creation of a flag for aptophilia, as well as the zoosadist identity. Newgon claims that rape fetishist or biastophilic MAPs are even more problematic than Nazis/fascist MAPs.

In the "Debate Guide on Newgon's History," JohnHolt claims that boylovers "are not persecuted as a group" and "are rarely persecuted as individuals," and is dismissive of "online groups of people with shared trauma" from mapmisic abuse who believe this statement does not reflect reality. To elaborate on this, the article references a BoyChat post titled "BL 'persecution' clown complex" where JohnHolt says that "Boy Lovers are not being 'persecuted', and never have been. If you believe this shit, calm down, and realize that you are part of a culture war and not a real war." He claims antis "want [boylovers] to survive and prosper" and that boylovers "will probably go through life with nothing worse than a lonely boner." He accuses boylovers who reject "working with people they hate," "don't understand" that positive change "will necessarily be gradual," and do not "support gradualist initiatives" of "refusing to reconcile radical philosophy with moderate demands" and "not behaving rationally". Newgon's "Ethos" page also describes its organizational approach as "radical philosophy, moderate demands".

Disinformation campaigns

Exaggerating own importance

Newgon has recently attempted to join the modern MAP community and MAP activism. In this, they made false claims about the MAP community and their own role in its history.

We have introduced new writers to NewgonWiki – founded in 2007 – the birthplace of the modern MAP Movement

- Newgon's Strategist on FreeSpeechTube

Founded in 2007, as the information center for the MAP Movement (coining the term and originating a flag concept);

- NewgonWiki as of 4 August 2022

We started the whole "MAP" thing

- NewgonOrg on Twitter, currently suspended

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  Newgon's Twitter account

Both these claims are not true. See: the history of the term "MAP" and the origins of the MAP flag.

Flags

In 2009 Newgon attempted to hold a contest for a map flag. The contest received several entries, but never reached the voting stage. None of the flags presented for the contest were used till 2021, when Newgon reemerged from the hiatus. On their wiki they made a claim that one of their entries was the original concept the MAP flag was based on and referred to the latter as a "contrast version". After questions and criticism, they reinforced their statement:

Initial tests on the "relative luminance" difference between the two outside blue bands in the 2018 and 2009 flags, reveal those differences to be almost identical (within 0.5-1%) suggesting that the former could be a very slightly darkened and tinted adaptation of the latter, with respect to the blue portion of the graphic.

- The article MAP Flag on NewgonWiki as of 15 Dec 2022

The linkage to the 2018 NOMAP Flag is contested by Map-Wiki, however the rationale given for our 2009 design is eerily similar to the 2018 NOMAP Flag. To say that the probability of the concept being copied/adapted is around 80% would probably be an understatement, but ultimately, we will never know if the flag was copied.

- The article Debate Guide: Newgon's History on NewgonWiki as of 1 Feb 2023

Currently these phrases, as well as the word "version", are removed from NewgonWiki, and the edit history of these two articles is erased (the MAP Flag article in particular has a note that "older edits on this article are being used to make false claims offsite").

Simultaneously with implying plagiarism, Newgon developed a merged edit of their flag and the MAP flag. Initially titled "yesmap" as a pun on the NOMAP identity, it was renamed to "united map flag" around May 2022.

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  The 2021 "yesmap"/"united" flag

Eventually a separate, exclusively pro c, flag was made for the "yesmap" label.

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  A 2022 "yesmap" flag

Newgon continued promoting their flag under the "united" brand till August 2023, when it was renamed to "2021 version" with a note denying its previous name.

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  This screenshot was taken before the edit history was deleted.

A new flag edit, titled "MAP union", was then posted to NewgonWiki.

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Misleading terminology

Other Newgon initiatives include trying to rename "pro-contact" to "pro-choice," possibly as an attempt to use the positive connotations of the latter.

Pro-contact (or simply "pro-c") is a term used to describe a person - often an MAP or ally, as favoring the permittance of minor-adult physical/sexual relations - at least hypothetically.

- "Pro-c" on NewgonWiki as of 27 September 2021

Pro-c, (pro-consent/choice or contact) is a term used to describe a person - often an MAP or ally, as favoring the permittance of minor-adult physical/sexual relations - at least hypothetically.

- "Pro-c" on NewgonWiki as of 24 May 2022

This text by JohnHolt refers to anti-contact MAPs as "anti-choice".

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  JohnHolt's text

On its Twitter accounts NewgonOrg and NewgonOrg2007, Newgon claimed to be "pro-choice" in lieu of labeling itself as "pro-contact."

On the same page with responses to accusations Newgon has claimed: "'Pro choice' (which some of us do use) was an initiative of Allyn Walker, and possibly even the MAPs they were referring to in their book". The book is unambiguously pointing towards MAPs as the source of this term.

When I asked them about this label during interviews, those who were referred to as pro-contact by anticontact MAPs pushed back against being labeled as such, preferring the term pro-choice.

- Allyn Walker, A Long, Dark Shadow NOTE: change this to the Libgen; faraday.quest is down

That claim has also been removed after criticism from the wider community.

On its Twitter accounts and "Ethos of Newgon" page, Newgon has claimed to be "anti-offending" to mean being against contact when it breaks the law (although still pro-contact for when it is legal). However, "anti-offending" is typically used in contact discourse synonymously with "anti-contact."

False accusations

Newgon promotes far-fetched conspiracy theories about NNIA and MAP Wiki being secretly funded by antis. Neither NNIA nor MAP Wiki is funded by any antis.

• 

  Newgon members promoting conspiracy theories

Newgon falsely alleges that NNIA and MAP Wiki staff have been "posting fake comments in an attempt to discredit their opponents - for example, using another MAP's Fediverse server, maliciously claiming to be an 'anonymous' ex-member of Yesmap who has been party to glorification of sex with infants". There is no evidence whatsoever that any member of NNIA or MAP Wiki, much less "staff," has made such a comment, much less for "malicious" or slanderous reasons, and staff members as well as other members of MAP fediverse can confirm this. Indeed, there is currently no concrete information at all about who the asker might have been, apart from their own claims. Tellingly, Newgon claims there were "comments," in the plural, but does not cite any other examples of such "comments" apart from that one anonymous ask, nor does it cite any specific evidence to back up its claim.

Anonymous accusation against Newgon

Furthermore, the ask in question was not posted using a fediverse server. It was sent through Freak University Ask, a platform for asking and answering questions which is not a "fediverse server" in any way. Although it shares the same domain and management as the Freak University Mastodon server, it is not actually a part of the server itself, nor is it using the same infrastructure, and vice versa. In fact, when the post was first being discussed on the fediverse, the Newgon Strategist rushed to request that the Freak University administrator remove "the first sentence" of the ask, ignoring that this is technically impossible, at least without deleting the ask entirely. He falsely labeled the anonymous asker as "Lecter's friend," although Lecter did not even know who the asker was, much less have any likely personal history with them, nor did either of them claim to be "friends" with the other in the interaction. Strategist also claimed that he has "never felt the need to agitate for sexual contact with infants, nor has anybody on [his] server" (demonstrably false), complained of "defamation" and "damage," worried that the single-sentence anonymous statement might cause his server to be "seized," and stressed that he "[has] close relatives within that age range".

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  Strategist trying to have "the whole idea" "disappeared"

Tragically for Newgon, his plea has so far been completely ignored.

Enabling CSEM

In 2023, several Newgon members, including Strategist, were planning to create a new fediverse instance more in alignment with their ideals. When the pro-contact-run instance youjo.love was suspended, allegedly for hosting illegal content, Newgon members moved their plans forward, as they also wanted a replacement instance for posting on the fediverse when previously they had mainly been using youjo.love. According to their fediverse discussions, Strategist left the effort when it was decided that the server's name would begin with the word "childlove," which he did not want in the URL. The others launched childlove.space, an instance which openly hosted two Nazis on its very first days, permitting them to disseminate numerous instances of violently bigoted rhetoric and content, and only took any action after a wave of criticisms from left-leaning pediverse members when a Nazi's behavior escalated into sufficiently extreme and "personal" harassment. Childlove.space also permitted users to post sexual photographs and videos of children. Multiple moderators participated in posting, liking, reblogging, or commenting on such posts and refused to curtail the content as it popped up almost immediately. Dozens of such images were posted during the time childlove.space was online. After around four weeks, the childlove.space server was suspended. Shortly after, several of its admin team created childlove.su, intended to be a replacement from childlove.space. Users quickly began posting CSEM there too. Other Newgon members, including Strategist, created accounts on childlove.su. A few days later, childlove.su was also suspended.

A subsection of Newgon's page "Pediverse," "Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance," contains a note linking to a subsection of its "Ethos of Newgon" page on what an "Official Guidance" constitutes:

Official Guidance

We occasionally publish guidance on important topics such as:

Paraphilia
Coming out
Communicating with 'minors'
Fediverse servers an [sic] their safety

These sections will always be described as 'official guidance' and are subject to group consultation - primarily within communities we support. Therefore, an official guidance section can be considered as a loosely stated organizational position on various topics, but not a central part of our platform as such.

(emphasis added)

"Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance" says,

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on censorship and harassment, mental health and validity policing.

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux.

All such servers permit communication with one another (with a few exclusions such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo and Childlove), and prohibit CP sharing and other illegal activity.

Some of these servers host other platforms, such as decentralized video sharing (Peertube).

Generally considered safe

• Childlove.su - formerly Childlove.space (runs on Mangane)

…

(emphasis added)

Newgon's claim that all of the listed servers, including childlove.space and childlove.su, "prohibit CP sharing and other illegal activity," is blatantly false. Multiple pediverse admins and other individuals have testified that childlove.space and/or childlove.su contained unchecked illegal content, including media failing the Dost test. This destructive behavior on part of the childlove.space/childlove.su admin team and users, which has both sexually exploited children and potentially led unwelcome law enforcement attention onto pediverse users who were not engaged in illegal exploitative behavior, is whitewashed by Newgon, which calls them "safe" and borderline recommends people to join in, many wholly unaware of the dangerous environment they would be walking into.

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  Newgon on childlove.space/childlove.su