On October 7, 2014 during my first term as Minister of Communications, I posted a brief announcement in the EuroComm Dispatch Hub announcing the formation of an official "Upvote Squad" to promote Europeian dispatches. Since that time, the Upvote Squad has grown in size and scale to become a fixture in the Ministry of Communications and the Europeian government.
Currently, the Upvote Squad sits at roughly twenty-five members, which is about a quarter of our citizenry. Our dispatches are consistently at the top of the NationStates dispatch page on the day of their release, if not the days after. The goal of this Squad, beyond simply upvoting our own dispatches was to ensure that the messages we promote get the best possible coverage. This means that in the past we have upvoted not only the official dispatches from Europeia Dispatch Office, but from the WA nations, or even the newspaper of The North Pacific. We'll even downvote dispatches that go against our strategic interest, if we are attacked by The Rejected Times, or we know a region has been downvoting our dispatches, we might respond accordingly.
At times, we even dive into real life issues, as Europeia is a region that strives to help its citizens in many ways be it through mental health awareness/resources, rebuking Nazis, or the promotion of LGBT+ issues. Europeia is touched by these issues, in one way or another, so providing relevant information on all of these topics to our citizens is a reasonable extension of our Squad's mission.
Tonight, however, something unprecedented was asked of the Squad. A dispatch laying out the case against abortion in relation to an upcoming vote on the Irish Constitution's 8th Amendment was in the crossfire. The nation that posted it resided in a region named "Right to Life", and seemed to be created simply for the purpose of taking a political stance on this issue. This dispatch did not really fit the mold of the typical dispatch targeted by the Squad, then, because it did not provide resources to anyone who might be dealing with the issue, and downvoting it would not hide something that the region has dedicated resources to fighting, like Nazism.
After protests in Discord's eurochat, Minister of Communications Kuramia reversed the decision and released a statement saying in part, "after consultation with the President, we will not be taking a stance on this issue in an official manner".
And that's really what the Upvote Squad is all about: taking a stance to promote a message. The message is usually clear, "Help spread Europeia's message", while sometimes it's a little more nuanced like, "People will benefit from reading this" or "This message should not be tolerated, so we will do what we can to suppress it". Abortion, regardless of which side of the issue you suppport, is an issue that has supporters on both sides in the region, and both sides are tolerated here. By throwing support behind one side, it tells the other that they are not welcome here, and this is a power we should not use carelessly.
Our region is better off without people who support Nazis, or don't support the rights of LGBT+ to live their lives. People who are against abortion, however? That's a political view within the norm, and as a political region we have to be willing to encourage debate, or we're all worse off. Until next time, this is Calvin Coolidge, looking forward to the debate.
Currently, the Upvote Squad sits at roughly twenty-five members, which is about a quarter of our citizenry. Our dispatches are consistently at the top of the NationStates dispatch page on the day of their release, if not the days after. The goal of this Squad, beyond simply upvoting our own dispatches was to ensure that the messages we promote get the best possible coverage. This means that in the past we have upvoted not only the official dispatches from Europeia Dispatch Office, but from the WA nations, or even the newspaper of The North Pacific. We'll even downvote dispatches that go against our strategic interest, if we are attacked by The Rejected Times, or we know a region has been downvoting our dispatches, we might respond accordingly.
At times, we even dive into real life issues, as Europeia is a region that strives to help its citizens in many ways be it through mental health awareness/resources, rebuking Nazis, or the promotion of LGBT+ issues. Europeia is touched by these issues, in one way or another, so providing relevant information on all of these topics to our citizens is a reasonable extension of our Squad's mission.
Tonight, however, something unprecedented was asked of the Squad. A dispatch laying out the case against abortion in relation to an upcoming vote on the Irish Constitution's 8th Amendment was in the crossfire. The nation that posted it resided in a region named "Right to Life", and seemed to be created simply for the purpose of taking a political stance on this issue. This dispatch did not really fit the mold of the typical dispatch targeted by the Squad, then, because it did not provide resources to anyone who might be dealing with the issue, and downvoting it would not hide something that the region has dedicated resources to fighting, like Nazism.
After protests in Discord's eurochat, Minister of Communications Kuramia reversed the decision and released a statement saying in part, "after consultation with the President, we will not be taking a stance on this issue in an official manner".
And that's really what the Upvote Squad is all about: taking a stance to promote a message. The message is usually clear, "Help spread Europeia's message", while sometimes it's a little more nuanced like, "People will benefit from reading this" or "This message should not be tolerated, so we will do what we can to suppress it". Abortion, regardless of which side of the issue you suppport, is an issue that has supporters on both sides in the region, and both sides are tolerated here. By throwing support behind one side, it tells the other that they are not welcome here, and this is a power we should not use carelessly.
Our region is better off without people who support Nazis, or don't support the rights of LGBT+ to live their lives. People who are against abortion, however? That's a political view within the norm, and as a political region we have to be willing to encourage debate, or we're all worse off. Until next time, this is Calvin Coolidge, looking forward to the debate.
