This report pertains to the aforementioned website run by Wet-Media, Inc. Located in Tucson, Arizona. This website has violated numerous social, legal, and ethical standards in its actions, speech, and activities. There were several examples of each violation, both directly targeted at me and also discovered through discussions with other members, and I will attempt to categorize each violation into broader categories below.
1) Numerous members of the website have been the victims of racially-bigoted remarks and verbal assaults on this website. Whether it be blatantly and publicly on display in other members' profiles, or directly at victims in private emails or by phone, these racist attacks by other members occur to the degree that some members now accept them as a "given" with regards to this website, and most have stopped complaining to the website's owner due to the owner's inaction against the perpetrators, and the owner's own retaliatory actions against the complaining individuals especially when the complaining individuals protest the unfair treatment by the owner. The website refuses to remove openly racist remarks and racist jokes on the website, and refuses to even address or discipline the members who made them. There are a number of examples, which I and other members have been involved in or witness to, in which the website owner and other members not only blatantly violated the rules set forth in the website's User Contract, but also violated our basic civil rights as consumers and individuals. The owner not only consistently refused to denounce or confront such behavior when it is brought to his attention, he condoned it. There are incidences of "non-white" members calling or writing the headquarters in Arizona to complain of verbal and written harassment and abuse by "white" members on the website, and as a result the "non-white" members' accounts were suddenly terminated with a false declaration to the victim, "At your request, your account has been terminated." This occurs even when the harassing member (the original subject of the complaint) never requested that the victims' memberships be terminated, and never even complained of the victims to anyone at headquarters.in other words, the accounts of non-white victims who had never violated any contractual or legal agreements were arbitrarily being terminated by the owner of the website (aka "pigmaster) based solely on his own perception of the situation, and without even brief interviews with either party. And there are numerous instances in which, after one single complaint to the owner by a white member about a non-white member on the website, the non-white member's membership was terminated almost immediately, without any attempt by the owner at inquiry into the non-white member's side of the situation. The owner's bias and favoritism was obvious in multiple instances, and regardless of who initiated the complaint with the owner (regarding a conflict involving a "white" and "non-white" member), the "non-white" member consistently ended up being the one disciplined and ultimately terminated from the site. When the terminated members called to inquire as to why and on what grounds their accounts were terminated, instead of receiving any answer, they were instantly and repeatedly hung up upon.
2) The aforementioned website is also involved in the illegal activity of promoting prostitution and illegal drug use, despite the website's User Contract clearly stating its intolerance of such activity. This website has specialized areas, devoted to the advertisement of the services of escorts and prostitutes to the site's members. This website also promotes illegal drug use, and actually has a question in members' profiles which asks if they "party" and use drugs, as an overall means for the facilitation of illicit drug-using members to find and connect with others that do as well. This website glorifies the contraction of HIV/AIDS, and openly encourages members to advertise and engage in "conversion" parties, in which HIV men will attempt to convert HIV - men to HIV status. During these parties, the victim (or victims) may be either a willing participant, or completely ignorant as to what is really going on. Closely tied to these parties is the "party" culture (having sex while under the influence of drugs).in these parties, the victim is drugged and/or encouraged to partake in the use of illicit drugs, both of which facilitate the infection and seroconversion of the victim. The website actually has a specialized area for members to advertise such parties, and also made special attempts to forewarn its members to be more discrete about their advertisements, searches, and communications related to partying and playing ("pnp"), as the website was apparently coming under increasing scrutiny for its condonement and encouragement of these activities. All of the above continues to the present, and this website apparently serves as a conduit for numerous illegal activities, including the sale and distribution of illegal substances, in addition to those mentioned above.
3) The aforementioned website, as stated above, arbitrarily terminated the memberships of non-white members, even when these members had never violated any contractual agreements or legal statutes. This website also engaged in deceitful and illegal tactics targeted at its complaining consumers, both to mislead and discourage the consumer from successfully filing a report, and also to retain monetary payments from the consumer even after the consumer had unfairly been terminated from the website. There are multiple reports in which a non-white member simply lodged a complaint with the owner regarding written and verbal bigotry and harassment by another member (who happened to be white).in these cases, the complaining member was purposefully given false and misleading information regarding who to complain to, i.E. "You'll have to call back in a few days since the owner is out of town, when the owner was actually in the office, and "You need to file a complaint with the police and not with us, " when the complaint was clearly one arising from the website and not one of judicial legality.in addition, the complaining member's fully-paid membership also was suddenly terminated with refusal by the owner to give any reason or grounds for the termination. Worse yet, in these cases the owner refused to refund any of the pre-paid membership fees, which seems to be a blatant violation of consumers' rights, since the consumer never violated any website regulations in these cases, and the termination of the consumers membership was arbitrarily performed by the websites owner without any substantive grounds. There are a number of instances where the member then called the headquarters, both to inquire as to why their membership was suddenly terminated, and also to request a refund for the upcoming pre-paid month. These requests were not granted, and the terminated accounts continue to be non-refunded. (I can personally attest to these events occurring, as I was the victim in one of these cases).in all cases, the caller was hung up upon. With subsequent attempts to call, members were either hung up upon again immediately, or were rerouted to simply music, and after approx 2-3 min of music, the caller was hung up upon and the line went dead. The caller was never given any further opportunity at that time to speak with an employee or representative of the website, and was never given an option to even leave a voicemail message. Several members (myself included) have directly asked the "pigmaster", the owner, if he and his website condone racial bigotry and the harassment of members-of-color on his website, and he consistently either refused to answer the question, or simply answered "no comment" and hung up.in one of my personal interactions with him, I too tried to confront and address the seemingly racially-based assymmetry with which he treated and acted towards members of varying ethnic backgrounds. He refused to answer my inquiry, and hung up on me and immediately terminated my account.in subsequent emails, he additionally refused to refund any money which had already been withdrawn from my credit card (which was to be used for upcoming months).in addition, he refused my repeated demand for earlier-requested copies of emails saved under my account on the website, which would have served as proof and examples of these racially-motivated attacks and harassing emails of which I have described at great length, and which the website consistently condoned. What initially caused me to become suspicious of any discriminatory behavior by the website and its owner, was a discussion with a friend of mine who happens to be Caucasian. He had emailed a complaint to the website's owner, citing abusive speech and harassment by another member (who happens to be of a non-white ethnic background). The owner wrote back to my friend profusely apologizing, and with extremely polite and professional speech, went on to state that this matter would be taken care of. Sure enough, two days later when my friend checked online to see what had become of his complaint, he found that the harassing member (who happened to be non-white) had been permanently banned from the website. My friend (who is Caucasian) stated to me that he felt badly and confused, since he had never requested that the other member be terminated from the site (he was assuming the other member would only be reprimanded), and also because he was never called upon by the owner to provide any further information or even proof about his earlier accusation. Please note that this is in sharp contrast to my own complaint to the owner about harassment by another member (who happened to be white), and the termination later that day of MY account. As in the previously described case, the owner made no attempt to garner further information or insight from me or from the other member about whom I was complaining, and subsequently refused to give me any explanation whatsoever as to why it was me being terminated, rather than the other member who was the subject of the complaint. My requests for at least a refund of my membership costs were repeatedly ignored.
4) The owner of this website also arbitrarily edited and censored the profiles of its members and after extensive observation, when related to issues of racist remarks or racially-prejudiced sentiments, it became obvious that the owner selectively censored the profiles of non-white members. For instance, white members continue to be allowed to include pejorative and offensive remarks directed towards other ethnic groups clearly and publicly displayed in their online public profiles. This is common throughout the website, despite the website's User Contract clearly stating to all members (and which all members must agree to),
"... You will not use the Service to restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Internet; you will not use the Service to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, slanderous, racist, ageist, or defamatory information, advertisements, pictures or communications that contain offensive language or images of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any local, provincial, state, national or international law; you will not use the Service to post, or transmit any information or software which contains a virus, cancelbot, Trojan horse, worm or other harmful component; you will not use the Service to distribute, promote or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation for funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services, except within specific circumstances as deemed appropriate at our sole discretion; you will not use the Service to post advertisements or other information that, at our discretion, are deemed by us to be an insincere or otherwise non-serious use of the Service; you may not use the Service for any unlawful purpose or to promote any unlawful activity..."
However, when non-white members (myself included) attempted to protest racist remarks by stating so in our own profiles, our submitted profiles were edited and re-written without any notice to us whatsoever by the owner. Any mention of anti-racist protest was often omitted arbitrarily by the website staff prior to posting. I have personally called headquarters and questioned "pigmaster" as to why racist harassment was tolerated on his site, when the User Contract clearly states that this type of behavior would not be allowed. The owner refused to answer me and after I repeatedly asked him the same question (why racist harassment was being tolerated on his website") he then hung up on me. I personally have proof also that
the "pigmaster" refused to release any hardcopies of past emails in which a non-white member was verbally assaulted with bigoted rhetoric by a white member. When it was explained to the owner that the member was requesting this documentation as a paying consumer and in order to investigate whether ones rights as a consumer and individual had indeed been violated on his website, the owner not only refused to reprimand or give warning to the offending member, the owner also refused to grant the complaining member the requested documentation and the member was hung up upon. The member's membership to the site was immediately terminated without explanation, and the member was immediately shut out of the site, thus preventing the member from logging in and salvaging any saved documentation of any wrong-doing by the site or by any of its members.
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