Slate Star Codex went dark last year when the New York Times threatened to publish the real name of its author. Now, Second City Cop has more or less pulled the plug over fear that Google would dox the author(s?). From WGN in Chicago:
Here’s why Chicago’s unofficial police blog ‘Second City Cop’ went dark
WGN INVESTIGATES
by: Ben BradleyPosted: Jan 13, 2021 / 02:15 PM CST /
CHICAGO — Most Chicago cops don’t talk to reporters. They don’t trust politicians. And they certainly have a lot of opinions.
It’s why for the past 15 years the “Second City Cop” police blog has been must-read for many Chicagoans who want to have a better understanding about crime and justice in their city.
It’s also why the blog has bene a thorn in the side of police brass for years and there have been various attempts to identify the operator.
When the chronicle of cop life disappeared from public view on the internet a few days ago some took to social media concerned that “big tech” had pulled the plug.
“We have taken no action,” a spokesperson for Google, which owns the Blogspot platform used by Second City Cop told WGN. “We see that the blog is still live though the readership access is ‘private.’”
What’s the real story? It’s been difficult to track down since the operator(s) of the blog have taken great lengths to protect their anonymity.
However, in an email to WGN the person behind the blog makes it sound like he/she was concerned they were about to be outed.
“Over the weekend, we received information from a contact at Google that internal chat/e-mails led them to believe that certain precautions we had taken over the years had been breached by Google,” they said.
Slate Star Codex and Second City Cop should team up into a superblog, Slate City Cop, that features 12,000 word speculations about the Fermi Paradox and jokes about Mayor Groot and former Mayor Tiny Dancer.
