Cindy's Torment Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

"Cindy's Torment", a graphic sex story published in Spring of 1990 on Usenet, led to an early example of censorship in cyberspace. The posting by "Anonymous John", which described repeated BDSM rape, sparked a far-reaching debate on the limits of freedom of expression on Usenet.

The story itself details a governmental office relationship where an oriental secretary is forced by financial pressure to submit into sexual slavery. Despite being posted in alt.sex.bondage, the graphic nature, racial element, and non-consensual aspect together combined to spur an outcry. While different readers disagreed on which particular features of the story were decisive in defining the story as "beyond the pale", the vociferousness of the objections led an unknown technically adept person to erase all trace of the posting from Usenet.

This attempted act of censorship proved both the illusory nature of unrestrained freedom on the fledgling Internet and the quixotic aspect of trying to decisively control the spread of content within it. While the erasure of the original posting was technically successful, a thing that had previously been considered impossible, the notoriety of the story ensured continued re-postings of (sometimes degraded) versions saved on the mass storage of the newsgroup's readers.

The story also led many institutions such as the University of Waterloo to, for the first time, exclude groups like alt.sex.bondage from their Usenet servers. Soon afterwards, Waterloo excluded the entire alt hierarchy, although there is dissent about whether this was intended as an act of censorship. The post even occasioned mention in major newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle.

"Cindy's Torment" was followed by even more graphically violent sequels which (unlike the original) were successfully censored. Another fantasy, "Cindy's Revenge", was posted in which Cindy turned the tables and took revenge on her persecutors. "Cindy's Revenge" was arguably more violent than either the original or the sequels, and yet this story of retribution was never censored.

References

• Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Net?, by Prof. Jeffrey Shallit of the University of Waterloo
• Houston Chronicle article by Joe Abernathy

External links

• Original text of the story

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