Tripod was built on the principles of community and freedom of expression. These notions are at the core of everything we do. The recent events in Littleton, Colorado reflect a failure of the community at large to address the forces that create and perpetuate hate and violence. While we are heartened by the number of personal homepages created to pay tribute to the victims of the Columbine High shootings, we are also outraged by the proliferation of copycat pages that call for additional violence in our schools. These pages are grossly offensive to the Tripod community and are potentially harmful to public safety. They depart from freedom of expression and enter the realm of dangerous license. They will not be tolerated. We will remove them.

In addition, upon finding any of these pages, Tripod will immediately alert law-enforcement officials. In the event of an emergency, Tripod will cooperate with all law-enforcement efforts by turning over copies of pages that are found, and we will help to locate persons who have posted such pages. Tripod may disclose user information and Internet protocol addresses to law-enforcement officials if given a subpoena or court order, or in circumstances where Tripod deems pages to jeopardize public safety.

Tripod employees will be working on a daily basis and through the weekend to monitor pages built on Tripod to ensure the following of our Terms of Service and our dedication to stopping school violence. If you discover any copycat pages on Tripod that advocate the use of violence, please contact us immediately at [email protected].