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Alt.religion.scientology
alt.religion.scientology, also known as a.r.s or ARS, was a Usenet newsgroup started in 1991 to discuss the controversial beliefs of Scientology and the activities of the Church of Scientology. The newsgroup became the focal point of an aggressive campaign known as Scientology versus the Internet, which took place online and in the courts.
On July 17, 1991, the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup was created by Scientology-critic Scott Charles Goehring after a discussion with his then girlfriend and a third party. Goehring describes starting the newsgroup "because I felt Usenet needed a place to disseminate the truth about this half-assed religion" and in part as a joke.
The original Usenet newgroup message used to create the newsgroup was formatted in a manner to disguise the actual identity of the poster. A bogus email address, "miscaviage@flag.sea.org" (a misspelling of "David Miscavige", the leader of Scientology), was inserted into the newsgroup creation message. Because of this, persons speaking in favor of Scientology frequently claim that "a forgery" was used to create the newsgroup. Scientology has used this argument in its requests to have the entire newsgroup removed from Usenet, but this argument has been nearly unanimously rejected by system administrators and ISPs alike.
ARS was a popular online forum in the 1990s, and at the time was the largest organized cult opposition. The Church of Scientology tried everything it could to shut down the group, but failed. In the early 2000s, ARS became available through Google Groups with their acquisition of Deja News, and as of 2024 ARS was still available online as an archive.
In the mid-2000s, a proliferation of new websites, blogs, and internet forums made ARS functionally obsolete. The persistence of ARS showed that online groups could survive attempts at deletion, accommodate anonymous participation that could not be silenced, and equip users with a platform for the release of documents. ARS "provided the first proof that 'leaderless resistance' organizations could have an impact on Scientology".
Additionally, attempts to disrupt ARS simply added to the anti-Scientology movement additional groups dedicated to "upholding truth, transparency, freedom of information, and other lofty ideological goals".
In 1995, Scientology lawyers tried to get ARS removed from the internet. Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to remove the entire newsgroup from Usenet. On January 11, 1995, an rmgroup message (a command designed to remove a newsgroup) was posted to Usenet containing the following statement:
We request that you remove the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup from your site. The reasons for requesting its removal are: (1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices.
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Alt.religion.scientology
alt.religion.scientology, also known as a.r.s or ARS, was a Usenet newsgroup started in 1991 to discuss the controversial beliefs of Scientology and the activities of the Church of Scientology. The newsgroup became the focal point of an aggressive campaign known as Scientology versus the Internet, which took place online and in the courts.
On July 17, 1991, the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup was created by Scientology-critic Scott Charles Goehring after a discussion with his then girlfriend and a third party. Goehring describes starting the newsgroup "because I felt Usenet needed a place to disseminate the truth about this half-assed religion" and in part as a joke.
The original Usenet newgroup message used to create the newsgroup was formatted in a manner to disguise the actual identity of the poster. A bogus email address, "miscaviage@flag.sea.org" (a misspelling of "David Miscavige", the leader of Scientology), was inserted into the newsgroup creation message. Because of this, persons speaking in favor of Scientology frequently claim that "a forgery" was used to create the newsgroup. Scientology has used this argument in its requests to have the entire newsgroup removed from Usenet, but this argument has been nearly unanimously rejected by system administrators and ISPs alike.
ARS was a popular online forum in the 1990s, and at the time was the largest organized cult opposition. The Church of Scientology tried everything it could to shut down the group, but failed. In the early 2000s, ARS became available through Google Groups with their acquisition of Deja News, and as of 2024 ARS was still available online as an archive.
In the mid-2000s, a proliferation of new websites, blogs, and internet forums made ARS functionally obsolete. The persistence of ARS showed that online groups could survive attempts at deletion, accommodate anonymous participation that could not be silenced, and equip users with a platform for the release of documents. ARS "provided the first proof that 'leaderless resistance' organizations could have an impact on Scientology".
Additionally, attempts to disrupt ARS simply added to the anti-Scientology movement additional groups dedicated to "upholding truth, transparency, freedom of information, and other lofty ideological goals".
In 1995, Scientology lawyers tried to get ARS removed from the internet. Scientology lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to remove the entire newsgroup from Usenet. On January 11, 1995, an rmgroup message (a command designed to remove a newsgroup) was posted to Usenet containing the following statement:
We request that you remove the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup from your site. The reasons for requesting its removal are: (1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices.