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EarthLink

That Earthlink is some kind of front group for the CoS is another myth that I have never seen proven other than by the usual guilt by association "proof" based on the fact that Sky Dayton, the founder of Earthlink, is a Scientologist.

Earthlink is one of the leading American internet provider. Founded in 1994 by Sky Dayton, it has currently about five million subscribers.

Some Scientology critics have unsuccessfully tried to scare users away from Earthlink for a single and simple reason - that Sky Dayton was a Scientologist. They have claimed that, because of this, the Church of Scientology controlled every users, scanned through their mail, blocked them from critical sources of information, traced their surfing through cookies, etc. A typical example of this can be found here under.

These claims are unsubstantiated and unfounded. As for so many of these critics claims, they are solely based on mere allegations, scare tactics, and bigotry. This is like saying that the Pope controls every users using providers founded by Christians.

Other critics, however, have pointed out that not only have they found no evidence for these allegations, but have also found evidences to the contrary. Some even deliberately setup critical pages to provoke a reaction, with no result.

For example, Chris Walker, an Earthlink user, received notification from one of the Scientology lawyers about a post he made to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, asking him to cancel the post. Since Eartlink's news server is set up to reject cancels, he emailed the news admin asking him to do it. The news admin basically replied that the lawyer was out of luck. He then put up a mirror of Deana Holme's Lisa McP page for about a month to further test them out. Not a word from Earthlink management.

Likewise, two posters put up a test page years ago and advertised it repeatedly in the alt.relgiion.scientology newsgroup. The account owner never heard so much as a peep from Earthlink, and the site is there to this day.

Here is a typical critical example of weird allegations made by critics. May comments are below each paragraphs.

An Alternative View

The Test Page

Cipriano's Declaration

In support for their claim, critics quote Robert J. Cipriano's declaration which is a mixture of truth, distortions, unsubstantiated allegations, hearsays, and rumors. Until concrete evidences are introduced to support these claims, they have to be taken as anecdotal evidences. Cipriano's credibility is also extremely thin. He  already admitted making false testimonies in Scientology-related issues and even critics are divided when it comes to his different "recants". More than a year after the declaration has been made, it  has still not been tried in court.

The news Times LA ran a full featured article on the Cipriano issue, confirming that at the beginning Earthlink was more of a Scientology company than it is now. With the Mindspring mega-merging (they chose to keep the name Earthlink for both company), the Scientology element is even more diluted, if still present at all:

Cipriano says that Moxon arranged for him to work at Earthlink, the major Internet service provider started by Scientologist wunderkind Sky Dayton in 1994. In its early days, Earthlink's employees and the majority of its subscribers were Scientologists. But today the company serves more than a million customers, and Scientologists have less presence on its staff.

The News Times provides the Earthlink's side about Moxon helping Cipriano find a job at Earthlink:

Earthlink's George Williams acknowledges that Cipriano was referred by Moxon. "Rick Moxon did refer him to our company, but that's not unusual," he says. Williams says he's shocked that Cipriano would suggest he was hired as a favor to Moxon. "That statement is false. I interviewed [Cipriano] myself. He had a very impressive list of accomplishments....Cipriano brought in five letters of recommendation, and he probably had the most impressive series of résumés that I've ever seen."

The newstimes further acknowledges that for the wilder claim of Cipriano, one needs to be very skeptical:

Here's why you should be skeptical about what Graham Berry and Robert Cipriano say about the Church of Scientology:

[Snip Berry's part]

Robert Cipriano, meanwhile, is an admitted liar who says that he willingly committed perjury last year by lying in a deposition taken under oath. A nervous, chameleonlike figure, Cipriano never seems to stay in one place or situation very long. He spent five years living as a gay man and now says he's straight. He was once a successful Park Avenue businessman, but then couldn't hold a job. He was willing to accept financial help for his perjured testimony but now claims to be doing the righteous thing by speaking out about it. His own court-filed declarations make him out to be something of a confused, pathetic loser who is usually either running from a bad situation or running toward someone who will give him a handout.

This is no "Scientology dead agenting" as the article is otherwise *very* critical of Scientology, sometimes to the point of buying common anti-Scientology urban legends. For example, the article says:

---> Paulette Cooper, author of the Scandal of Scientology (1971), became the target of Operation Freakout, an attempt by church operatives to either drive her insane or get her put in prison. The operatives managed to get Cooper indicted by framing her for making bomb threats against the church. She was only exonerated when documents detailing Operation Freakout were discovered by government agents.

This is straight out of the anti-Scientology book and inaccurate. Operation Freakout was never enacted, as the FBI got hold of the documents before. Not that Cooper wasn't harassed, it simply was not part of this particular operation that ever remained on paper. There are also no proof that the CoS framed her for bomb threat, only suppositions, and she certainly was *not* exonerated when documents detailing Operation Freakout were discovered by government agents. To see the detail on this story see Paulette Cooper - The Bomb Threat.

But on the whole, the article is fairly balanced and well researched. What it says about the Earthlink and Scientology connection reflects what is known otherwise on this question and confirms that the link is very tenure and any nefarious  influence almost certainly ruled out.

The Skeptic Tank

If you want more example of the kind of empty allegations so-called critics deem as "facts" and "proof" of the connection, go to the critical pages named "The Skeptic Tank (cough) Search Page" and type "Earthlink".

Here are just the first two examples that come up. My comments are in [red]

From http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/elcoslnk.htm (Apparently written by Frederic Rice, the owner of the site):

From http://www.skeptictank.org/hs/elcos2.htm, webbing a post from Garry Scarff :

Earthlink Supercookie Scare

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