Breaking News: Hacker Renames Hundreds of Accounts Trump and Clinton

*Update - April Fool's*

In a shocking move, a hacker was somehow able to gain access to Linden Lab's computers and rename several hundred accounts. It is believed he or she was about to seize control of the renaming process and used it to change the names of the residents. There were a number of males in motorcross clubs given names such as "Kissyfur" and "Cuddlebaby." And there were several professors in science groups given insulting names such as "Dunderhead" and "Flatearther." But the majority of the affected residents were accounts that were created after 2010, given the surnames "Trump" and "Clinton." This includes a few dozen in political groups, given the name of the political figure in the party opposite theirs.

Numerous residents have already spoken out in various forums, demanding Linden Lab fix their accounts. Several have already stated they will not return until their accounts are fixed. Linden Lab in response has stated they are considering activating the ability for residents to change their names early, though has not spoken on whether or not the residents affected by the hacking will have their account names restored for free.

For the official statement by Linden Lab, Click Here.

Hillary Clinton Group Claims Trump Organization Leader Banned

It's not yet confirmed, but it may be the beginning of the end for Second Life's most well known group of supporters of Donald Trump.

On the evening of June 30, a member of the Hillary Clinton 2016 group, who requested to remain anonymous, stated that there was a group notice that JP Laszlo, the leader of the Trump Organization and a few other Trump groups in Second Life had been banned by Linden Lab and their sim, "The Wall," had been confiscated.

J.P. (jp.laszlo), leader of the biggest Trump group in Second Life got banned by the Lab and their main sim was seized.  J.P. and other associates no longer appear in people search or in any affiliated Trump groups.

J.P.'s group has been well known to troll SL residents (including us) with their political propaganda and harassment tactics.  I guess Linden Labs had enough of it. :-D

The notice was given by Priscilla Cox (Prissycox), the head of Hillary Clinton 2016.

A search for JP Laszlo both using inworld Search and on secondlife.com proved fruitless. The sim was still online when I checked. While it was blocked to visitors, it had been closed to them under JP as well.

Of exactly why JP and others of the Trump Organization were banned, the informer doubted it was for anything done with the Clinton group, "they had done some minor griefing to the Hillary HQ nothing major really.  So not sure what precipitated LLs big move last night." She had heard of a griefing incident at Bay City not far from where they had a building. But when I later talked to Marianne McCann, she had strong doubts that the Trump Organization was involved or that even if this were it would get a permanent ban in response as the incident in question was minor. However in the past, JP and his Trump Organization were accused of taking part in the outright griefing of Bernie Sanders supporters, in addition to the pranks they admitted pulling, such as the Trump Wall. Hamlet Au of New World Notes basically called for Linden Lab to ban members of the group for violations of Second Life's community standards. JP denied his group was griefing, "We are not trolls, just political activists with a sense of humor and fun." But others begged to differ,

More information may come in over the next few days, but with JP's account removed, it's doubtful he will be coming back to Second Life. While no doubt there will continue to be trolls harassing people in Trump's name, it seems the largest group of Trump supporters has just been swatted down.

* * * * *

A visit to Lionheart Ahadi revealed that the Clinton HQ was no longer at the block it and the old Trump HQ had been on. It's owner Candace Larganta had earlier hinted it would be up until after the July 4rth weekend. But there was another Clinton building at
Lionheart Pumbaa (205, 210, 28). The Trump building by the old Trump Organization that had been across the street from it was gone to, though one biker bar did put up a Trump sign.

In real life, the primaries are over, and both Clinton and Trump are trying to unify their parties behind them. But a number of Republicans are reluctant to support Trump, and many "Berners" say they will not vote for Clinton reguardless of whether or not she gets Sansers' endorsement. In both Second Life and real life, it's been an interesting election.

*Addition*  Contacting JP Lazslo through his Facebook group "Donald Trump Still Thinks Your Waifu is S***," he confirmed that Linden Lab had indeed banned him and others in his group. He also made a short but to the point post on his Twitter account.

Bixyl Shuftan

Update on the Politcal Locations

So with the appearance of a new Hillary Clinton HQ in Second Life, what have the Trump and Sanders supporters been doing, and have the Clinton supporters been doing anything else? As one might expect, the "Trumpers" have not taken the appearance of supporters of another of their candidate's opponents lying down. So just what happened in the latest chapter of the 2016 US Presidential election's reflection in the virtual world?

Read the story in Extra.

More on the Clinton HQ

Earlier this month it was discovered that the Trump HQ and Manor at the Lionheart Ahadi sim had been closed down. It it's place was a Hillary Clinton HQ owned by Candace Larganta. Candace offered to share a few words about what gave her the idea to build the place, and some of the reactions it's been getting.

Read the story in Extra.

Trump Manor, HQ, and Wall Gone, Hillary HQ Up

The US Presidential Election has gone through no shortage of twists and turns in real life, and so it has in Second Life as well. A fan of the Republican candidate Donald Trump set up a "Trump Manor," in Lionheart Ahadi, followed soon by a "Trump HQ." Likewise. fans of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders set up two locations of their own, the "Sanders HQ" in Caspoli and "Feel the Bern" in Young. Some people in the Trump HQ group bought some land next to the Sanders HQ and erected a tall slab of concrete called the "Trump Wall" towering over it, which they called a prank while the Sanders supporters called griefing. Both side claimed to have been harassed by griefers, the Sanders groups accusing the Trump group of being behind some of it.

In the latest twist, the Trump Manor, and Trump HQ in Lionheart and the Trump Wall in Caspoli have disappeared, at least from their former locations. In the place of the former two was a new headquarters for supporters of the leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination: Hillary Rodham Clinton. Candace Larganta (candacelarganta) is the owner of the new build in the location.

The location is decorated with red white and blue decorations all around, and has a number of American flags. And there's no shortage of campaign signs for Clinton all around both the building and the fence around it. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a small radiant fairy with the caption "Let's keep fighting!" over her. Going through the front door, one passes through a room with a white wall with pro-Hillary colored drawings. The interior resembles a school gym area, with seating on the sides for crowds and on the floor a huge "I'm Ready for Hillary" sign. There was a small kitchen room to the side (maybe for baking cookies and brewing tea). When I got there, there were only three avatars there, and one left without saying anything soon after. The remaining two, a robot and a small airship flying in the air, were likely bots.

Not everyone in the neighborhood seemed happy to see the new political HQ. One place called "The Love Shack" had a huge "Bernie 2016" sign over the roof, with a "Hillary: For Prison" sign on the side of the building. Hamlet Au had a few words with it's owner, Psyclonis Draconia, who explained that the Sanders sign up had been put up while the Trump HQ was still around, and they had moved out on their own to another location.

Checking out the Caspoli sim, I found the Trump Wall was gone. What was there was a wall of stone around the Sanders area with a huge "Bernie 2016" sign. The Trump Wall had been replaced by the Bennie Wall.

Both Candace and the owner of the Trump HQ JP Laszlo were unavailable for comment. While JP had the location of a new location on her profile, the sim was blocked from my trying to enter. But I did find an old message from Dirk Klees, the owner of the Lionheart Estates from when I asked earlier about the Trump Manor. He had stated, "I have no point of view about this location. We're a land provider, they are customers like everyone else, and happen to own land here. That's about it. We have/had many different political and religious themed landowner's projects on these sims. Neither do we care, discriminate or get involved with people's political or religious views."

As of the writing of this article, the last state Democratic primaries have taken place. With 2383 delegates needed to win, Clinton has 1926 pledged delegates and the support of 571 unpledged or "superdelagates" whom have stated their intentions to support Clinton, for a total of 2497. Sanders has a total of 1615 pledged delegates with the support of just 48 superdelagates for a total of 1663. While some Berners are insisting the race for the nomination isn't over yet, Hillary Clinton has declared victory, and most mainstream news sources have declared her the winner of the Democratic nomination race.

For those wishing to visit the Clinton HQ, it is at Lionheart Ahadi (151/7/28).

Sources: New World Notes, BBC

Bixyl Shuftan