Scientology is a very small, if wealthy, organization of probably no more than about 40,000 people around the world. But one of the reasons it garners so much attention, particularly online, is the way it repeatedly has taken on the Internet as one of its chief foes.
In the 1990s, Scientology tried to keep its secret teachings off of Usenet, and tried to crush the people who kept putting them there. It also handed out software to its members to keep them from visiting certain websites with negative information about the church. And to this day, members police each other on Facebook, making sure they don’t accidentally “friend” people who have been excommunicated.
In the last couple of years, however, we’ve noticed that Scientology has been making better use of the Internet, and has been encouraging its members to take advantage of its jim-dandy whizzer features.
And now, with a new “IAS sponsored Scientology Internet Campaign,” the church is ready to join the early 2000s!
One of our tipsters sent over this gem of a mailer, which is intended to pry yet more money out of Scientology members for its billion-dollar slush fund, the International Association of Scientologists (IAS).
We’re looking forward to reading your analysis of it as we spend a day on the road.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 2, 2013 at 07:00
