MUST READ: Public statement to Mr. Lam Lay

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1293/1*eE2uKcZLMqYYchPNobmLkg.jpeg Dear Mr. [Lam Lay](https://www.facebook.com/Lamlay8888) and the network of writers that you represent, As of yesterday, you have contacted and informed the Serey team that two of our users have plagiarized texts that have been written by your network. These posts were posted on the Serey platform – a blockchain based social media. In addition, you have asked us to delete the posts. After our amicable talk by telephone in which we both explained our positions, I thought everything was settled and done. I am therefore surprised to find your following message the next morning on August 16th, 2018: > … I just want to let you know that; please **your team write an Apologize Letter for us and posting online**. The purpose of the Letter is to confess your tension mistake that steal our article to post on your blog without any permission. **If you deny our request to write an apologize article, then our team and network will post what you have done illegally to social media**. > We are networking with many famous authors in Cambodia. So please note about that. I hope you understand your mistake and dare to confess your mistake publicly. > **The time for you to do confessing is from today till 17/8/18**.  As explained yesterday, we don’t support the behavior to copy original content without making references to the right sources. We always encourage people to write original content, and also regularly inform them that it’s by posting original content they are most likely to receive more votes and therefore more Serey rewards. Serey is actually built in such a way that content creators can monetize their creativity and therefore can also be used by you and your network to receive rewards. Although we, from the Serey team, cannot apologize for what two users have written on our Serey platform we can ask the two users to apologize to you. Every user bears the responsibility for what they write and post online. Likewise, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus and other social media platforms cannot be held responsible for what you or I write on their platform. We can only help make our users aware what good writing practices are. ### The goals and technology of Serey Having said the above, I would like to take a moment to explain the goals and technology behind Serey. #### Goals Serey’s mission is to “*reward self-expression and creativity*”. We do so, because we want to turn Cambodia into an intellectual society and because we recognize that it’s hard for many content creators to earn a living. Serey is built to change that. Whereas writers on traditional social media platforms like Facebook are not rewarded for the content they post, although the content is used by Facebook to generate billions of USD, Serey does directly reward content creators in the form of Serey coins. This incentive mechanism encourages our users to write high quality content as such content are most likely to receive the most votes and therefore more rewards. I would moreover like to stress that Serey is built on the philosophical principle that the internet should be open and free for anyone to use. We are unwilling to compromise this principle. #### Technology As I mentioned before, Serey is blockchain based. This has the following implications: 1. All content on Serey is put into an immutable blockchain which makes it impossible for us to delete or edit the content. 2. Serey is decentralized without a single party that owns or directs what is written. 3. Every user is rewarded in Serey coins which is a token to (a) participate on the platform, to (b) have influence on the platform, and (c) represents some kind of user ownership of the platform. 4. In that sense, Serey is not owned by a single party but owned by all its users. 5. Our blockchain with all its content is openly accessible for everyone and is therefore entirely transparent. ### How we are already encouraging people to write good content We have several things in place to encourage people to write good content: **A.** Our users can write comments in which they can point out that texts are plagiarized. **B.** Our users can flag/dislike content if they believe it is plagiarized. **C.** We have a full-time curator who writes comments and informs people of good writing practices. In addition to this, we are: **D.** Seeking knowledge partners like think tanks and universities who would like to provide their expertise in curating content, improve the overall writing quality, and to push for an intellectual and civilized society. **E.** Planning to build a bot that scours all online content on Serey and checks for plagiarism probabilities. It will then inform other readers what the probability of plagiarism is in the comment section. ### Building friendships I hope that you understand our position. We find the tone of your message regretful and believe that we are better off building friendships and finding ways to work together than issuing threats to each other. Therefore, we would like to invite you to meet us in Phnom Penh and have an amicable conversation. **Also, as we both seem to have the goal of creating an intellectual and civilized society, we would appreciate it if you would take this opportunity to be an example to all Khmer people and engage in discussion with us. Therefore, please, approach us or respond to this statement publicly so we can engage in a civilized and enlightening discussion for all to read.** ### Conclusion Finally, I would like to summarize this statement. Every Serey user is responsible for what he or she writes and posts online. We cannot scour through everything that our users are writing and offer apologies to everything other people don’t approve of. We can ask them to apologize to you, but although we are the Serey team, we cannot force them to do so. We can only politely ask them to apologize. We cannot delete, nor edit any post, and to require the Serey team to make public apologies for texts that others have written is against our principle of an open and free internet in which people can come together, express themselves, and share content. We would greatly appreciate it if you would accept our offer to meet and discuss ways in which we can work together in a civilized manner. We believe that Serey can be a valuable platform for you and your network. Kind regards, THE SEREY TEAM