talkpolitics | Entries tagged with censorship

When speaking truth to power political cartoons are not always meant to be funny. Many times they have slapped us in the face and forced us to look at reality.

While this was originally published in a Canadian newspaper, the owner seems to have a fear of retaliation from Trump with his other business ventures. Thus, killing freedom of speech and press.

J.D. Irving, Limited is not only a privately owned conglomerate headquartered in New Brunswick, it's also an international behemoth with global reach. Trade has been an issue since Trump took office, trade that affects the Irvings directly, not to mention a host of other issues. And the POTUS himself is someone who doesn't usually shy away from punishing those who appear to oppose him.

You must have noticed that about Trump and revenge by now. He'll send you to the cornfield.

Of course, now the newspaper has painted itself into a corner, first having run the cartoon and then turning around and firing the guy for it. The problem is, the cartoon spoke truth. And Trump's ego couldn't handle it. These guys should be ashamed of themselves.

asthfghl

This is an excerpt from a memo issued by the communist youth organization at Nikolaev, Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1985.

Proletarians from across the world, unite! The Soviet Lenin Communist Union of Youth of Nikolaev, Ukraine SSR, issues the following list of foreign music groups and performers whose lyrics contain ideologically harmful concepts. We recommend using this data for enhancing the control on the activities of the disco clubs. The following information is to be disseminated to all disco clubs in the region.

( Beware of the bands in this list! )

dreamville-bg.livejournal.com

Germany leads fightback against fake news

The article cites a Breitbart "report" about a fictitious mob attack on a German church that never happened. And there's of course Trump's claims about an incident in Sweden that didn't happen when he said it did (well, something did happen a couple days later, but that's an entirely different story).

The point here is about fake news, and deliberate lies in the media that are designed to serve an agenda. As the job of the paid Internet troll and fake news creator has flourished in recent times, I expect another job, that of the impartial (?) fact-checker to take its due place on the scene as well.

As for Germany, the bigger problem there might not be so much the amount of BS conveyed via Facebook, but more the (self?)-censorship in the main news outlets when it comes to reporting on issues that directly affect society, but are outside that imaginary (and arbitrary?) line of acceptable, politically correct subjects. Ignoring those topics is not helping tackle the important issues of the day in any way, it just sweeps them under the rug and postpones the process of addressing them to a later point in time, thus potentially making them worse (the migration topic is a fine example there). Fake news are spreading because the media is losing credibility, fast.

There's an argument that freedom of speech must include the freedom to "lie." For one man's "lies" are another man's truths. If you disagree with a claim that is made, you are free to challenge and debate it in the open, thereby exercising one's own freedom of speech as well. But silencing and censoring "lies" is a very slippery slope. Indeed, who decides what is a lie and what is not? This comes dangerously close to thought policing.

On the other hand, lies are lies and fake news is fake news and in the case of invented facts, it's all a lie and fake news, period. Truth does not come in the form of a multiple choice answer. Interpretation of the facts, on the other hand...

So what say you? Where do you stand on this?

luvdovz.livejournal.com

And still, this can't help but feel kind of sick. Especially considering the hypocrisy behind it:

Facebook bans 'undesirable' advert of plus-sized model Tess Holliday

Facebook blocked the Cherchez la Femme group from promoting a post for its "Feminism and Fat" panel discussion, because it depicted the body in "an undesirable manner". It featured model Tess Holliday smiling and posing in swimwear. ... After international outcry, Facebook later reinstated the advert and claimed that it had been mistakenly censored.

Yeah, right. "Mistakenly". These guys only apologized and backpedaled on the ban because there was an outcry. Which is exactly how oganized outrage on hot-button issues is supposed to work, by the way: if a sufficient number of people are discontent with a way an issue is being handled, they voice that discontent via the available channels, and make (or don't make) the intended impact on the further way said issue is handled.

( Oh, this image is SO going to offend you... )

htpcl.livejournal.com

Hi, ma'fellow ~~procrastinators~~ reasonable honesty-loving folks! We may've heard of Erdogan's attempts to actively influence the political discourse and the level of free speech in Germany by demanding that a satirical depiction of His Greatness be removed from the press, lest he unleash the hordes of refugees onto Europe again (and indirectly succeeding to have the relevant journalist fired, by the way). But what about censorship for the sake of not-offending-anyone at a top state level? Case in point:

White House censors French president for saying ‘Islamist terrorism’

"President Obama is so paranoid about linking terrorists to the Muslim faith that when French President Francois Hollande used the phrase "Islamist terrorism" at a meeting in Washington, White House officials posted their official press video with audio of the words cut out completely. ... The White House's transcript of the event shows the French leader declared at the 4:49 minute mark that "the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq." But rather than include Hollande's remark in its entirety, the Obama administration posted footage in which his interpreter’s English translation of the words "Islamist terrorism" was missing."

( Surely, that was just an unintentional glitch, right? )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

FL DEP Employee Suspended and Forced to Obtain Medical Release for Mentioning Climate Change

So much with the sacred Freeeedoooom of Speech, eh?

First off, here's a stupid question. So if a state employee in FL replies to an email containing the phrase "climate change", do they have to edit the reply text or what? Does the IT head have to edit the words in their email archive? Someone explain this to me please, for I am confus'd.

As for King Scott the Great, I say great job, King Scott! I'm sure he must merely be practicing how he would run the rest of the country if he becomes king, oh wait I mean POTUS... Mind you, these are the same right-wingers that call president Obama a dictator or king (or an apologetic sissy, depending on the circumstances).

( Here's what I don't quite understand )

mahnmut.livejournal.com

PC sharia galore, ma' folks! Kids say (and eat) the darndest things...

Exhibit #1:

Branded racist at five: A little girl who said her friend was 'brown'. A boy who asked a black child if he was from Africa. How teachers are reporting primary school pupils as bigots in official records

- Special report details schools' obsession with equality and diversity
- Teachers are recording one-off comments by pupils aged just three or four
- Experts fear children don't understand the significance of what they say

Exhibit #2:

Oxford University Press bans sausages and pigs from children’s books in effort 'to avoid offence': Bizarre clampdown branded 'nonsensical political correctness'

- Ban is apparently aimed at avoiding offence among Jews and Muslims
- Publisher prohibits mentioning anything that 'could be perceived as pork'
- Oxford wants authors to consider 'cultural differences and sensitivities'
- Muslim Labour MP Khalid Mahmood calls ban 'absolute utter nonsense'

( Some rants & ramblings )

luvdovz.livejournal.com

Dieudonne arrested over Facebook post on Paris gunman
French comedian accused of justifying terrorism after linking attacker to tribute slogan by writing ‘I feel like Charlie Coulibaly’

"Prosecutors had opened the case against him on Monday after he wrote “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly” – mixing the slogan “Je suis Charlie”, used in tribute to the journalists killed at magazine Charlie Hebdo, with a reference to gunman Amedy Coulibaly. Dieudonne was arrested on Wednesday."

Now that's what I'm talking about. Seems like free speech does have limits, after all. And where are they? I'm guessing, exactly where "our guys" get offended. And that's not the end of the story...

Dozens Arrested in France for Verbally Supporting Terrorism

French Justice System: How France Was Able To Quickly Convict Suspects After Charlie Hebdo Attacks

France does have laws on free speech. They do stipulate how far it extends. And it seems France is more than willing to apply them super-fast when push comes to shove.

( Is it just me imagining things, or there's some blatant double standard here? )

ddstory.livejournal.com

First off, LOL this is really breaking news in Blighty, innit? Bugger!

A long list of sex acts just got banned in UK porn
"Regulations branded 'simply a set of moral judgements'"

Seemingly arbitrarily deciding what is nice sex and what is not nice sex, the board's ruling on 'content that is not acceptable' effectively bans the following acts from being depicted by British pornography producers:

Spanking
Caning
Aggressive whipping
Penetration by any object "associated with violence"
Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of if consensual)
Urolagnia (known as "water sports")
Female ejaculation
Strangulation
Facesitting
Fisting

The final three listed fall under acts the BBFC views as potentially "life-endangering".

Well, one could argue that some of the stuff included in this new censorship list clearly reeks of misogyny, for example the ban on female ejaculation (squirting). Also the ban on spanking, caning, aggressive whipping, all activities that are predominantly used in female dominatrix situations where the woman is the active side, stinks of puritanical misogyny.

( More ranty rant )

airiefairie.livejournal.com

Apparently, Game of Thrones is getting banned in the Turkish military, because it would somehow make those young lads love their country less (or something). I really do not get it sometimes...

Why Turkey’s military wants to ban ‘Game of Thrones’

"The Turkish Armed Forces has updated its set of regulations for the high school academies that it administers, inserting an article in the chapter for "protection of students." It advises a ban on screening films or shows that depict "sexual exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, abuse, harassment and all negative behaviors." Hurriyet cites "Game of Thrones" as one of the main culprits."

Obviously, though, Tyrion Lannister remains unimpressed with Erdogan's shenanigans.

sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com

As a citizen of a modern country who knows that your country's national spy agency and by extension other agencies can read your mail, and who also is aware that tax collectors and other regulatory agencies have been used in the recent past to investigate those who criticize the government. Do you say or write anything in a "open forum" about a potential scandal that might effect you personally?

Leaving aside specifics, and "call a lawyer" type answers (hence the NCA), what is your gut response?

For more in-depth discussion, Does your answer change depending on your social position? Random guy vs editor of a prominent newspaper or feed-site? What does your cost benefit analysis look like? and what sort of pressures do you imagine a situation like this would have on the political discourse?

I've been wondering about the "Chilling Effect" and to what degree (if any) it effects our news. How would one test for, or measure it?

airiefairie.livejournal.com

Although Facebook is banned in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei has his own FB profile, and he even "likes" Facebook. Go figure. The world of un-freedom is full of such sort of absurdities. In countries like Iran and China, the media are under strict control, but people would always find ways to bypass the firewalls, and they would always be at least one step ahead of the authorities.

One of the most notable countries in that respect is China. All media are directly submitted to the orders of the Propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party. Which, of course, also has a FB page of its own. The new government has recently concentrated media control under this single huge department, and it would be easier to answer the question what's allowed by the new legislation, rather than what is forbidden.

( Read more )

airiefairie.livejournal.com

“One man's pornography is another man's theology.”
-- Clive Barker

Iceland weighing ban on Internet pornography
"Iceland could become the first Western country to censor online pornography with the introduction of radical internet filters that would block online content. Critics of the plan fear censorship, citing concerns over who will choose what to filter."

This may sound a bit strange, given that my country has indeed been trying to assume the image of the ultimate sanctuary for free-speech dissidents from around the world in recent times (think about Assange).

Of course, the issue is as controversial as it could possibly be, and both sides of the debate could well make a good case for or against it. I just cannot fathom how come some people's response to the news has been to knee-jerk equate Iceland to countries like Saudi Arabia and North Korea, simply because the majority (and I emphasise: the majority) of the Icelandic society seems rather willing to regulate a certain niche industry that it feels is culturally sensitive, in that it may contribute to certain social ills in very real ways.

( This could get tricky )

dv8nation.livejournal.com

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18208446

China's biggest microblogging service has introduced a code of conduct explicitly restricting the type of messages that can be posted.

Weibo - which resembles Twitter - took the action after local authorities criticised "unfounded" rumours posted by some users.

Reports suggest a credit score system will also be introduced with points deducted for rule breaches.

Repeat offenders face having their accounts deleted.

Clearly no good will come of this. But for the sake of fairness let's look at what will be restricted.

The "community convention" says its members may not use the service to:

Spread rumours
Publish untrue information
Attack others with personal insults or libellous comments
Oppose the basic principles of China's constitution
Reveal national secrets
Threaten China's honour
Promote cults or superstitions
Call for illegal protests or mass gatherings

It adds that members must not use "oblique expressions or other methods" to circumvent the rules.

Users have sometimes abbreviated names or used code words to avoid detection in the past.

I love that they have to say it's against the rules to work around the rules, Yeah, I'm sure that'll go over about as well as respect for internation copyright in China. Not that I'm complaining about Chinese net users screwing with the government. I've been to China and been saddled with a goverment minder which offended me as a free man on an almost primal level.

But to me this just seems like another almost laughable attempt by the Chinese government to control new media. Just look at the Fifty Cent Party ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party ) if you want to see another example. But if nothing else young Chinese are very tech savvy so I'm sure this will ultimately be meaningless to anyone who want to actually get away with anything. Meanwhile, normal Chinese people will continue to shoot off the normal, pointless drival that Western people use Twitter for.

But at the end of the day I think this is really just the Chinese government trying to stick its finger in the dyke. It would be almost comical if it weren't a sign of the lack of human rights in China continuing.

Mood: hungry
Location: Korea, Republic of,

telemann.livejournal.com

Hunter Moore's website is this week's cover story for The Village Voice

A few weeks ago, I discovered a website called Is Anyone Up by accident that had a "theme" of posting what I grew up hearing as "black-mail" photos: very intimate photos of what would be considered "awkward situations" if the photos were ever made public. And what was unusual in my mind, were E-mails sent to the owner of this website pleading with him to take down the photos. His reaction would tend to be "Well you should have never had these photos taken in the first place if you are worried." Lo and behold, this week's Village Voice has a cover article on the website, and its 26 year old creator Hunter Moore. Be warned, there is some extremely graphic language behind this cut.

According to the Village Voice "Is Anyone Up" is a "virtual grudge slingshot of a website that gleefully publishes "revenge porn" photos—cell-phone nudes submitted by scorned exes, embittered friends, malicious hackers, and other ne'er-do-well degenerates—posted alongside each unsuspecting subject's full name, social-media profile, and city of residence. And with captions like "Kelsey is a little slut from Pittsburgh whose clit deserves some attention." For his part, Mr. Moore is absolutely unrepentant about any of the repercussions of his website:

People are probably going to want to fucking kill me after I say this. But if you are quote-unquote being cyber-bullied, you should just fucking kill yourself."

I do not want anybody to ever be hurt by my site-physically. I don't give a fuck about emotionally. Deal with it. Obviously, I'd get a ton of heat for it. But-I'm gonna sound like the most evil motherfucker-let's be real for a second: If somebody killed themselves over that? Do you know how much money I'd make? At the end of the day, I do not want anybody to hurt themselves. But if they do? Thank you for the money. The more traffic I'd have that day, I'm going to get paid for. So if someone fucking killed themselves? Do you know how much hate I'd get? All the Googling, all the redirects, all, like, the press I'd get paid for, for that day. And whatever.

Mr. Moore started the website a few years ago when a former girlfriend sent him nude photos as a 'kiss and make-up' gesture; he didn't want a reconciliation and he posted the photos on a domain he owned after his friends kept asking to see the nudes. And it took off from there: Moore went from sharing a room in a dump of an apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, to making nearly 17,000 a month in website revenues.

If you think posting an under-age photo will snag Mr. Moore and get him into enough hot water legally to have the website taken down or jailed, he's got that covered too. He personally reviews every photo uploaded, and checks file information on the photograph, claiming he has law enforcement connections that allows him to check on contributors who send in submissions. If someone finds out their photo is on the website without permission, legally the only avenue of redress is under the DMCA. If you claim you are the copyright owner (the person who took the photograph), you can ask to have the content removed. Direct confrontation doesn't work either. He appeared on the Anderson Cooper show, where two women confronted him about their nude photographs being posted on his website. Clip below:

After that on air confrontation, the next day Mr. Moore REPOSTED their nude photos with the caption The Girl Who Confronted Me on the Anderson Cooper Show. You would think Mr. Moore would be scorned for his humiliating website, but not so. He has many supporters, in fact underage women Tweet him saying they can't wait to turn 18 so they can submit their own photos to his website.

This behavior is classic trolling, which has drawn him an online army of adoring defenders. Moore has 35,000 Twitter followers; his site has more than 91,000. One woman named her child after him. Three things fangirls have tweeted at him in the past week: "If you had aids, id still fuck you just to say i have aids and that i got aids from you"; "One day I'm going to have Hunter Moore tattooed on my stomach with an arrow pointing down that says 'God Was Here'"; "I wonder how many girls have tried to steal @Huntermoore used condoms." "We all want to be him," insisted Charlie Rittenhouse, a 25-year-old fanboy acquaintance from Islip, Long Island, minutes before we all climbed into the limo hailed outside Moore's Webster Hall birthday party. "We all fucking do." Internet, this is what you've created.

That last line sort of captures it all. Mr. Moore's timing for being able to do this is rather unique. Sure he could have possibly done this twenty years ago with a small magazine. But it would have had limited circulation and certainly the costs of starting it would have been daunting (and the irony is that Moore wants to see himself now as a new Hugh Hefner type of media mogul). And even had this website started in the 1990s, it wouldn't have the impact because there wasn't really a Web 2.0 with social media. And that's what makes this seem very cruel. Within a few seconds of a bitter ex sending out those revenge photos, you're within a day or two of having your life put on a very public display. I think what he does is completely disgusting and he's a classic sociopath (e.g. the way he answers direct questions in interviews). He's going to eventually screw up, and will be shut down over legal issues. If you want to hear him on friendlier ground you can listen to an interview.

Gawker article "Creator of Sleazy Revenge Porn Site Wouldn’t Care If Someone Killed Themselves Because of It"

Village Voice "Hunter Moore Makes a Living Screwing You."

luvdovz.livejournal.com

Seriously. The Internet is starting to play on the nerves of the Chinese leadership big time. There was a time when the political debates were led between the editorials in the state newspapers. But now? There's hardly a week without a new debate around the social networks. And the old recipes of the authorities are failing. Here's why.

Just after last Christmas, the popular blogger Han-Han published three essays on his website that were touching on some very sensitive issues like democracy, freedom and revolution. In just a couple of days the three essays received 500 million clicks. In comparison, CPC's official mouthpiece Zhenmin Zhibao usually receives 2.5 clicks a day. In his essays Han-Han called for reforms; he said the government should finally loosen censorship; and China needs free media to counter corruption and power abuse.

Meanwhile he made it very clear that the existing system should be preserved; he said in China real democracy of the Western type is not possible because of the low education level of the Chinese, particularly the rural population who's totally incapable of grasping the concept of democracy. A cultural thing, you know.

( And the debate is raging on )

mrbogey.livejournal.com

Short story: Argentina's president, tired of criticism from popular newspapers, accused newsprint suppliers of favoring critics. As a result they seized all newsprint suppliers and will "fairly" supply everyone with paper. The defenders of this move argue that the newsprint dealer Clarin was unfairly crowding out others through an unfair monopoly.

This to me strikes to the heart of what it means to have a free gov't. The seizure and nationalization of a product is a long distant action from the issue of a monopoly being unfair. The gov't could have worked to show unfair business practices and dealt with them without the bias of a political hunt. Now we have, essentially, the gov't promising it will be fair and those who would keep an eye on them now having to go to the gov't to get their message about any possible impropriety by the gov't.

This is a disastrous recipe for the free flow of information. I'd say it's equivalent to SOPA in the US in the level of abuse it could allow.

raichu100.livejournal.com

Looking at the entries for the past couple of days (I have been away from LJ for a little while), I didn't see any posts with this video, and only one post about the bill.

I'm inclined to think this is a bad idea. How will attacking Google and YouTube solve the (dubious) problem of internet pirating? I don't think it's worth the potential negative consequences.

Thoughts on the video or the issue as a whole?

Edit: welp, the imbed failed spectacularly. Here's a link to the video on americancensorship.org (scroll about 2/3 of the way down), and here's a link to the YouTube version.

jerseycajun.livejournal.com

Hey all,

Starting up Firefox the morning brought my attention to a couple of upcoming bills before congress. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP act of 2011.

I can't offer much yet in the way of my own personal analysis, except that it seems the usual suspects are lining up on either side, with the RIAA et al on the "For" side and Google et al on the "Against" side. So I'm inclined to lean with the latter, especially given that the title of a bill and its stated summary of purpose almost always contradicts its actual text and implications. In any case, has anyone else read much about these two bills, the pitfalls or benefits?

Credits & Style Info

Talk Politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods

MONTHLY TOPIC:
AI Regulation: Striking the Balance

DAILY QUOTE:

"Clearly, the penguins have finally gone too far. First they take our hearts, now they’re tanking the global economy one smug waddle at a time. Expect fish sanctions by Friday."

(nairiporter)

July 2025

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with censorship

They hate it cuz it's true

Friday WTF. Oh, this decadent heavy metal...

An adequate measure, or a slide down the slippery slope?

FB is a private corp, I know, I know...

The Luegenpresse is at it again

Dread Scott in action

Political correctness gone berserk

Freedom of speech... kind of

From boring to dead-boring: British porn sliding down purist slope

Friday WTF... GoT is dangerous for your patriotism... heh.

Hypothetical culture of corruption...

The absurdities of censorship

Iceland vs porn

China Vs Chinese Knock-Off Twitter!

The Scarlet Letter in the age of social media and freedom of speech

Something's rotten in the state of China

Argentina seizes newsprint

PIPA video

SOPA and Protect IP acts

Credits & Style Info

Links

July 2025

Summary