CategoryCensorship
Canada Prepares Harsh New Online Harms Bill to Fight “Hate”
Canada is a comparatively peaceful country, so onlookers might puzzle over the assumption that draconian measures are needed to fight poorly defined “hate.”
When Government Manages the News Business: Canada Tried That…
Any comprehensive censorship regime requires that the government begin by managing the news business
Why Mainstream Media Can No Longer Really Fight Censorship
Whether they realize it or not, by accepting funds in order to survive, the MSM will gradually become agencies of governmentTV personalities — ones you might not have expected — have begun to notice the way mainstream media now drop the ball on news coverage. The usually apolitical TV psychologist Dr. Phil, for example, was recently holding forth to podcaster Joe Rogan on their inability to report honestly on many sensitive political subjects. Medical doctor Drew Pinsky, who has offered relationship advice in a number of media venues, is saying similar things. News about every cultural flashpoint now seems to be managed in the way that facts about COVID-19 were at the height of the pandemic scare. Why fight censorship if you can just censor yourself? An inevitable outcome of the strategic lack of curiosity among journalists is a marked Read More ›
So Who Are Today’s Disinformation Police?
Social scientists are striving to develop ways to blunt the force of information that governments would rather the public did not know or heed
When Censorship Parades Itself as a Science…
A House Subcommittee discovered that the National Science Foundation — which is supposed to support science and engineering — is readying censorship tools
Book Banning Today: Silently … Not Like in the Old Days
Traditional anti-book banning groups are simply not where the action is and maybe don’t want to beLast week we looked at the way censorship in the age of the internet is typically invisible. It’s not the police raiding bookstores; it’s — for example — sudden downranking of posts so that information that might have reached millions of people reaches only dozens. Constantly suppressed, it can’t go viral. We can see the change more clearly if we look at the difference between how books (and other information) used to get banned and how they get banned today. Book banning before the internet When the word “book bans” is used today, it usually means something different from what it meant even a few decades ago. Ulysses, a groundbreaking work by Irish novelist James Joyce (1882–1941) was indeed banned Read More ›
How Censorship Has Changed and Why That Matters So Much
The way censorship works now, you don’t even know about it. So it is much more difficult to protest.
The Cancel Culture Mob Comes For the Evolutionary Biologists
Scientists Spar Over What a Netflix Science Documentary Should Be
Should “Ancient Apocalypse” be relabeled “science fiction” if archeologists don’t think the documentary writer’s claims are valid?
As Legacy Media Continues in Decline, It Espouses Censorship More
Even as late as the turn of the millennium, media people tended to be reflexively against censorship, but then courage failed along with relevance
Why Don’t We Hear So Much About “False Information” Any More?
The new censorship target, “disinformation,” means something profoundly different, and the difference is scary
How Bottom Up Media Now Threaten the Traditional Top Tier
New media resources like subscription-based Substack are rapidly becoming the venue of choice for whistleblowers with stories to break
How Bottom Up Media Are Slowly Replacing Top Down Media
The decline and death of legacy media organizations is speeding up and the media replacing them are much smaller, more numerous and more independent
This is Digital McCarthyism
Far from being liberated by these technologies, we have been plunged back into the worst abuses of surveillance and privacy violation.The notion that we’re getting somewhere, making progress, is remarkably durable. It survives wars, financial collapse, riots, scandals, stagnating wages, and climate change (to name a few). Though techno-futurists are also fond of AI apocalypse scenarios, where artificial intelligence somehow “comes alive,” or at any rate uses its superior intelligence to make an autonomous decision to wipe out humanity, much more ink has been spilled this century prognosticating indomitable technical progress, which somehow stands in for human progress generally. But sanguine belief in progress is belied by the actual events of the twenty-first century. Computers have gotten faster and AI more powerful, but digital technology has also been used to spread misinformation, make deep fakes, and conduct relentless cyberwarfare. Financial Read More ›
China: An inside look at Neo-Totalitarianism
Writing in the journal Dignitas, Heather Zeiger outlines the Chinese government’s attempt at total control of the everyday life of residents of XinJiang province
Attempt To Tackle Censorship in Science Begins Well, Falls Flat
Scientists, we are told, censor “for the greater good.” Well yes, but ALL censors say that. Has anyone ever censored explicitly “for the greater harm”?
World Famous Psychologist Loses Appeal to Avoid “Social Media Training”
Does this decision legitimately restrict free speech?Clinical psychologist, world-renowned speaker, and author Jordan B. Peterson, who rose to international fame in 2017 after speaking out against an impending Canadian speech law involving mandatory gender pronoun use, may be compelled to take in “social media training.” (RELATED: Three More Key Takeaways From the Twitter Files and Their Fallout | Mind Matters) Several complaints regarding Peterson’s online rhetoric were sent to the College of Psychologists of Ontario in 2022, and the organization decided to have him undergo a professionalism training in order to address his online tone. Peterson appealed the decision, but lost, according to CBC: Three Ontario Divisional Court judges unanimously dismissed Peterson’s application, ruling that the college’s decision falls within its mandate to regulate the profession in Read More ›
“Deeply Unsettling:” Popular YouTube Host Concerned Over Online Censorship
After one of his videos was removed from YouTube, economist and talk show host Glenn Loury had questions.