^CategoryCensorship

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 20, 2021

Categorized
Censorship

Tagged
Cancel culture (strategies for fighting back), Douglas Murray}

Fighting Back Against Cancel Culture With Douglas Murray

_{We may need to start asking ourselves some hard questions} _{News

July 20, 2021

2

Censorship}

Journalist and author Douglas Murray’s piece is over a year old but it has aged well. He focuses on the silence from the institutions that we might reasonably expect to speak up: All ages have their orthodoxies. And if writers, artists, thinkers and comedians do not occasionally tread on them, then they are not doing their jobs. Meanwhile human nature remains what it is. And just as some children will always pull the wings off flies and fry small ants with their toy magnifying glasses, so a certain number of adult inadequates will find meaning in their lives by sniffing around the seats in the public square until they find an aroma they can claim offends them. Which brings us Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 20, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Censorship

Tagged
Abigail Shrier, Bari Weiss, Book publishers, Books, Bookselling, Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Roger Kimball, Ryan Anderson}

Why Did the Publishing Industry Go To War Against Books?

_{Readers need to know how things have changed} _{News

July 20, 2021

5

Business and Finance, Censorship}

For many reasons, traditional publishers are trying to dump controversial books. In this series we will try to unpack some of them. First, let’s look at what happens when otherwise Correct people are not the favorites of the Cancel mob. Bari Weiss, formerly of the New York Times, asks us to look at a science teacher couple at a regional U.S. university: Do you remember the names Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying? I wrote one of my earliest New York Times columns about the bravery they displayed as tenured professors — words that do not typically appear in the same sentence — at Evergreen State College. It was 2017 and the professors, both evolutionary biologists, opposed the school’s “Day of Read More ›

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post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
July 16, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Florida, Machine Learning, Poland, Privacy, Transparency, Twitter}

Governments Worldwide Pressured Twitter to Censor in 2020

_{World governments demanded the removal of content from 199 journalist sources} _{Caitlin Cory

July 16, 2021

4

Censorship, Social Media}

Twitter released its latest Transparency Report on Wednesday, revealing that in the latter half of 2020, there was a 26% increase in requests from international governments to remove posts from verified journalists. The report tracks various data from July 1 to December 31, 2020, including global legal requests and Twitter Rules enforcement. Global legal requests are divided between information requests and removal requests. Twitter received over 14,500 global government information requests, and over 38,500 global legal demands to remove content. According to the report, “94% of the total global volume of legal demands originated from only five countries (in decreasing order): Japan, India, Russia, Turkey, and South Korea.” Of the information requests received, Twitter announced that they “produced some or Read More ›

Red and green men meet for a treaty. Candidates Political Debate. civilized resolution of conflicts and disputes, search for compromise. Networking in business. Negotiation platform.

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 7, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Education

Tagged
Bret Weinstein, Florida, Intellectual freedom, Ron DeSantis, Universities}

Will Florida’s Law for Diversity of Thought at Universities Work?

_{In an internet-linked global society, protecting diversity of thought becomes even more important} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 7, 2021

4

Censorship, Education}

A new Florida law, which took effect July 1, asks universities to survey “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” annually on their campuses, to find out how free students, faculty, and staff feel “to express their beliefs and viewpoints.” Ohio Northern University law professor Scott Gerber explains, The problem DeSantis has identified is not unique to Florida — Indiana’s Republican governor signed a similar bill last month — and it traces directly to the political biases of the processes by which faculty are hired. Many of the same colleges and universities that tout tenure as a way to encourage free thought censor it by not allowing conservative and libertarian faculty candidates who think freely to get in the door. I once Read More ›

Monument Of Chinese Communist Party At Tiananmen Square

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 1, 2021

Categorized
Censorship

Tagged
Andrew Nathan, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), History (rewriting history China), Kai Strittmatter, Kiwi Chow, Mao Zedong, Tienanmen Square (massacre), Wolf Warriors, Xi Jinping}

Chinese Communist Party: 100 Years of Erasing, Rewriting History

_{Tiananmen Square: Anyone born after 1980 has no idea that the People’s Liberation Army turned against the demonstrators in front of a gate whose name is “Heavenly Peace.”} _{Heather Zeiger

July 1, 2021

8

Censorship}

“The regime wants us to forget. I hope to use my camera to remember…We are resisting in our memories. We are resisting forgetfulness.” – Kiwi Chow, documentary filmmaker in Hong Kong, referring to the events in Hong Kong in 2019, “In a Scarred Hong Kong, ‘Beautiful Things Are Gone’” Reuters, June 29, 2021 The centenary commemoration of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao Zedong in 1921 commemorates a myth. The party was founded on July 23, but this year’s celebrations commenced July 1, which coincides with the date of the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997. According to China Digital Times, July 1 has a nice symmetry to the dates of the founding of the Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
June 28, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Amazon, apple, Facebook, Google, Josh Hawley, robber barons, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book), Theodore Roosevelt, Twitter, Woodrow Wilson}

A Book Review: The Tyranny of Big Tech

_{A beautiful defense of the common man and woman against a technological elite} _{Caitlin Cory

June 28, 2021

5

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

“Our republic has never been more hierarchical, more riven by class, more managed by an elite than it is today,” writes Josh Hawley in The Tyranny of Big Tech. Who might that elite be? According to Hawley, it’s not our politicians, our lawyers, our Ivy League graduates, or our Hollywood celebrities. It’s Big Tech – those big names like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple, and Google that have embedded themselves in our lives to an almost irreversible degree. Hawley has spent his career as a U.S. Senator, and formerly as Missouri’s Attorney General, holding Big Tech accountable where others don’t dare tread. In investigations, in legislation, and now in this book, Hawley has confronted the antitrust and privacy violations committed by Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Black American culture, Cancel culture, Clarence Thomas, Douglas Murray, Evan Gerstmann, Jason Riley, Jeremy Hunt, Kay Coles James, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World (film), Uncle Tom (film), Walter E. Williams}

Black American Conservatives Lead Fight Against Cancel Culture

_{They “trigger” bullies when they say what they think needs to be said, not what the Cancel mob insists on hearing} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 24, 2021

6

Censorship, Social Media}

British writer Douglas Murray dissects social media’s Cancel Culture, in a typically unsparing fashion: All ages have their orthodoxies. And if writers, artists, thinkers and comedians do not occasionally tread on them, then they are not doing their jobs. Meanwhile human nature remains what it is. And just as some children will always pull the wings off flies and fry small ants with their toy magnifying glasses, so a certain number of adult inadequates will find meaning in their lives by sniffing around the seats in the public square until they find an aroma they can claim offends them. Douglas Murray, “How to fight back against ‘cancel culture’” at Spectator (January 24, 2020) Black American conservatives “trigger” Cancel Culture when Read More ›

Books and crumpled paper in the bin. Books that do not read, low-grade literature, copy space

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
June 22, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Amazon, blacklisting, Cancel culture, censorship, Josh Hawley, Regnery Publishing, Simon & Schuster, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book)}

The Tyranny of Big Tech: The Book That Almost Wasn’t

_{How cancel culture came for a book taking on Big Tech monopolies} _{Caitlin Cory

June 22, 2021

8

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

On May 4, Regnery Publishing released The Tyranny of Big Tech, a book written by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) uncovering the deceptive and antitrust practices of companies like Facebook and Google, and laying out a policy plan to break up the monopolies and protect the interests of America’s common men and women. The book has done well. In its first week, it became the number one bestseller in three separate categories on Amazon lists, and it made the Publisher’s Weekly list of hardcover nonfiction at No. 6. “Big Tech represents today’s robber barons,” Hawley writes in the first chapter, “who are draining prosperity and power away from the great middle of our society and creating, as they do, a new Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 18, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Babylon Bee, Cancel Culture (pushback), Chrissy Teigen, Christian Toto, Comedy, J.K. Rowlings, Jon Del Arroz, Jordan Peterson (attempted Cancelation), Mark Steyn, Pedro Domingos, Roy Meredith, WorldCon 76}

Books: The First Step in Fighting Cancel Culture

_{Malicious envy was always out there but before social media it could rarely assemble so large a mob} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 18, 2021

4

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media}

Many writers and artists are beginning to speak out and take action, recognizing that sharing the cost of speaking up reduces its burden. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 18, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Authors, Book Publishing, Books, Cancel culture, Chrissy Teigen, Games (computer games), Krishdee Dismon, Leo Benedictus, Richard Dawkins, Science fiction (and Cancel Culture), Scott Cawthon, Writers}

Books: Cancel Culture As an Invisible Army of Censors

_{The new censorship is different from traditional “banned” or “challenged” lists because a younger, much more active crowd is behind it} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 18, 2021

4

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media}

For authors, Cancel Culture, powered by social media, is becoming a serious business. A poorly thought-out tweet from years past — or merely one to which socially powerful people take exception — may destroy a career. The mob has hit genre fiction hard. One author, studying the trend, recounts, Since March, I have been sending discreet messages to authors of young adult fiction. I approached 24 people, in several countries, all writing in English. In total, 15 authors replied, of whom 11 agreed to talk to me, either by email or on the phone. Two subsequently withdrew, in one case following professional advice. Two have received death threats and five would only talk if I concealed their identity. This is Read More ›

Business risk control concept, Businessman protect wooden block fall to planning and strategy in risk to business Alternative and prevent. Investment Insurance Business.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 16, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Anthony Fauci, Big Tech censorship, censorship, Josh Hawley, Mark Zuckerberg, Ron DeSantis, Section 230, The Tyranny of Big Tech (book)}

The Push to Break Up Big Tech Monopolies

_{Facebook is "acting as an arm of the state," says Florida's governor} _{News

June 16, 2021

5

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures, hosted by Maria Bartiromo, over the weekend. The two discussed Big Tech’s alarming censorship power and Florida’s efforts to combat that power. Recent government emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits suggest that Dr. Anthony Fauci and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg coordinated what should and should not be dispersed through social media platforms regarding COVID-19 and its origins. “Do you believe Fauci colluded with Mark Zuckerberg? Does this expose Facebook to legal action?” Bartiromo asked DeSantis. DeSantis answered by calling Facebook “an arm of the state”: Here’s an example of working with Fauci where Facebook, you can argue, is essentially acting as an arm of the state, because they’re Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 9, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Amazon, Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Facebook, Florida, Florida and Big Tech, Free speech, Google, Mark Zuckerberg, NetChoice, Parler, Ron DeSantis, Section 230, Senate Bill 7072, Twitter}

Censoring the Censors? Florida’s Anti-Censorship Law

_{What exactly does the law do, and why is Big Tech sponsoring a lawsuit to halt it?} _{News

June 9, 2021

6

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

Originally published by Dr. Karl Stephan at Engineering Ethics On May 24, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill designed to stop social media firms from censoring free speech. At least that’s what the governor’s website claims it does. Two big-tech industry groups, Netchoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), sued the state of Florida in early June over the legislation, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1. What exactly does the law do, and why are organizations such as Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google sponsoring a lawsuit to halt it? People of certain political persuasions need not look far for motivations to pass such a law. Following the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of this year, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
June 8, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, Big Tech censorship, Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Facebook, First Amendment, Florida, Florida and Big Tech, Fourteenth Amendment, Free speech, Google, John Snyder, NetChoice, Ron DeSantis, Section 230, Senate Bill 7072, Twitter}

Big Tech Sues Florida Over New Censorship Law

_{Facebook, Twitter, and Google are fighting back against a Florida law that seeks to reign them in} _{Caitlin Cory

June 8, 2021

4

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

Technology trade companies representing Facebook, Twitter, and Google are suing Florida over its new law regulating the editorial and censorship powers of large social media platforms. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7072 into law on May 24, the first of its kind in the nation to curb the powers of online companies to remove and censor content and users. NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) – technology trade groups that have been vocal about their opposition to the law – filed the lawsuit against Florida the following Thursday in Tallahassee federal court. DeSantis and other supporters of the new law argue that its purpose is to safeguard the First Amendment rights of ordinary Florida citizens Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
June 3, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
banned from YouTUbe, censorship, Eric Metaxas, Florida, Free speech, Naomi Wolf, Scott Atlas, social media, Texas, YouTube}

Big Tech Scrubs Religious Radio Show From YouTube

_{This isn't the first time YouTube has infringed on free speech} _{Caitlin Cory

June 3, 2021

4

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

YouTube removed an entire radio show from its platform this week, hosted by popular Christian author and social commentator Eric Metaxas, citing violations of their community standards. Metaxas – author of biographies on the lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and William Wilberforce, among many other books – announced the news to his social media pages on Tuesday. “It’s happened,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “Despite our going FAR out of our way to comply with their arbitrary ‘community standards’, YouTube decided to remove every single video we’ve ever done on the Eric Metaxas Show off their platform.” The Eric Metaxas Radio Show, humorously called “The Show About Everything”, has featured a host of big name guests, including former Read More ›

This is the State Capitol building. It has a large concrete stairway leading up to it with large columns holding up the facade.

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
May 26, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Law, Social Media

Tagged
Facebook, Florida, John Snyder, Ron DeSantis, Senate Bill 7072, social media, Twitter}

Florida Governor Signs Bill Reining in Big Tech

_{The bill Governor DeSantis signed is the first in the nation to ban social media companies from deplatforming political candidates} _{Caitlin Cory

May 26, 2021

5

Censorship, Law, Social Media}

In the current national battle between Big Tech and Big Government, a new Florida law will punish social media companies for discriminating against political viewpoints and deplatforming political candidates. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7072 into law on Monday. The legislation protects Florida citizens and political candidates from inequitable viewpoint censorship. “Now more than ever, social media has really become the twenty-first century public square,” John Snyder, a Representative in the Florida House, told Mind Matters News. “It’s evolved from what used to be just a platform where people could post thoughts and pictures to now this is a tool that people rely on to communicate with their family, to talk with their friends, to air their grievances, and really to Read More ›

Happy april fool's day and funny pranks concept with a pair of comical glasses with bushy eyebrows and thick mustache isolated on blue background with copy space

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 4, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Adam Ford, Babylon Bee, Bill Maher, Cancel culture, David French, Facebook (vs. Babylon Bee), Fact checking, Mike Isaac, New York Times (vs. Babylon Bee), Not the Bee, PePe LePew (cartoon character), Ricky Gervais, Ryan Long, Seth Dillon, Snopes, Snopes (vs. Babylon Bee), USA Today (vs. Babylon Bee)}

Comedy: An Endangered Art Form in the Age of Rage?

_{A deeper issue underlies the current posturing against the Babylon Bee and the cartoon skunk PePe LePew} _{Denyse O'Leary

May 4, 2021

6

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media}

The Babylon Bee, an evangelical Christian satire site, has become unFunny to much of the elite commentariat of our day. The comedy gold the commentariat attacks has created says a good deal about the role of Big Social Media in funnelling and shaping our culture. Many commentators were not used to hearing their icons mocked, even gently. By 2019, fact-checking site Snopes started “fact-checking” obvious satire and the Bee responded (of course) with ridicule. But a New York Times headline of the day raises the issue that must really have been nagging at many aspirants to social power: “Satire or Deceit? Christian Humor Site Feuds With Snopes.” The Bee has its defenders, notably David French: Snopes has fact-checked whether Democrats Read More ›

Padlock, China flag on a smartphone and China map, symbolizing the Great Firewall of China concept or GFW and all extreme Internet censorship in China

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
April 28, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship

Tagged
Academy Awards, Anders Hammer, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chloé Zhao, Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), Do Not Split (film), Hong Kong, Internet Archive, Nomad (film), Oscars, Stanley Rosen, Wayback Machine}

The Academy Award Goes to… 404

_{Chinese citizens were suddenly no longer allowed to know of an Oscar for Best Director won by a Beijing-born woman, let alone see the film} _{Heather Zeiger

April 28, 2021

7

Arts & Culture, Censorship}

As the hoopla from the 92nd Academy Awards last weekend fades, if you search for “Chloe Zhao” on Google, you’ll discover a curious thing: She is the first Asian director and second female director to win an Academy Award for best director, for her film Nomadland. Search for “Chloe Zhao” or her Chinese name, “Zhao Ting,” on Baidu in China and you’ll find “only scattered links to deleted articles about the Academy Award honor” (Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2021). Posts on Weibo and WeChat congratulating her were removed within minutes of the announcement of her win for best director. Rewriting the story in the U.S. Zhao (pictured) was born in Beijing, went to a boarding school in the U.K., Read More ›

cyber bullying concept. people using notebook computer laptop for social media interactions with notification icons of hate speech and mean comment in social network

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 13, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Social Media

Tagged
Adam Seagrave, Cancel culture, Echo chamber (social media), Reality czar, Social media bubble, Social media echo chamber}

When Half Our Time Is Spent Online, We Live in a Delusional World

_{A historian warns that many of us now live in bubbles where we need interact only with people who agree with us} _{News

April 13, 2021

5

Censorship, Media, Social Media}

Historian Adam Seagrave (pictured) reflects on the finding that more than half of Americans spend more than half of their waking time in “virtual worlds”: Living through electronic media, especially social media, causes us to live in entirely different worlds even from near neighbors: “The 50 percent threshold represents a tipping point that renders dialogue, deliberation, civic friendship, and compromise extraordinarily difficult in any society.” According to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey, roughly eight in ten Americans go online at least daily. Almost three in ten American adults say they are “almost constantly” online. According to a 2019 Digital Information World report, internet users in the United States spend an average of 6 hours and 31 minutes online every Read More ›

Bündel roher Baumwolle (Gossypium arboreum), Südindien

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
April 12, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Censorship, Ethics

Tagged
Better Cotton Initiative, China, Chinese Youth League, Cotton, Ethical Trading Initiative, Forced labor, Garment industry, H&M, Uyghurs, Xinjiang}

Clothing Retailer H&M Canceled for Revealing China’s Forced Labor

_{About a fifth of the world’s cotton is grown in Xinjiang, for which Uyghur labor is conscripted, partly through the detention camps complex} _{Heather Zeiger

April 12, 2021

6

Business and Finance, Censorship, Ethics}

Recently, I wrote about the fact that many fashionable products consumed in the West are produced by forced Uyghur labor. Those who speak out pay a steep price, as Swedish clothing retailer H&M can attest. Two weeks ago, H&M was Canceled in China after the Communist Youth League decried the company’s comments on forced labor in Xinjiang on Weibo, China’s biggest social media platform. The comments themselves dated from last year (March 2020). The online vitriol is likely in response to sanctions recently imposed by the European Union, the U.S., the U.K., and Canada on Chinese officials for human rights abuses. Earlier in March (2021), Newslines Institute for Strategy and Policy, an international independent organization, published a report showing that Read More ›