Melon Farmers Original Version

Censor Watch


2018: August

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A mug's game...

PEGI introduces a new symbol to warn parents of in-game purchases


Link Here31st August 2018
Video games sold in European stores are set to carry a new label warning that the game includes in-game purchases.

Popular titles like Fortnite and FIFA are examples of games that generate revenue using this approach.

The labels are pitched as a warning to parents that their children need to be watched lest they spend significant money on digital items.

Last December, the Metro reported that a teenager had accidentally spent his mother's entire monthly wage on FIFA 18 because her debit card was registered to his PlayStation account.

PEGI (Pan European Game Information) - which provides age ratings for games in the UK - has now announced it plans to introduce a new badge for physical releases to help inform parents as they shop.Simon Little, managing director at the classification board, said:

Making parents aware of the existence of optional in-game purchases upfront is an important first step. FIFA allows players to spend extra money to build their teams.

The symbol is set to be introduced by Christmas.

 

 

Banning plastic recycling...

Toronto moralists drag up an old by-law to ban a sex doll brothel


Link Here31st August 2018
The City of Toronto has closed what claimed to be North America's first known sex doll brothel a week before it was set to open.

Aura Dolls planned to open September 8 with a choice of six silicone sex dolls for rent 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But the plan was thwarted by the miserable councillor John Filion who dragged up an old bylaw he introduced two decades ago that restricts adult entertainment parlours in North York to industrial areas. City officials then deemed Aura Dolls to be illegal.

 

 

A Telegram from the Courts...

Telegram announces that it will handover IP address and contact details on receipt of a court order


Link Here30th August 2018
The encrypted messaging app Telegram has published a new privacy policy in which it stated: If Telegram receives a court order that confirms you're a terror suspect, we may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities.

So far, this has never happened, the policy noted. When it does, we will include it in a semi-annual transparency report .

In a Telegram post on Tuesday founder Pavel Durov said the policy has been revised to belatedly comply with Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation  (GDPR), and Telegram was reserving the right to comply with court orders.

Regardless of whether we ever use this right, the measure should make Telegram less attractive for those who are engaged in sending out terrorist propaganda here, he noted.

 

 

The Hustle...

MPAA rating changed from R to PG-13 after successful appeal


Link Here29th August 2018
The Hustle is a 2019 USA comedy by Chris Addison.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson and Tim Blake Nelson. IMDb
The film was originally rated R in the US for some crude sexual references. The producers were not impressed and appealed the rating, seeking a PG-13 rating.

The appeal was successful and the movie was re-rated PG-13 without cuts, this time for crude sexual content and language.

Summary Notes

A remake of the 1988 comedy, 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels', in which two down-and-out con artists engage in a "loser leaves town" contest.

 

 

Don't bother argue against negative speech anymore, just report it and we'll ban it...

Tumblr is firming up its censorship rules and withdrawing from its previously more enlightened approach than most


Link Here29th August 2018
Tumblr is changing its censorship rules to more explicitly ban hate speech, glorifying violence, and revenge porn. The new rules go into effect on September 10th:

We won't tolerate hate speech

We believe in a free and open internet but we can't ignore that the internet is being exploited by hate groups to organize, recruit, and radicalize with horrifying efficiency. Updating our Community Guidelines and internal procedures is necessary to address a very real threat to members of the Tumblr community.

When it comes to hate speech, we're redrawing the line between what's uncomfortable and what's unacceptable, and have struck 41 words of gray area from this section in the Community Guidelines. It now reads:

Hate Speech: Don't encourage violence or hatred. Don't post content for the purpose of promoting or inciting the hatred of, or dehumanizing, individuals or groups based on race, ethnic or national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability or disease. If you encounter content that violates our hate speech policies, please report it.

[DELETED: If you encounter negative speech that doesn't rise to the level of violence or threats of violence, we encourage you to dismantle negative speech through argument rather than censorship. That said, if you encounter anything especially heinous, tell us about it.]

Keep in mind that a post might be mean, tasteless, or offensive without necessarily encouraging violence or hatred. In cases like that, you can always block the person who made the post--or, if you're up for it, you can express your concerns to them directly, or use Tumblr to speak up, challenge ideas, raise awareness or generate discussion and debate.

While the deleted language was well-intentioned (and we still need your help reporting hate speech) a post shouldn't have to be "especially heinous" to merit reporting.

We're also banning the glorification of violence and its perpetrators

Not all violence is motivated by racial or ethnic hatred, but the glorification of mass murders like Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland could inspire copycat violence. With that in mind, we're revising the Community Guidelines on violent content by adding new language to specifically ban the glorification of violent acts or the perpetrators of those acts:

Violent Content and Threats, Gore, Mutilation: Don't post content that includes violent threats toward individuals or groups--this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don't post violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don't showcase the mutilation or torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. Don't post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of violence or the perpetrators.

Lastly, we're eliminating any ambiguity in our zero-tolerance policy on non-consensual sexual images

We're adding a very simple statement (in bold below) to our existing policy on harassment to remove any uncertainty:

Harassment . Don't engage in targeted abuse or harassment. Don't engage in the unwanted sexualization or sexual harassment of others .

Posting sexually explicit photos of people without their consent was never allowed on Tumblr, but with the invention of deepfakes and the proliferation of non-consensual creepshots, we are updating our Community Guidelines to more clearly address new technologies that can be used to humiliate and threaten other people.

 

 

Offsite Article: Pokemon Censored...


Link Here29th August 2018
Some Real Weird Things In America

See article from comicbook.com

 

 

Love Censorship...

Music companies and European journalists in campaign for a massive step up in internet censorship as they see it as helping them to claim more money from the internet giants


Link Here28th August 2018

In 15 days' time, MEPs will again vote on censorship machines and link tax in copyright proposals of Article 13. The legislation would see platforms such as YouTube compelled to introduce upload filters, to prevent unlicensed content being offered to the public. A new 'Love Music' campaign, bankrolled by powerful industry players, aims to ensure a thumbs-up from MEPs. But the opposition is out, in force.

In 2016, the European Commission announced plans to modernize EU copyright law, something that was to later develop into a worldwide controversy. A major part of the proposal is Article 13, a text that aims to make online services liable for uploaded content unless they take effective and proportionate measures to prevent copyright infringements. The implication is that platforms such as YouTube would be compelled to implement upload filtering and then proactively monitor to prevent future infringing uploads.

The #LOVEMUSIC campaign site asks visitors to add their signature to the Make Internet Fair petition, which calls on EU decision-makers to recognize that platforms like YouTube are involved in reproducing and making our works available under copyright laws and ensure that the safe harbor non-liability regime does not apply to them as it is meant for technical intermediaries only.

While most protests are taking place on the Internet, the platform that will be most affected by Article 13, opponents of the proposed legislation have been urged to gather in public too. Julia Reda MEP previously published details of a day of action to take place yesterday in various locations around Europe, but that will be just the tip of the protest iceberg as September 12th draws closer.

Following their shock defeat in July, major players in the music industry called foul, claiming that the protests had been automated and organized by big tech, something addressed by Reda recently. She wrote:

They're claiming the protest was all fake, generated by bots and orchestrated by big internet companies. According to them, Europeans don't actually care about their freedom of expression.

We don't actually care about EU lawmaking enough to make our voices heard. We will just stand idly by as our internet is restricted to serve corporate interests.

To prove these predictions wrong, one of the focal points of the 'NO' campaign is a Change.org petition . At the time of writing it has in excess of 951,000 signatories, with the million target probably just a few days away.

But it is not just the music companies that are 'Love Censorship'. Journalists from 20 countries joined the call for European MPs to approve the censorship proposals. News companies also see the article 13 censorship rules as helping them to claim more money from the internet giants.

An open letter signed by more than 100 prominent journalists from major news outlets warns that the internet companies are fleecing of the media of their rightful revenue was morally and democratically unjustifiable. The letter written by AFP foreign correspondent Sammy Ketz says:

We have become targets and our reporting missions cost more and more. Yet, even though (the media) pay for the content and send the journalists who will risk their lives to produce a trustworthy, thorough and diverse news service, it is not they who reap the profits but the internet platforms, which help themselves without paying a cent.

It is as if a stranger came along and shamelessly snatched the fruits of your labour.

Critics, however, argue the reform will lead to blanket censorship by tech platforms that have become an online hub for creativity, especially YouTube. They say it will also restrict the usage of memes and remixes by everyday internet surfers.

Unfortunately the numbers taking to the street in protests yesterday weren't too great. Between 80 and 150 people came to the protest in Berlin, according to various estimates, but most other events seemed to have fewer than two dozen. Based on photographs shared online, it seems that all of the protests combined drew between 500 and 800 people in total.

It would be foolish to expect a million people to take to the streets over copyright legislation, and the lack of protest doesn't prove that Europeans don't object to Article 13. Certainly, some do. But the actual number seems smaller than hoped.

 

 

Ofcom a little too quick to censor?...

Ofcom censures Bob FM for speaking of police collecting speed ticket revenue as scumbags and maggots.


Link Here28th August 2018

Bob's Breakfast
Bob FM, 4 May 2018, 08:40

Bob FM is a local commercial radio service for Hertford and its surrounding areas. The station's output consists of music and information aimed at listeners aged between 25 and 54.

We received a complaint about a segment broadcast during the station's daily breakfast programme, during which the presenter took call from a listener who identified the location of a vehicle with a mobile speed camera.

The listener described the person conducting the speed checks as a scumbag and said he was sat there like a little maggot. The presenter then said that this person was:

In the back of a van, catching hard-working, tax-paying people who are on their way to work206to earn their living, to take their place in society, to make a bit of a difference, to you know, help the economy of this country so they can earn a living to put a roof over their head and pay taxes. Those are the people that this maggot

Ofcom consider Rule 2.3 of the Code:

In applying generally accepted standards, broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context... Such material may include offensive language...[or] discriminatory treatment or language

The Licensee said that the language used was provocative and designed to be entertaining while empathising with listeners' frustration. It added that there was no assertion that the person in the speed camera van was a police officer or whether the van was unmanned.

Ofcom Decision

This two-minute segment called into question the actions of speed camera operators and their motivation for carrying out this function. The item contained six uses of the word maggot, two uses of the word maggotwatch and one use of the word scumbag to describe people who operate mobile speed cameras. The presenter and caller criticised their work, saying that its purpose was to generate revenue and that it caught innocent people.

In Ofcom's view, the language used in this segment was critical and derogatory and had the potential to cause offence. We took into account the Licensee's argument that there was no assertion that the people operating the speed cameras were police officers. However, in our view, listeners were likely to have understood the criticism as being directed at police officers in speed camera vehicles. We considered that this heightened the potential for offence. We also took into account the Licensee's submission that children were unlikely to be in the audience. However, our concern in this case was the potential offence to the audience generally rather than just children

Our Decision is that the offence caused by this segment was not justified by the context and in breach of Rule 2.3.

 

 

Commented: A Northern Soul...

Hull has decided to make its 12A rating permanent for future screenings amid criticism of the BBFC for censoring the commonplace language of the working class


Link Here28th August 2018
Full story: A Northern Soul...Director takes issue with the BBFC 15 rating
The man behind a new film about Hull's year as the UK City of Culture has hit out at censors after they gave it it 15 rating.

A Northern Soul is Hull-born award-winning documentary filmmaker Sean McAllister's take on 2017. It follows struggling factory worker Steve Arnott's dream of bringing hip-hop and rap to the city's estates in a youth project involving a converted bus.

The film was given a 12A rating by licensing councillors in Hull ahead of a recent series of initial screenings at the University of Hull and Vue cinema.

But now the BBFC has decided it should have a 15 rating for strong language.

While the documentary does feature regular use of the F-word, McAllister said swearing was what ordinary people in Hull did and claimed the decision was an attack on working-class people. On Twitter, he said:

It's a film about a working-class bloke helping kids with rap music find a better life.

McAllister commented: It's funny the swearing in The King's Speech is a lot worse, including the C-word, but that gets a 12A. He also compared the decision to the swearing on many of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey's TV shows.

More screenings will be held on three evenings next week at Vue as well as later in the month. In response to the BBFC decision, Mr McAllister said all next week's screenings would be free to children under 15 and over 12ish.

[The censorship of strong language in films is one of the silliest aspects of film censorship. Surely young teams will be well versed in strong language, and they will have heard it all before. Surely it will make no difference if they hear the same at the cinema.

But to be fair to the film censors, strong language is one of the things that parents, maybe especially middle class parents, ask for the censors to cut or restrict.

Should the film BBFC consider the actual effect of young teens hearing strong language on screen, or should they follow the wishes of the parents?.

And there certainly is a class aspect to this. The unspoken underlying reality is that middle class parents simply don't want their kids speaking like working class kids].

Update: Censored whilst claiming to be uncensored

21st August 2018. See  article from screendaily.com

Hull City Council has decided that it will not adhere to the BBFC decision to award Sean McAllister's feature documentary A Northern Soul a 15-certificate. Instead, the council will allow the film to be shown in the city at a 12A rating, granting anyone from the age of 12 upwards the option to view the film, while those under 12 can do so if accompanied by an adult.

The council had originally granted the film a 12A certificate for a short theatrical run in the city prior to its official release (which begins on Friday, August 24), but had informed the filmmakers that it would be implementing the 15 rating for further screenings. This decision has now been reversed, and three further screenings at Vue Hull this week will carry the 12A rating.

Following a hearing, the council said that its Licensing Sub-Committee had determined the film would be classified 12A for showings, at any time, at premises within the Licensing Authority's area. It gave its reason for the decision as being:

Strong language was only used by the subject of the film to express emotion in interviews with the filmmaker, was never directed at an individual, or used in an aggressive manner

The BBFC's original certification has caused controversy in the UK since the decision was made on August 11, with many viewing the certificate as not appropriate for a feature doc that spotlights everyday working-class Britain. The rating was awarded due to the film's strong language, owing to it containing more than four uses of the word fuck -- the film contains the word or variations on it a total of 10 times.

Director McAllister said that the film contains no violence, no sexual content, and no aggressive swearing, with the only use of profanity being within the confines of everyday language. He noted that the rating now restricts their outreach opportunities. [The decision] prevents school screenings of this film (for kids under 15) which is so necessary in the communities across this divided nation, he commented when the BBFC classified the film.

Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hull North, said on Twitter that she was surprised by the BBFC's decision, adding that she didn't understand why the film would be a 15 while a title such as The King's Speech , which contains stronger language, would receive a PG.

A Northern Soul producer, Elhum Shakerifar, commented:

As a documentary producer, I hope that this does bring into question the matter of representation, particularly of working class realities on screen, but also the reality of documentary filmmaking versus fiction. Our characters aren't scripted, they're real people that we spend time with to build bridges of confidence, respect and communication with - and we don't want to take words out of their mouths, just as we don't put words into them, she said.

Shakerifar added that they are now intending to apply for local certificates with further local councils, and have already begun the process in Beverley, which is seven miles away from Hull and will be hosting screenings of the film in a few weeks' time.

Comment: The Director of A Northern Soul makes his case against the BBFC in the Guardian

28th August 2018. See  article from theguardian.com by Sean McAllister

My film-making style is intimate and engaged -- I look for characters whom I film over a long period of time and who let me into their lives fully. Finding people who can articulate their situation is important, and Steve's dream of helping poor kids in Hull during the city of culture period seemed the perfect opportunity. Steve trusted me and talked openly and honestly. Trust and intimacy are things a documentary film-maker works hard for -- they're not easily won, and it is also a responsibility.

As a result, Steve speaks to me as he would to a mate -- his language is real and engaging. He uses the occasional F-word, as most of us do in everyday language, but only ever in my company, never in front of anyone else, and this is never aggressive or sexual.

There is a limited amount of bad language in the film. There are 19 F-words: 14 from Steve, and five that feature in the song Sometimes by Akala, who appears briefly in the film on stage, singing the lyrics When I feel like / Fuck it, I've had enough. It's the BBFC's job to count them and apparently you're not allowed more than four!

But the point isn't the strong language -- it's about a voice and the everyday lived reality of someone being censored. It seems absurd that this would be deemed inappropriate for children, while films currently playing at the cinema receive 12A certificates despite gratuitous on-screen violence. Mission Impossible, 12A, has a scene of someone being shot point blank on camera, for example.

... Read the full article from theguardian.com

 

 

Thumbs down...

The EU is considering proposals to fingerprint all European Identity card holders


Link Here27th August 2018
Proposals to make fingerprinting of all identity card holders in the EU obligatory were published by the European Commission in April as part of proposal on strengthening the security of identity cards and residence documents.

The proposal published by the Commission says that all EU Member States will be obliged to introduce a uniform format for their identity cards (if they issue them) and that they must include a facial image and two fingerprints - the latter being included, in the words of the Commission, to further increase effectiveness in terms of security.

This measure flies in the face of the conclusions reached in the Commission's own impact assessment, which said that a proposal excluding mandatory fingerprinting would be more efficient and proportional.

The Commission has made no attempt to justify the necessity and proportionality of what is a serious intrusion on the rights to privacy and data protection - biometric data qualifies as a special category of personal data under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation and requires suitable and specific safeguards.

The proposals were sent to the Council for the consideration of the Member States, whose representatives in the Working Party on Frontiers first examined the proposals on 4 May. They have been discussed on three further occasions since then.

 

 

Offsite Article: Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor (1994)...


Link Here27th August 2018
A continuing series about films and videos once banned by the BBFC. By Sam Inglis

See article from thelondoneconomic.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Facebook won't cough up a single pixel about the picture it builds up of your website browsing...


Link Here27th August 2018
Full story: Facebook Privacy...Facebook criticised for discouraging privacy
Under GPDR requirements for data transparency, Facebook is being challenged to reveal what data it holds on people's website browsing from its Facebook Pixel snooping cookie

See article from theregister.co.uk

 

 

Crazy Rich Film Distributors...

Crazy Rich Asians is cut for a PG rating in Australia


Link Here26th August 2018
Crazy Rich Asians is a 2018 USA comedy by Jon M Chu.
Starring Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh and Henry Golding. BBFC link IMDb

The story follows Rachel Chu (Wu), an American-born Chinese economics professor, who travels to her boyfriend Nick's (Golding) hometown of Singapore for his best friend's wedding. Before long, his secret is out: Nick is from a family that is impossibly wealthy, he's perhaps the most eligible bachelor in Asia, and every single woman in his ultra-rarefied social class is incredibly jealous of Rachel and wants to bring her down.

The film is uncut and 12A rated in the UK. It is uncut and PG-13 rated in the US. However it has been cut in Australia to achieve a PG rating.

On July 3, 2018, an uncut print of CRAZY RICH ASIANS was passed with an M (PG-15) rating for coarse language.

On July 11, Roadshow Films resubmitted the film in a censored version. This time it received a PG rating for mild themes and coarse language

Reviews on US Christian sites mention that there are two uses of the word Fuck. The Refused Classification website commented that it suspected that both of these have been overdubbed in the Australian PG version.

Maybe the Australian categories provide a different dynamic to the US. In America the success of the PG-13 rating means that it is now the dominant rating for a film marketed for all ages. The PG rating has become associated with children's film and so is something to be avoided for films that appeal to all ages. It has been noted that some instances of strong language are there just to ensure a PG-13 rather than a PG. Perhaps that is the reason for strong language in Crazy Rich Asians. It would be a little ironic if the US film makers added it to avoid a PG whilst the Australian distributors cut it to obtain a PG.

 

 

Rajan Zed recommends...

Kalika IPA from the Tollgate Brewery of Ashby-de-la-Zouch


Link Here26th August 2018
The perennially whingeing US Hindu, Rajan Zed has highlight a British beer for his latest outrage. He writes:

Upset Hindus are urging Ashby-de-la-Zouch based Tollgate Brewery to apologize and withdraw its Kalika IPA beer; calling it highly inappropriate.

Label of Tollgate's Kalika IPA beer (described as Well hopped dark gold IPA, under its Light Beers category) carries image of Hindu goddess Kalika (or Kali).

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, said in a statement in Nevada (USA) that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Zed indicated that goddess Kalika was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed.

Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.

Zed seems to have stopped using his template statement that hindus believe in free speech ...BUT...

 

 

BBC to end programmes with white men explaining things...

It's hardly going to do much for community cohesion if you make your own people unwanted


Link Here 26th August 2018
The BBC no longer wants TV shows in which white, middle-aged men stand up and explain things, according to one of the corporation's senior executives.

Programmes that feature individual presenters imparting their knowledge of a subject to viewers are too static and no longer excite audiences, Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC Four, told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday

He said controllers of other channels, including BBC Two, had also taken against the outdated presenting format. There's a mode of programming that involves a presenter, usually white, middle-aged and male, standing on a hill and 'telling you like it is'. We all recognise the era of that has passed.

 

 

Take down the DCMA!...

Copyright holder asks the US Supreme Court to look at whether the DCMA law is achieving enough to protect copyrights


Link Here26th August 2018

The US Supreme Court has been asked to take a look at a critical piece of internet law that shields ISPs and websites from legal action when their users pirate copyrighted stuff.

Porn studio Ventura Content has asked the court to review the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) for the first time since it was introduced 20 years ago, arguing that the legislation is outdated and needs reform.

The application comes as the law is being tested nationwide. This week, large internet provider Cox settled out of court on the eve of a long-running and critical trial on the same issue: whether an organization can be held liable when people use its website, service, or platform to illegally access or distribute copyrighted work.

The copyright holders are arguing that websites and ISPs are paying lip-service to anti-piracy laws and failing to fulfill their obligations under DMCA. Under that law, if an ISP or website owner can be shown to be warning users that they are infringing copyright, with the threat of account termination, the businesses are given legal protection against being held liable for copyright infringement.

Ventura has appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the law as currently applied gives too much deference to ISPs and websites, producing a staggering dissonance between online and offline liability standards.

 

 

Offsite Article: Your Smart Electricity Meter Can Easily Spy On You...


Link Here26th August 2018
US Court Ruling Warns Modern meters can track not only when you're not home, but what you're up to when you're there.

See article from motherboard.vice.com

 

 

Has any one actually seen any 'fake news' of note? or is it just a political Trojan Horse?...

Tom Watson calls for the establishment of an internet censor presumably to take down content that he does not like


Link Here25th August 2018
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson has called for the establishment of a new internet censor with  tough sanctions to police what he considers to be the wild west of the internet

Tom Watson has accused companies of not removing 'fake news' stories that are spread like wildfire saying:

Social media companies should be hit hard with fines if they fail to take down abusive content=

Watson says Britain should follow the lead of Germany, which fines social media firms up to £45million for not taking down hate speech within 24 hours. He says:

The likes of Facebook and Twitter have refused to change. Authorities worldwide don't have the baby teeth, let alone the sharp teeth, to make them take notice. International regulatory regimes are outdated and dangerous.

He adds that the protection the firms have enjoyed as platforms rather than publishers needs to be withdrawn saying: they won't go to the lengths they need to unless they have a legal liability.

 

 

Extract: Daily Facebook Censorship...

Tech Titans Made Serious Mistakes, and More Censorship Won't Right the Ship. By David French


Link Here25th August 2018
Full story: Facebook Censorship...Facebook quick to censor

yesterday, journalist and bestselling author Salena Zito reported that Facebook seemed to be censoring a story she wrote for the New York Post detailing why many Trump supporters won't be shaken by the Paul Manafort conviction or the Michael Cohen plea deal.

Some of her readers reported that it was being marked as spam. Others told her that Facebook was reporting that the article did not follow its Community Standards.

Then, suddenly, the posts reappeared. In both instances there has been no satisfactory explanation from Facebook for its censorship.

Read the full  article from nationalreview.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Taxing internet giants to subsidise journalists, but who will decide which ones benefit?...


Link Here25th August 2018
Now Corbyn plans to nationalise the news Why cheer the Labour leader's support for government-approved journalism? By Mick Hume

See article from spiked-online.com

 

 

Amazon bans The Liberator Code Book...

But, this is perhaps not so surprising when the book is just a printout of the file to 3D print your own gun


Link Here24th August 2018

Amazon has banned a book that provided the code to create a 3D printed gun.

The book, a 584-page tome called The Liberator Code Book: An Exercise in the Freedom of Speech , contained computer code that could reportedly be fed to a 3D printer to create a plastic gun called The Liberator. The book was selling at $20 prior to being removed from the store

Author CJ Awelow wrote on Amazon

The purpose of this exercise is to give a physical analogy between computer code and books. Code is speech. This is a printed copy of .step files for the Liberator. and not much else. Don't expect a gripping narrative: that's being played out in the news and the courts. Proceeds from this book will be used to fight for free speech and the right to keep and bear arms.

According to The Washington Post, the book had appeared on Amazon on August 1, just a day after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the public availability of the code in question.

Amazon took down the listing noting that it violated Amazon's content guidelines, but would not elaborate further.

 

 

Taking over from Google and Amazon...

Wickr steps up the plate and offers a domain fronting service to make it difficult for states to block websites


Link Here24th August 2018
In April, Google and Amazon both dropped domain fronting from their web hosting services. Domain fronting is a technique used to bypass internet censorship, in places such as Iran , Russia, and China. Website requests to a censored site start their journey across the internet as requests to Google or Amazon app servers. The final routing to the blocked site is only revealed once an encrypted connection is established. Of course internet censors can block Google and Amazon but this may displease large numbers of internet users. Russia for example had to ban massive numbers of sites in attempt to block the encrypted messaging app Telegram which was employing domain fronting options.

Now, encrypted messaging platform Wickr is starting to roll out a service to its users that includes domain fronting spread across a variety of infrastructure, meaning that customers and soon free users should be able to use the feature to circumvent censorship. Wickr CEO Joel Wallenstrom told Motherboard:

On top of encryption, there's also the availability part of security. You can't have one without the other.

 

 

Church-goers aghast that Derby Cathedral is screening The Wicker Man...

Christianity skips along the path to its own demise, believing that it's on a godly mission to save the children


Link Here 23rd August 2018
The Daily Mail writes:

An unholy row has flared after a cathedral's decision to screen films which include a graphic sex scene, full female nudity and a Pagan sacrifice.

Some church-goers believe that showing cult horror movie The Wicker Man and the thriller Don't Look Now at Derby Cathedral is inappropriate.

Wardens from other churches have called for the screenings to be scrapped.

However, the Cathedral's Dean said the building was for everybody and it needed to serve a wide range of people in the city. The Dean, the Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance, said:

The first thing we're trying to do is open the cathedral to new people. It doesn't just belong to the people who go to church; it certainly doesn't belong to me; it doesn't just belong to religious people.

This is Derby's cathedral and it needs to serve the needs of the people of Derby, as wide a range of the people of Derby as we possibly can.

Steve Dunning, a church warden from within the diocese of Derby, said:

I just think it isn't appropriate to show these films in a place of worship that is consecrated and hallowed, and therefore it compromises the spiritual integrity of the cathedral.

The films are part of a season of film screenings called Quad in Residence at Derby Cathedral, which begins on 7 September. Other films include Monty Python's Life of Brian, a religious satire telling the story of a man who is mistaken for Jesus, and which has itself sparked controversy in the past. Sister Act, in which Whoopi Goldberg's character is forced to join a convent, is also being screened.

 

 

At last! A moral, decent and proper censorship law...

Australian senator introduces bill to roll back the country's censorship laws


Link Here23rd August 2018
Excellent work in the Australian Parliament as Senator David Leyonhelm as introduced a private members bill titled:

Freedom of Speech Legislation Amendment (Censorship) Bill 2018

The summary reads:

Amends the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 to:

  • remove the ban on publications, films and computer games that offend against standards of morality, decency and propriety;

  • and Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to: remove bans on broadcasting, datacasting and online content, with a specific focus on bans affecting services provided behind paywalls;

  • narrow the guidance provided by government to broadcasting industries and datacasting licensees in the development of codes of practice;

  • remove certain restrictions on subscription television broadcasters and online content services relating to programs or content that has been or would be classified as X 18+, category 1 restricted or category 2 restricted;

  • and remove a ban on broadcasting electoral advertising relating to a federal, state, territory or local election on election day or on the preceding Thursday or Friday

Presumably an Australian private members bill has as little chance of success as its UK equivalent, but its the thought that counts.

 

 

Facebook: connecting naively trusting users with totally untrustworthy organisations...

And now Facebook implements daily deeds of censorship as if these are acts of contrition for its failures of trust


Link Here22nd August 2018
Full story: Facebook Censorship...Facebook quick to censor
And today's daily act of censorship is to take down 652 accounts and pages connected to Russia and Iran that published political propaganda.

Facebook said in a blog post  that the errant accounts were first uncovered by the cybersecurity firm FireEye, and have links to Russia and Iran. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said:

These were networks of accounts that were misleading people about who they were and what they were doing. We ban this kind of behavior because authenticity matters. People need to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook.

In July, FireEye tipped Facebook off to the existence of a network of pages known as Liberty Front Press. The network included 70 accounts, three Facebook groups, and 76 Instagram accounts, which had 155,000 Facebook followers and 48,000 Instagram followers. Not exactly impressive figures though. And the paltry $6,000 spent since 2015 rather suggests that these a small fry.

Liberty Free Press also was linked to a set of pages that posed as news organizations while also hacking people's accounts and spread malware, Facebook said. That network included 12 pages and 66 accounts, plus nine Instagram accounts. They had about 15,000 Facebook followers and 1,100 Instagram followers, and did not buy advertising or events.

Iran-linked accounts and pages created in 2011 shared posts about politics in the Middle East, United Kingdom, and United States. That campaign had 168 pages and 140 Facebook accounts, as well as 31 Instagram accounts, and had 813,000 Facebook followers and 10,000 Instagram followers. Again the total advertising spend was just $6,000.

Russian accounts taken down in the Facebook action were focused on politics in Syria and Ukraine, but did not target the United States.

Facebook's reputation ratings

See  article from bbc.co.uk

Facebook has confirmed that it has started scoring some of its members on a trustworthiness scale.The Washington Post revealed that the social network had developed the system over the past year.

The tech firm says it has been developed to help handle reports of false news on its platform, but it has declined to reveal how the score is calculated or the limits of its use. Critics are concerned that users have no apparent way to obtain their rating. The BBC understands that at present only Facebook's misinformation team makes use of the measurement.

Perhaps the scheme works on 1 to 5 scale with the bottom rating of 1, being as trustworthy as Facebook, a lowly score of 2 for being twice as trustworthy as Facebook, whilst top of the scale is 5 times as trustworthy as Facebook.

Facebook objected the scale being described in the Washington Post as being a 'reputation' score. Facebook said that this was just plain wrong claiming:

What we're actually doing: We developed a process to protect against people indiscriminately flagging news as fake and attempting to game the system. The reason we do this is to make sure that our fight against misinformation is as effective as possible.

No doubt armies of Indian SEO workers will now redirect their efforts at improving website's Facebook reputation ratings.

Seeking refuge in blaming Facebook

See  article from nytimes.com

Meanwhile Warwick University research suggests that anti refugee troubles are worse in German towns where Facebook usage is more than the national average. Facebook are taking a lot of stick lately but it seems a little much to start blaming them for all the world's ills. If Facebook were to be banned tomorrow, would the world suddenly become a less fractious place? What do you think?

 

 

Offsite Article: Joyless censortrons...


Link Here22nd August 2018
Full story: Banned Games in Australia...Games and the Australian Censorship Board
The Australian Classification Board is Letting Us Down. By Cai Holroyd

See article from doublejump.co

 

 

Offsite Article: Time Magazine reports on the current status...


Link Here22nd August 2018
Full story: BBFC Internet Porn Censors...BBFC: Age Verification We Don't Trust
The U.K. Is About To Censor Online Porn, and Free Speech Advocates Are Alarmed

See article from time.com

 

 

Extremist Censorship Requirements...

European Commission outlines its plans for direct and immediate censorship control of the internet


Link Here21st August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in EU...EU introduces swathes of internet censorship law
Internet companies will have to delete content claimed to be extremist on their platforms within an hour or face being fined, under new censorship plans by the European Commission.

The proposals will be set out in draft regulation due to be published next month, according to The Financial Times.

Julian King, the EU's commissioner for security, told the newspaper that Brussels had not seen enough progress, when it came to the sites clamping down on terror-related material.

Under the rules, which would have to be agreed by a majority of EU member states, the platforms would have an hour to remove the material, a senior official told the newspaper.

The rules would apply to all websites, regardless of their size. King told the FT:

The difference in size and resources means platforms have differing capabilities to act against terrorist content and their policies for doing so are not always transparent.

All this leads to such content continuing to proliferate across the internet, reappearing once deleted and spreading from platform to platform.

Of course the stringent requirements are totally impractical for small companies, and so no doubt will further strengthen the monopolies of US companies with massive workforces.

And of course a one hour turn around gives absolutely no one time to even consider whether the censorship requests are fair or reasonable and so translates into a tool for direct state censorship of the internet.

 

 

Offsite Article: PragerU...


Link Here21st August 2018
Full story: Facebook Censorship...Facebook quick to censor
The latest example of political censorship by Facebook

See article from thenewamerican.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Facebook is fighting the FBI demanding to snoop on Messenger...


Link Here 21st August 2018
Full story: US Crypto Wars...US authorities look to breaking the encryption used to keep people safe
Both encryption and the law are stacked against Facebook

See article from theverge.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Why The Moralisers Win...


Link Here20th August 2018
Censors and moralisers continually succeed not just because politicians of all stripes are by nature morally conservative and stiff-lipped, and because the media is full of people who love to whip up moral panics to increase sales. By David Flint

See article from reprobatemagazine.uk

 

 

Offsite Article: PC Wars...


Link Here20th August 2018
Eurogamer And PC Gamer Call For Valve To Censor Steam's 'Toxic' Communities

See article from oneangrygamer.net

 

 

Offsite Article: Indian censorship in the age of Netflix...


Link Here20th August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in India...India considers blanket ban on internet porn
A summary of how India censors internet TV

See article from factordaily.com

 

 

Song of Memories...

The Australian Censorship Board launches into yet another chorus of Michael Jackson's 'Just Ban it, Ban It'


Link Here19th August 2018
Full story: Banned Games in Australia...Games and the Australian Censorship Board
The Australian Censorship Board has banned another console, Song of Memories published by PQube. It is another Japanese games no doubt featuring too sexy behaviour by characters of indeterminate, but young looking age.

The censors have yet to explain their reasons with just a worthless catch-all statement posted so far on their website.

 

 

Biased censored fake news...

Trump rails against discriminatory censorship by social media companies


Link Here19th August 2018

President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain that social media companies are discriminating against prominent conservatives, saying we won't let that happen. He tweeted:

Social Media is totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices. Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won't let that happen. They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others.

.....Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police. If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don't watch at all.

The president later added:

....Too many voices are being destroyed, some good & some bad, and that cannot be allowed to happen. Who is making the choices, because I can already tell you that too many mistakes are being made. Let everybody participate, good & bad, and we will all just have to figure it out!

Trump in July said his administration will look into the practice of shadow banning on Twitter, or reducing the visibility of certain people or groups on the platform, which he alleged was happening to prominent conservative voices.

 

 

Crushing censorship...

Another repressive internet censorship law in Egypt


Link Here19th August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in Egypt...Egypt blocks political and porn websites
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has signed a new law that tightens controls over the internet.

The legislation means websites can be blocked in Egypt if deemed to constitute a threat to national security or the economy.  Anyone found guilty of running, or just visiting, such sites could face prison or a fine.

Authorities claim the new measures are needed to tackle instability and terrorism.

But human rights groups say the government of trying to crush all political dissent in the country. The Cairo-based Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression said more than 500 websites had already been blocked in Egypt prior to the new law being signed.

Last month another bill was passed by parliament, yet to be approved by President Sisi, that would allow any social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers to be placed under supervision.

 

 

Final Score...

The latest film being cut for a 15 rated UK cinema release


Link Here18th August 2018
Final Score is a 2018 UK action film by Scott Mann.
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Dave Bautista and Ray Stevenson. BBFC link IMDb

UK: Passed 15 for strong violence, language after BBFC advised pre-cuts for:

  • 2018 cinema release
The BBFC commented:
  • This film was originally seen for advice. The company was told it was likely to be classified 18 but that their preferred 15 could be achieved by making reductions to stronger moments of violence. When the film was submitted for formal classification these moments had been acceptably reduced and the film was classified 15.

Summary Notes

Some scores will never be settled

 

 

Ministry of Transport, Communications, High Technologies and Censorship...

Azerbaijan starts blocking porn websites


Link Here 18th August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in Azerbaijan...Bloggers make a donkey of the state
Azerbaijan's government has begun to block internet pornography sites. While this is far from the first time the country has tried to control what websites its citizens access, it does appear to be the first time it's restricting pornography.

The blocking was carried out by the Electronic Security Service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies. The move was reportedly made due to a local court decision, but no further details were released.

In December last year, Azerbaijan's parliament adopted a new set of laws penalizing the online dissemination of banned materials. The legislation referred to a list of prohibited information that was first put into use by Azerbaijani courts in May 2017 authorizing the government to censor online information including terrorist propaganda, suicide videos, pornography and weapons-production manuals, but also gambling and defamation.

It's not clear why the ban on pornography was implemented, but it has generated some speculation online. Journalist Habib Muntazir of Meydan TV noted that on August 15, a Facebook parody page, Politicians of à ayxana, photoshopped the logo of the pornographic website Pornhub onto a picture of President Ilham Aliyev reprimanding the head of the state energy company for the country's recent blackouts. The caption read: Boss punishes sexy secretary.

 

 

Offsite Article: Facebook under pressure and a new keenness for political censorship...


Link Here 18th August 2018
Full story: Facebook Censorship...Facebook quick to censor
After getting ticked off everywhere around the western world, Facebook is now kowtowing to any government who asks, this time banning a Palestinian Occupy London page

See article from rt.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Facebook under pressure...


Link Here18th August 2018
Full story: US Crypto Wars...US authorities look to breaking the encryption used to keep people safe
US reportedly pressuring Facebook to break Messenger's encryption over MS-13 investigation

See article from theverge.com

 

 

Real news...

The return of Dr M is proving good for Malaysia as a recent censorship law, supposedly targeting fake news, is repealed


Link Here17th August 2018
Malaysia's parliament on August 16th repealed a law against fake news introduced this year by the administration of former prime minister Najib Razak.

A bill to repeal the law was passed by the lower house of Malaysia's parliament, a day ahead of the new Pakatan Harapan government marking its first 100 days in government.

Najib's government secured a simple majority in April to pass the Anti-Fake News 2018 Bill, which set out fines of up to 500,000 ringgit (US$122,000) and jail of up to six years.

Critics denounced the law as repressive and accused Najib of trying to curb free speech ahead of a May general election as his government tried to fend off criticism over accusations of graft and mismanagement.

Najib lost the election to an opposition alliance led by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who had promised to scrap the law.

Parliament debated a motion to repeal the law for about three hours before passing it by a simple voice vote.

This is a law that was clearly designed to silence criticism of the authorities and to quell public debate -- it should never have been allowed to pass in the first place, Teddy Baguilat, a board member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement.

 

 

Thin end of a PC wedge...

Late studio cuts renders Slender Man a little disjointed


Link Here16th August 2018
Slender Man is a 2018 USA horror by Sylvain White.
Starring Joey King, Javier Botet and Annalise Basso. BBFC link IMDb

Slender Man tells the story of a tall, thin, horrifying figure with unnaturally long arms and a featureless face, who is reputed to be responsible for the haunting and disappearance of countless children and teens.

Slender Man, as released in US theaters this week, is not a complete movie. While originally the producers developed a much darker take on the character, bloody-disgusting.com were told that the producer Screen Gems' mandate was that it should be PG-13. The target was and always has been for teenagers.

However insiders told bloody-disgusting that Sony/Screen Gems were succumbing to fear of a PC backlash that started when the father of the girl who stabbed her classmate called it distasteful. 2018 isn't exactly the year of reason, and the studio was scared into back peddling their horror film.

The father of the victim whose life was nearly claimed by two girls that worshipped the Slender Man had spoken out against the film, citing how they feel disgraced by Hollywood making a film about events that led to tragedy.

This also caused Sony and Screen Gems to release the film with very little promotional materials to it and it did not screen for critics.

bloody-disgusting's sources confirm that several major scenes from the film were completely removed by the studio leading up to this past weekend's release. Slender Man, as presented to audiences, isn't a complete film; many of the striking scenes that were teased in the first trailer, like one of the characters stabbing her eyes out, or another ripping her tongue out after encountering Slender Man in the woods, are completely missing from the film.

 

 

Letting politicians know that people's opposition is real...

Europe organises street protests against internet censorship machines and link tax


Link Here 16th August 2018

Following massive protests, the EU copyright reform plans were sent back to the drawing board last month. This means that the proposal will be opened up for changes, also to the controversial "upload filter" text. In support of this effort and to show critics that the opposition is real, the protests will soon move beyond the web, to the streets of several European cities.

After years of careful planning and negotiating, the European Parliament was ready to vote on its new copyright directive last month. With backing from large political factions and pretty much the entire entertainment industry, many assumed that proposal would pass.

They were wrong .

The Copyright Directive was sent back to the drawing board following protests from legal scholars, Internet gurus, activists, and many members of the public. Article 13, often referred to as the "upload filter" proposal, was at the center of this pushback.

The vote was a massive blow to those who put their hope on the EU's proposed copyright changes. Following the failure of SOPA and ACTA, this was another disappointment, which triggered several entertainment industry insiders to call foul play.

They claimed that the grassroots protests were driven by automated tools, which "spammed" Members of Parliament were with protest messages, noting that large tech companies such as Google were partly behind this.

This narrative is gaining attention from the mainstream media, and there are even calls for a criminal investigation into the matter.

Opponents of the upload filters clearly disagree. In part triggered by the criticism, but more importantly, to ensure that copyright reform proposals will change for the better, they plan to move the protests to the streets of Europe later this month.

Julia Reda, the Pirate Party's Member of European Parliament, is calling people to join these protests, to have their voices heard, and to show the critics that there are real people behind the opposition. Reda wrote:

We haven't won yet. After their initial shock at losing the vote in July, the proponents of upload filters and the 'link tax' have come up with a convenient narrative to downplay the massive public opposition they faced.

They're claiming the protest was all fake, generated by bots and orchestrated by big internet companies. According to them, Europeans don't actually care about their freedom of expression. We don't actually care about EU lawmaking enough to make our voices heard. We will just stand idly by as our internet is restricted to serve corporate interests.

Thus far, nearly a million people have voiced their discontent with the copyright reform plans through an online petition. And if it's up to Reda, these people should do the same away from their keyboard.

On September 12th, Members of Parliament will vote on the future of the Copyright Directive and the protests are planned two weeks earlier, on August 26th.

Reda notes:

Our goal is clear: The Parliament must adopt alternatives for Article 11 and Article 13 that don't force platforms to install upload filters and don't threaten links and snippets with an extra layer of copyright.

The public protests will take place in several cities including Berlin, Ljubljana, Prague, Stockholm, Vienna, and Warsaw. The organizers hope to gain the same momentum as the ACTA protests did when hundreds of thousands of people marched the streets.

That would certainly make an impact.

 

 

Extract: Sorry... your search for 'trust' finds no results on Google.com...

Google found to be tracking the location of users who have turned off location tracking


Link Here 15th August 2018

When you turn off location history Google still tracks your location when you use several of its key services including Maps, search and the weather.

A report from the Associated Press has highlighted that the feature called location history is just one of the systems that Google uses to track your location for personalised services, local search and other purposes such as advertising.

When you turn off location history, Google stops automatically recording your location for features such as the Maps timeline, but it warns you that some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other Google services, like Search and Maps. When you perform a search, access Google Maps , or get the weather, either manually or automatically through a smartphone widget, Google will still log your location.

Here's how to really turn all of it off. (Assuming that you believe that Google will actually do what it says it will){

See article from theguardian.com

Offsite Comment: Google's snooping proves big tech will not change

See article from theguardian.com by Arwa Mahdawi

Google's snooping proves big tech will not change -- unless governments step in. News that the company tracks users even when they forbid it shows that technology giants do not take our privacy seriously. They must be regulated

And one last thought. When the BBFC published their consultation of age verification requirements for porn viewing. The BBFC skated over the privacy dangers in allowing private companies to track one's tastes in porn claiming that the industry would follow 'best practise' and safeguard users. Well if one of the biggest companies in the world cannot respect the privacy of their users, then what hope is there for the rest?

 

 

Offsite Article: Swearing offends TV viewers more than sex and violence...


Link Here 15th August 2018
The Radio Times summarises the latest Ofcom report on attitudes to taste and decency on TV

See article from radiotimes.com

 

 

Offsite Article: Beware the digital censor...


Link Here15th August 2018
We should be extremely careful before rushing to embrace an Internet that is moderated by a few private companies, where the platforms routinely remove posts and deactivate accounts because of objections to the content. By David Greene

See article from qctimes.com

 

 

Rated Adults Only with Caution...

Indian MP introduces bill to reduce the censorship powers of the CBFC


Link Here14th August 2018
In an effort to safeguard artistic freedom in India, Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor, introduce d the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2018 to reduce the pre-censorship powers of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC).

Tharoor commented that the CBFC should be a certification body and not a moral policing body. He wrote on social media:

I introduced my Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2018, to remove the outdated provisions which hamper the free flow of free speech, especially artistic freedom. The protection of artistic freedom is essential for the development of our culture and our democracy.

It's [The CBFC's]  censorship powers (& the Govt's power to revise its decisions as to whether a film should be screened or not) reflect a regressive and paternalistic outlook which is out of date in the 21st century. The existing guidelines for certification are broad and vague, allowing the CBFC to pass absurd orders such as muting individual words of dialogue, like the term 'cow' in a documentary on Amartya Sen. My Bill introduces comprehensive guidelines for gradation in film certification. My Bill also removes the discretionary powers of the State to ban films. The State should only resort to the power of suspension of films as the last resort in order to maintain public order. We should not be held hostage by vigilante groups & self-appointed 'moral police'.

The bill seeks to completely remove the State's power to ban a film, which he says should be considered as a last resort. During the time of Padmaavat's release, states claimed that Section 6 of the Cinematograph Act empowers them to stop the release of any film that risks public order.

Amongst the key changes are additional film certificates:

  • U -- film suitable for all persons, regardless of age, and is often family friendly;

  • U/A 12+ -- film suitable for persons above twelve years of age or for a person under the age of twelve with parental guidance;

  • U/A 15+ -- film suitable for persons (adolescents) above fifteen years or for a person under the age of fifteen with parental guidance

  • A -- film suitable for public exhibition, but restricted to adults;

  • C (A with Caution) -- film restricted for adults with the specific purpose of cautioning them that it has more than a reasonable amount of content such as violence, sex, nudity, drugs and other related contents;

  • S -- film restricted to viewership by members of a profession or any class of persons, having regard to the nature, content and theme of the film

Detailed guidelines are included in the bill for each category, here are the rules foa an adults only A rating:

  1. Discrimination -- While there may be discriminatory themes and languages in the film, the film as a whole shall not endorse or glorify discriminatory language or behavour ;

  2. Psychotropic Substances, Liquor, Smoking, Tobacco -- Imbibing of these elements may be shows, but the work as a whole shall not promote or encourage misuse of the same. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is not acceptable;

  3. Imitable behaviour -- Dangerous behaviour (for example, committing suicide or inflicting self-harm) shall not be shown in detail that could be copied by others . Context, realism and setting shall determine the acceptability of depiction of easily accessible weapons;

  4. Language -- Very strong language, including abuse and vulgar words is permitted;

  5. Nudity --There may be nudity, even in a sexual context, but without explicit detail ;

  6. Sex-- Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail . References to sexual behaviour is permitted, but very strong reference can only be justified in context . Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation is not acceptable;

  7. Fear, Threat & Horror--There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic or sexual threat is not acceptable;

  8. Violence--Strong violence is permitted, but explicit gory images are not acceptable . Strong sadistic violence is not acceptable, there may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.

The proposal is introduced with plenty of fancy words about the CBFC being classifiers not censors, but the bill includes plenty of reasons to continue censoring and banning films anyway:

Films under this [top A with Caution] category shall not qualify for certification in the event of the following--

( 1 ) Where the material is in breach of criminal law, or has been created though the commission of a criminal offence;

( 2 ) Where material or treatment appears to the Board to risk harm to individuals;

For example, the detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal use of psychotropic substances, which may cause of public harm or morals. Other examples may include portrayals of sadistic or sexual violence that make this violence looking appealing; reinforce the suggestion that victims enjoy sexual violence; or films that invite viewer complicity in sexual violence or other harmful violent activities;

( 3 ) Where the work is pornographic in nature and or compromises explicit sexual activity or dialogue that is non-contextual in nature. However, any sexually explicit material for educational purposes shall be allowed;

( 4 ) Where the work involves sadistic or sexual violence with children;

( 5 ) Where the work, including its dialogues, are likely to encourage an interest in sexually abusive activity which may include adults role- playing as non-adults.

 

 

Offsite Article: The other 'brute force method'...


Link Here14th August 2018
Australia opts out of back door requirements for encryption providers and instead chooses the approach: 'give me your key or else I'll break your legs'

See article from theregister.co.uk

 

 

Parents TV Council recommends...

Eighth Grade, as screened at events where the R rating age restrictions were relaxed


Link Here13th August 2018
Full story: Parents TV Council...US moralists whinge at TV sex and violence

Eighth Grade is a 2018 USA comedy by Bo Burnham.
Starring Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton and Emily Robinson. IMDb

An introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school.

Eight Grade is a US film aimed at 8th graders but its 8th grade strong language has resulted in it being rated R by the MPAA. The R rating means that with graders cannot see the film at theatres unless accompanied by their parents.

The film makers from A24 Studio are not impressed by their target audience being disallowed so organised nationwide screenings where the R rating was not enforced (age restrictions are legally voluntary n the US). 50 no-rating-enforced screenings were organised on August 8. The studio partnered with one theater in every state across America for the screenings.

But US moralist campaigners were not happy. The Parents Television Council called on the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to hold the A24 Studio accountable for those under 17s admitted without a parent. PTC President Tim Winter whinged:

Subjective declarations such as the one by A24 -- that some content is 'too important' to be labeled in accordance with the standards set forth by the MPAA and understood, trusted and relied upon by parents -- undermine and negate the entire purpose of having the content rating system in the first place. In this instance, and based upon empirical data of this film's content, the Hollywood studio at issue here is grotesquely and irresponsibly usurping parental authority. Either the standard means something or it means nothing. Those who are openly violating both the spirit and the letter of the age-based content ratings system for this publicity stunt should be held to account by the MPAA.

 

 

Offsite Article: Banned: I Spit On Your Grave (1978)...


Link Here13th August 2018
A pre Deja Vu recap by Sam Inglis

See article from thelondoneconomic.com

 

 

Offsite Article: The Misfits: The Producer's Private Cut...


Link Here13th August 2018
A deleted Marilyn Monroe nude scene turns up

See article from dailymail.co.uk

 

 

Inappropriate misappropriation...

French play cancelled after being on the receiving end of 'aggressive controversy'


Link Here12th August 2018
Kanata, an upcoming French play exploring Canadian Indigenous history, was cancelled on 26 July after some of the show's producers pulled out of the project following 'aggressive controversy'.

There were no Indigenous actors cast in the Robert Lepage-directed production about fictional relationships between Indigenous Canadians and Europeans spanning 200 years.

It was set to debut at the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris this December.

The production created in a little controversy in France due to politically correct concerns about the depiction of Indigenous peoples. The controversy led to North American co-producers pulling out.

Lepage's production company Ex Machina then said in a statement:

Without their financial support, we are unable to finish creating Kanata with Théâtre du Soleil. Therefore, we are putting an end to the project.

Théâtre du Soleil described the "attempted intimidation of theatre artists" in its accompanying statement:

An intimidation unimaginable in a democratic country, that is carried out largely on social media networks in the name of an ideology that the Théâtre du Soleil does not wish to qualify here but to which it will respond with its own tools.

 

 

On a personal whim...

Victorian government bans Sky News from its railway stations over a politically incorrect interview not actually screened on the station service


Link Here12th August 2018
The government of the Australian state of Victoria has banned Sky News from providing a news service for screening at Melbourne's train stations.

Jacinta Allan, Victoria's transport minister, took offence at a Sky News interview with the far-right extremist Blair Cottrell. The interview was not screened on the train station service but clearly rankled the politician for its political incorrectness. Allan tweeted:

I've directed @MetroTrains to remove @skynewsaustralia from all CBD station screens. Hatred and racism have no place on our screens or in our community.

The decision has sparked a backlash from Sky and other News Corp publications. Political editor David Speers said the Andrews government was motivated by frustration over the coverage it received on Sky, and from the Herald Sun, which is also owned by News Corp. Speers said the network had confirmed the Cottrell interview had not aired on train station screens in Melbourne .

Speers also noted that Blair Cottrell has appeared in interviews on all the other Australian news channels too.

 

 

Killing speech softly...

How the world's biggest tech companies are quietly censoring critical expression in the Middle East


Link Here12th August 2018

Following the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January 2015, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a message reflecting on religion, free expression and the controversial editorial line of the magazine:

A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him.

We stood up for this because different voices -- even if they're sometimes offensive -- can make the world a better and more interesting place.

Later that same month, Facebook agreed to restrict access to an unspecified number of pages for "offending prophet Muhammad" in Turkey at the request of local authorities.

Turkey is notorious for the number of requests it makes to internet companies to remove content for violating its local laws, but it is not the only government in the Middle East to resort to such tactic to silence critical voices.

While a number of the region's governments sometimes make direct requests for content removal -- along with exerting "soft" pressure through other means -- the failures of tech giants in moderating content in the region is a much bigger and more complex problem.

Abuse of flagging mechanisms

Across the region, social media platform "flagging" mechanisms are often abused to silence government critics, minority groups or views and forms of expression deemed not to be in line with the majority's beliefs on society, religion and politics.

In 2016, Facebook suspended several Arabic-language pages and groups dedicated to atheism following massive flagging campaigns.

This effectively eliminated one of the few (in some cases, the only) spaces where atheists and other minorities could come together to share their experiences, and freely express themselves on matters related to religion. Across the region, atheism remains a taboo that could be met with harassment, imprisonment or even murder. Jessica Anderson, a project manager at onlinecensorship.org which documents cases of content takedowns by social media platforms, told Global Voices:

[Abusive flagging] is a significant problem.

In the Middle East as well as other geographies, we have documented cases of censorship resulting from 'flagging campaigns'--coordinated efforts by many users to report a single page or piece of content.

Flagging mechanisms are also abused by pro-government voices. Earlier this year, Middle East Eye reported that several Egyptian political activists had their pages or accounts suspended and live-streams shut down, after they were reported by "pro-government trolls."  Anderson said:

What we have seen is that flagging can exacerbate existing power imbalances, empowering the majority to 'police' the minority The consequences of this issue can be severe: communities that are already marginalized and oppressed lose access to the benefits of social media as a space to organize, network, and be heard.

Failure to consider user rights, in context

This past May, Apple joined the ranks of Facebook and Twitter -- the more commonly-cited social media platforms in this realm -- when the iTunes store refused to upload fives songs by the Lebanese band Al-Rahel Al-Kabir. The songs mocked religious fundamentalism and political oppression in the region.

A representative from iTunes explained that the Dubai-based Qanawat, a local content aggregator hired by Apple to manage its store for the region, elected not to upload the songs. An anonymous source told The Daily Star that iTunes did not know about Qanawat's decision, which it made due to "local sensitivities." In response to a petition from Beirut-based digital rights NGO SMEX and the band itself, iTunes uploaded the songs and pledged to work with another aggregator.

This case does not only illustrate how "local sensitivities" can interfere with decisions about which types of content get to be posted and stay online in the region, but also shows that companies need to practice due diligence when taking decisions likely to affect users' freedom of expression rights.

Speaking to Global Voices, Mohamad Najem, co-founder of SMEX pointed out that both Facebook and Twitter have their regional offices located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which he described as one of the "most repressive countries" in the region. He said: "This is a business decision that will affect free speech in a negative way,"

He further expressed concern that the choice of having an office in a country like the UAE "can sometimes lead to enforcing Gulf social norm[s]" on an entire [Arab] region that is "dynamic and different."

Location, location, location

Facebook and Twitter have offices in the UAE that are intended to serve the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that is ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse, and presents a wide range of political viewpoints and experiences. When companies are pressured by oppressive governments or other powerful groups to respect "local sensitivities," they are being complicit in shutting down expression of such diversity. Anderson said:

"Platforms seem to take direction from louder, more powerful voices...In the Middle East, [they] have not been able to stand up to powerful interests like governments,"

Take, for example, Facebook's willingness to comply with the Turkish government's censorship demands. Throughout the years, the company was involved in censoring criticism of the government, religion and the republic's founder Ataturk, Kurdish activists , LGBT content and even an anti-racism initiative .

Facebook's complicity with these requests appears to be deeply ingrained. I spoke to a Turkish activist two years ago who told me that he believed the platform "was turning into a pro-government media." Today, the platform continues to comply, restricting access to more than 4,500 pieces of content inside the country in 2017 alone. Facebook is not transparent about the number and rates of requests it complies with.  Arzu Geybulla, a freelance writer who covers Turkey and Azerbaijan for Global Voices said:

The biggest shortcoming in [the] ways platforms deal with takedown requests is [their] lack of understanding of the political contexts. And even if there is some kind of idea of what is happening on the ground, I am not entirely sure, there is always due diligence involved.

In conference settings, representatives from Facebook are routinely faced with questions about massive flagging campaigns. They maintain that multiple abuse reports on a single post or page do not automate the process of the post or page being removed. But they offer little concrete information about how the company does see and respond to these situations. Does the company review the content more closely? Facebook representatives also say that they consult with local experts on these issues, but the specifics of these consultations are similarly opaque.

And the work of moderating content -- deciding what meets local legal standards and Facebook's own policies -- is not easy. Anderson from onlinecensorship.org said:

Content moderation is incredibly labor intensive. As the largest platforms continue to grow, these companies are attempting to moderate a staggering volume of content. Workers (who may not have adequate knowledge and training, and may not be well paid) have to make snap decisions about nuanced and culturally-specific content, leading to frequent mistakes and inconsistencies.

For activists and human rights advocates in the region, it is also difficult to know the scope of this problem due to lack of corporate transparency. Cases like that of iTunes may be occurring more often than is publicly known -- it is only when someone speaks out about being censored that these practices come to light.

 

 

This is Nigeria...

Land of music censorship and repression


Link Here12th August 2018
A Nigerian radio station has been fined by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for playing music with vulgar and indecent lyrics in July and August.

NBC fined Global Communications Ltd 100,000 Naira (240 euros) for breaching parts of its code by airing three songs: This is Nigeria by Falz, Iskaba by Wande Coal, and See Mary, See Jesus by Olamide.

The Commission has observed with 'great concern' the continuous airing of vulgar and indecent music lyrics in spite  of warnings both verbal and written to the station.

In the case of This is Nigeria it seems likely that the censors simply do not like the criticism of the country as video depicts violent crime, criminality and less than pious religiosity.

 

 

Symbolic changes at the USK...

German games censor will no longer ban those Nazi images that are excluded from a wider German law for historical or artistic reasons


Link Here11th August 2018
The next Wolfenstein game might not even need to remove Adolf Hitler's moustache. Germany's Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (or USK), an independent, industry-funded board that oversees age and content ratings for videos games available in the country, announced on Thursday that it will now permit the sale of games featuring Nazi imagery within the country, something that had previously been banned. The USK's decision reportedly came after a heated debate involving the Nazi-killing Wolfenstein series , particularly a pair of anti--Third Reich games in 2014 and 2017 that were visibly, and somewhat humorously , self-censored in Germany in order to avoid violating a provision of the country's constitution.

Previously, video games with Nazi symbolism were heavily censored or outright banned based on the German criminal code's Section 86a , which forbids the use of symbols, flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans, propaganda, and greetings relating to unconstitutional organizations in German products. Section 86a violations could be met with up to three years of imprisonment or a hefty fine.

USK will now assess games on a case-by-case basis to determine if they meet a reinterpreted standard of the country's social adequacy clause that allows for Nazi imagery if it serves one of the following purposes: artistic, scientific, or if it depicts current or historical events. This metric is currently used for films screened in Germany because they are considered works of art.

 

 

World leading endangerment...

The New Zealand government is eyeing the UK internet porn censorship regime


Link Here11th August 2018
New Zealand could follow the United Kingdom in bringing in age restrictions for online pornography and blocking websites which refuse to comply.

Department of Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin, who also holds the children's portfolio, says young people are being bombarded by internet pornography and she wants censorship laws to be strengthened.

This is a really, really big issue to New Zealand and we are going to have a serious conversation about it, she told the Herald. Martin supports the approach of the United Kingdom, which has ambitious and controversial plans to introduce mandatory age verification for pornographic websites later this year.

She made the comments after the Chief Censor began a major piece of research on New Zealand teenagers' online pornography habits. We're pretty excited about it, Chief Censor David Shanks said.

We think it's going to give us some potentially world-leading data on the New Zealand situation and teens and pornography. With this research our aim is to get solid evidence about the experiences and perspectives of young people on the table so there can be an informed debate.

In our view policy in this area does need some consideration, in terms of how do you regulate use and access to porn in the digital environment. The question there is . . . when the average age to get a smartphone is 10 and a half to 11 years old, what sort of tools and restrictions can we really place on access to material that's widely available on the internet?

The Office of Film and Literature Classification began the survey last week of 2300 people aged between 14 and 17. It asks if teenagers look at online pornography, how often, what sort of content, why they are looking at it, and how they are viewing it. The survey is expected to be completed in December.

Martin said the Chief Censor's research was vital work, though she is already intent on changes:

I have already had conversations with the Chief Censor with regard to a particular drive of mine to make sure we as a nation do something about what is the bombardment of pornography and the easy access to pornography that our young people are experiencing.

Considering our censorship laws were pre-internet, this is an area that we have left for a long time without addressing and I think we need to address it.

Martin said she was not interested in wholesale bans on online content because they did not work. But she supported the UK Government's approach, saying she was interested in any policy which helped to protect young people. She added:

I would really like to watch how they implement it and see what are the challenges for them.

 

 

Commented: Conspiracy theory comes true...

US technology giants prove that they are biased against the right, and censor Alex Jones' Infowars


Link Here11th August 2018

Even the streaming adult video site YouPorn has joined in with the internet co-conspirators banning Alex Jones' Infowars from their platforms. This follows widespread censorship from tech companies including Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Spotify--but notably, not Twitter.

In a statement, YouPorn vice president Charlie Hughes said Following news that YouTube, Spotify and Facebook have banned Alex Jones from their platforms, team YouPorn is joining in solidarity and announces we are banning his content as well. As one of the largest user-generated content platforms in the world, we have already removed his videos that have violated our terms of service.

Alex Jones is noted for a major role in propagating some of the most well known conspiracy theories in recent years, including Pizzagate and the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. His support of theories that the Sandy Hook and Parkland shootings were faked.

Yesterday, YouTube removed Alex Jones' channel , which had 2.4 million subscribers, for violating its community guidelines, after issuing it a strike last month . On the same day, Apple removed Alex Jones' podcasts from iTunes , following similar actions from Spotify and Stitcher, and Facebook removed four Infowars pages for violating its policies against graphic violence and hate speech. Pinterest also took down Infowars' profile following an inquiry from Mashable.

Of course the stupidity of the censorship is that surely not many people take Alex Jones very seriously, its just entertainment. In censoring something that they do not like, they have surely done more harm than good by revealing that big tech marches to the tune of the PC left and is now part of the problem of an unfair and unjust establishment. The technology companies have  simply added to the fractious nature of the modern world.

 

Offsite Comment: Alex Jones and the rise of corporate censorship

11th August 2018. See  article from spiked-online.com

The banning of Infowars is an alarming act of capitalist intolerance.

 

 

More misery in Indonesia...

The government forces ISPs to set search engines and YouTube into restricted mode


Link Here10th August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in Indonesia...Indonesia passes internet porn bill

This week, the Indonesian government has forced ISPs to forcibly turn on content filters on search engines by default, which can't be switched off. The new policy has seemingly been extended to Youtube as well, with many netizens now complaining that the video streaming site's restricted mode feature has been irreversibly switched on, limiting what they can watch.

Based on numerous social media posts, the Youtube restriction applies to users of certain ISPs, both on mobile internet and home internet. Netizens are reporting that even Taylor Swift and K-Pop music videos are being filtered out.

While the government did not say anything about Youtube being included in their recent censorship push, some ISPs like Indosat Ooredoo have been replying to complaints from customers about the Youtube restriction, placing the blame on the government. The ISP tweeted:

Hi, Youtube's restricted mode is a government regulation designed to prevent the public from accessing pornography.

 

 

Promoting repression...

Malaysian government censors potraits of LGBT activists at an art exhibition


Link Here10th August 2018
Full story: Gay Rights in Malaysia...Campaigning for gay rights
Malaysia's religious affairs minister has ordered portraits of LGBT activists to be removed from an arts festival in Penang.

Portraits of activists Nisha Ayub and Pang Khee Teik, who champion the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, were taken down on the orders of Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa, a minister in the Prime Minister's Department. Dr Mujahid said promoting LGBT activities was not in line with the new Pakatan Harapan administration's policies. He told reporters at the Parliament lobby: I was informed of the exhibition that showcased their pictures, along with the rainbow pride flag, in a public gallery.

I contacted the state government to check if the claim is true, and I have consistently repeated in Parliament that we do not support the promotion of LGBT culture in Malaysia.

Ms Nisha and Mr Pang's portraits were removed from the month-long Stripes and Strokes exhibition at the George Town Festival in Penang. They were portrayed holding the Jalur Gemilang, Malaysia's flag, in prints captured by photographer Mooreyameen Mohamad.

The exhibition sponsor, Datuk Vinod Sekhar, criticised the decision:

How could this happen in Penang? I expected more from the Penang government. We should be enlightening people, changing their mindsets - not reacting to people who are close-minded.

 

 

Guardians of repression...

China bans Sci-Fi drama over gay lead characters


Link Here10th August 2018

A massively popular sci-fi drama in which the two lead characters are gay has been purged from one of China's top streaming platforms, as part of the continuing Chinese government campaign to stamp out what it deems harmful and obscene content from the internet, according to a report published this weekend by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper.

The move to censor the series Zhenhun , aka Guardian -- of China's most popular online shows with more than 1.8 billion views over its 40 episodes since it appeared on the Youku streaming service in early July.

The case of Guardian illustrates how sensitive China's censors can be when it comes to depictions of sexuality, and gay themes. The 40-part drama is based on a popular novel, written under a pseudonym, in which the two male protagonists are clearly in a relationship. In the adaptation, according to the Morning Post , their relationship was instead presented as a bond of brotherhood in the hope of avoiding the censors.

But toning down the novel's gay themes still wasn't enough for China's censorship authorities. In order to pass the censors, the screenwriters turned this story into a science fiction drama for children, and it was still taken offline.

 

 

Justice without merit...

Count Dankula's application to appeal against his conviction for an internet joke is refused


Link Here9th August 2018
Full story: Insulting UK Law...UK proesecutions of jokes and insults on social media

A man who suffered a miscarriage of justice after being convicted for a joke has been refused permission to appeal against a conviction for supposedly causing gross offence.

Mark Meechan, who blogs under the name Count Dankula, was fined £800 in April after being found guilty under the Communications Act over a  video joke in which he trained his girlfriend's dog to perform Nazi salutes.

A letter from the court claimed the appeal was not arguable and in each of its elements is wholly misconceived. It also dismissed arguments made by Meechan's lawyers over the judge's handling of witness evidence at Airdrie Sheriff Court in March and the meaning of grossly offensive. The letter said:

The appeal against conviction is without merit. Likewise the appeal against sentence is not arguable -- this was a deeply unpleasant offence in which disgraceful and utterly offensive material was very widely distributed by the appellant, it said. This was to the considerable distress of the community in question and -- just as disturbingly -- to the apparent approval of a large number of persons who appear to share the appellant's racist views.

Indeed it must be observed that in the circumstance the appellant was fortunate that the learned sheriff was not considering custody as an option.

 

 

Censorship and control...

American politicians are debating the need for internet regulation of social media


Link Here9th August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in USA...Domain name seizures and SOPA
US politicians are debating the need for internet censorship, social media regulation and privacy legisation.

Recently Axios' David McCabe published a fascinating policy paper from the office of Senator Mark Warner. The paper outlines a comprehensive censorship and regulatory regime that would touch virtually every aspect of social networks. It's a comprehensive starting point for discussion

The paper is notably well-versed both on the dangers posed by misinformation and the trade-offs that come with increased regulation, especially to privacy and free speech. No doubt the US debate will be echoed around the world.

So what exactly do Warner and his staff propose? The ideas are designed to address three broad categories: misinformation, disinformation, and the exploitation of these technologies; privacy and data protection; and competition.

Here are some the ideas presented.

Misinformation, disinformation, and the exploitation of technology.

  • requiring networks to label automated bots;
  • requiring platforms to verify identities, despite the significant consequences to free speech;
  • legally requiring platforms to make regular disclosures about how many fake accounts they've deleted;
  • ending legal protections on contents hosts for defamation;
  • legally requiring large platforms to create APIs for academic research;
  • spending more money to fight cyber threats from Russia and other state-level actors.

Privacy and data protection.

  • Create a US version of the GDPR;
  • designate platforms as information fiduciaries with the legal responsibility of protecting our data;
  • empowering the Federal Trade Commission to make rules around data privacy;
  • create a legislative ban on dark patterns that trick users into accepting terms and conditions without reading them;
  • allow the government to audit corporate algorithms.

Competition

  • Require tech companies to continuously disclose to consumers how their data is being used;
  • require social network data to be made portable;
  • require social networks to be interoperable;
  • designate certain products as essential facilities and demand that third parties get fair access to them.

These proposals remain far from becoming law -- but perhaps not as far as tech platforms would wish.

 

 

Howe gets animated by anime...

Elspeth Howe reveals more of the internal government debate that is delaying the BBFC internet porn censorship guidelines


Link Here8th August 2018
Full story: BBFC Internet Porn Censors...BBFC: Age Verification We Don't Trust
Elspeth Howe, a member of the House of Lords, has written an article in the Telegraph outlining her case that the remit for the BBFC to censor internet porn sites should be widened to include a wider range of material that she does not like.

This seems to tally with other recent news that the CPS is reconsidering its views on what pornographic content should be banned from publication in Britain.

Surely these debates are related to the detailed guidelines to be used by the BBFC when either banning porn sites, or else requiring them to implement strict age verification for users. It probably explains why the Telegraph recently reported that the publication of the final guidelines has been delayed until at least the autumn.


Categories of Porn

For clarity the categories of porn being discussed are as follows:
 

  Current   Proposed
offline online   offline online
Softcore 18 BBFC uncutBBFC uncut BBFC uncutBBFC uncut
Hardcore R18  BBFC uncut BBFC uncutBBFC uncut BBFC uncut
Beyond R18
(proposal by CPS)
bannedBBFC uncut BBFC uncutBBFC uncut
Cartoon child porn
(proposal by Howe))
banned BBFC uncutbanned banned
Extreme porn bannedbanned bannedbanned
Child porn banned bannedbanned banned
  • Softcore porn rated 18 under BBFC guidelines

    - Will be allowed subject to strict age verification
     
  • Vanilla hardcore porn rated R18 under current BBFC guidelines

    - Will be allowed subject to strict age verification
     
  • Beyond R18 hardcore porn that includes material historically banned by the CPS claiming obscenity, ie fisting, golden showers, BDSM, female ejaculation, and famously from a recent anti censorship campaign, face sitting/breath play. Such material is currently cut from R18s.

    - Such content will be allowed under the current Digital Economy Act for online porn sites
    - This category is currently banned for offline sales in the UK, but the CPS has just opened a public consultation on its proposal to legalise such content, as long as it is consensual. Presumably this is related to the government's overarching policy: What's illegal offline, is illegal online.
     
  • Extreme Porn as banned from possession in the UK under the Dangerous Pictures Act. This content covers, bestiality, necrophilia, realistic violence likely to result in serious injury, realistic rape

    - This content is illegal to possess in the UK and any websites with such content will be banned by the BBFC regardless of age verification implementation
     
  • Cartoon Porn depicting under 18s

    - This content is banned from possession in the UK but will be allowed online subject to age verification requirements
     
  • Photographic child porn

    This is already totally illegal in the UK on all media. Any foreign websites featuring such content are probably already being blocked by ISPs using lists maintained by the IWF. The BBFC will ban anything it spots that may have slipped through the net.


'What's illegal offline, is illegal online'

Elspeth Howe writes:

I very much welcome part three of the Digital Economy Act 2017 which requires robust age verification checks to protect children from accessing pornography. The Government deserves congratulations for bringing forward this seminal provision, due to come into effect later this year.

The Government's achievement, however, has been sadly undermined by amendments that it introduced in the House of Lords, about which there has been precious little public debate. I very much hope that polling that I am placing in the public domain today will facilitate a rethink.

When the Digital Economy Bill was introduced in the Lords, it proposed that legal pornography should be placed behind robust age verification checks. Not surprisingly, no accommodation for either adults or children was made for illegal pornography, which encompasses violent pornography and child sex abuse images.

As the Bill passed through the Lords, however, pressure was put on the Government to allow adults to access violent pornography, after going through age-verification checks, which in other contexts it would be illegal to supply. In the end the Government bowed to this pressure and introduced amendments so that only one category of illegal pornography will not be accessible by adults.

[When  Howe mentions violent pornography she is talking about the Beyond R18 category, not the Extreme Porn category, which will be the one category mentioned that will not be accessible to adults].

The trouble with the idea of banning Beyond R18 pornography is that Britain is out of step with the rest of the world. This category includes content that is ubiquitous in most of the major porn websites in the world. Banning so much content would be simply be impractical. So rather than banning all foreign porn, the government opted to remove the prohibition of Beyond R18 porn from the original bill.

Another category that has not hitherto come to attention is the category of cartoon porn that depicts under 18s. The original law that bans possession of this content seemed most concerned about material that was near photographic, and indeed may have been processed from real photos. However the law is of most relevance in practical terms when it covers comedic Simpsons style porn, or else Japanese anime often featuring youthful, but vaguely drawn cartoon characters in sexual scenes.

Again there would be problems of practicality of banning foreign websites from carry such content. All the major tube sites seems to have a section devoted to Hentai anime porn which edges into the category.

In July 2017, Howe introduced a bill that would put Beyond R18 and Cartoon Porn back into the list of prohibited material in the Digital Economy Act. The bill is titled the Digital Economy Act 2017 (Amendment) (Definition of Extreme Pornography) Bill and is still open, but further consideration in Parliament has stalled, presumably as the Government itself is currently addressing these issues.

The bill adds in to the list of prohibitions any content that has been refused a BBFC certificate or would be refused a certificate if it were to be submitted. This would catch both the Beyond Porn and Cartoon Porn categories.

The government is very keen on its policy mantra: What's illegal offline, is illegal online and it seems to have addressed the issue of Beyond 18 material being illegal offline but legal online. The government is proposing to relax its own obscenity rules so that Beyond R18 material will be legalised, (with the proviso that the porn is consensual). The CPS has published a public consultation with this proposal, and it should be ready for implementation after the consultation closes on 17th October 2018.

Interestingly Howe seems to have dropped the call to ban Beyond R18 material in her latest piece, so presumably she has accepted that Beyond R18 material will soon be classifiable by the BBFC, and so not an issue for her bill.


Still to be Addressed

That still leaves the category of Cartoon Porn to be addressed. The current Digital Economy Act renders it illegal offline, but legal online. Perhaps the Government has given Howe the nod to rationalise the situation by making banning the likes of Hentai. Hence Howe is initiating a bit of propaganda to support her bill.  She writes:

The polling that I am putting in the public domain specifically addresses the non-photographic child sex abuse images and is particularly interesting because it gauges the views of MPs whose detailed consideration of the Bill came before the controversial Lords amendments were made.

According to the survey, which was conducted by ComRes on behalf of CARE, a massive 71% of MPs, rising to 76% of female MPs, stated that they did not believe it was right for the Digital Economy Act to make non-photographic child sex abuse images available online to adults after age verification checks. Only 5% of MPs disagreed.

There is an opportunity to address this as part of a review in the next 18 months, but things are too serious to wait .The Government should put matters right now by adopting my very short, but very important two-clause Digital Economy Act (Amendment) (Extreme Pornography) Bill which would restore the effect of the Government's initial prohibition of this material.

I -- along with 71 per cent of MPs -- urge the Government to take action to ensure that the UK's internet does not endorse the sexual exploitation of children.

I haven't heard of this issue being discussed before and I can't believe that anybody has much of an opinion on the matter. Presumably therefore, the survey presented out of the blue with the questions being worded in such a way as to get the required response. Not unusual, but surely it shows that someone is making an effort to generate an issue where one didn't exists before. Perhaps an indication that Howe's solution is what the authorities have decreed will happen.

 

 

The Festival...

Inbetweeners style comedy cut for a 15 rated cinema release


Link Here7th August 2018
The Festival is a 2018 UK comedy by Iain Morris.
Starring Joe Thomas, Hammed Animashaun and Claudia O'Doherty. BBFC link IMDb

The film was passed 15 for strong sex references, crude humour, sex, drug misuse, very strong language after BBFC advised category pre-cuts for cinema release in 2018.

The BBFC commented:
  • This film was originally seen for advice. The company was advised the film was likely to be classified 18 but that their preferred 15 could be achieved by making reductions to three sequences of crude and sexual behaviour. When the film was submitted for formal classification acceptable reductions has been made the film was classified 15.

Summary Notes

When Nick's girlfriend dumps him at graduation, he has a colossal meltdown in front of the entire university. He's convinced his life is over, but his best mate Shane has the perfect solution: three days at an epic music festival. With the help of "festival aficionado" and certified oddball Amy, Shane tries to get Nick to embrace the music, the mayhem and the mud. From the creators of the Inbetweeners comes The Festival, a movie about friendship, growing up, and going mad in a field.

 

 

Book burners...

Masked protestors attack left wing book shop wrecking displays and tearing up books


Link Here6th August 2018
Far-right protesters have ransacked a socialist bookshop in London. The owners of Bookmarks say masked attackers wrecked displays and tore up books.

Posting on Facebook and Twitter, Bookmarks said staff were closing the shop on Bloomsbury Street in central London on Saturday evening when about a dozen people descended on it.

A far-right protest against censorship of the website Infowars took place in central London on Saturday at which protesters were seen with the same placards. Others wore Make Britain Great Again caps.

 

 

Don't mention the 'w' word...

New Zealand advert censor rejects ludicrous claims about an advert introducing a white chocolate biscuit


Link Here6th August 2018
The New Zealand Advertising Standards Authority's (ASA's) Complaints Board has found a TV commercial advertising new caramelised white chocolate biscuits was not racist.

The ruling comes after the board received a complaint that a TV advertisement for Griffins' Toffee Pops claiming offensive dialogue with racist overtones.

The commercial featured three milk chocolate and one white chocolate biscuits on a plate, with the white biscuit saying it was a luxurious caramelised biscuit when told its coating looked interesting by a fellow biscuit.

When a milk chocolate biscuit asks if it tastes delicious, former All Black Carlos Spencer bites into the white chocolate biscuit and says Mmm, that's delicious.

The complainant said the narrative of the commercial was racist. The colour of a biscuit character's face is called into question in terms of whether they might be as good to eat as the other characters, they wrote. It encourages racism and with the animated style is likely to appeal to children. Horrible and hateful role modelling in a multicultural society.

The Complaints Board commented:

There was a minority on the board that said there was a judgemental tone in the advertisement, due to it singling out the white chocolate biscuit for looking different.

However, the board ultimately ruled the advertisement had not breached the Code of Ethics or Children and Young People's Advertising Code.

 

 

Extract: How the left made Tommy Robinson...

It was their censorship of Islamophobia that made Robinson a star. By Brendan O'Neill


Link Here6th August 2018

The Tommy Robinson phenomenon is a product not of too much liberty, but of too much censorship. It is the cultural elite's cowardly instinct to chill open discussion about issues like Islam, multiculturalism, mass immigration and social tensions that created Tommy Robinson and his various movements, through allowing him to present himself as a seer in a time of silence. If Robinson really is the monster the left claim he is, they are his Dr Frankenstein.

See  article from spiked-online.com

See also The Britisher's even handed video analysis of whether Tommy Robinson was fairly treated in his tangle with the law from YouTube

 

 

Unfinished business...

Open Rights Group comments on the missed milestone of publishing final age verification guidelines before Parliament's summer recess


Link Here5th August 2018
Full story: BBFC Internet Porn Censors...BBFC: Age Verification We Don't Trust

MPs left behind unfinished business when they broke for summer recess, and we aren't talking about Brexit negotiations. The rollout of mandatory age verification (AV) technology for adult websites is being held up once again while the Government mulls over final details. AV tech will create highly sensitive databases of the public's porn watching habits, and Open Rights Groups submitted a report warning the proposed privacy protections are woefully inadequate. The Government's hesitation could be a sign they are receptive to our concerns, but we expect their final guidance will still treat privacy as an afterthought. MPs need to understand what's at stake before they are asked to approve AV guidelines after summer.

AV tools will be operated by private companies, but if the technology gets hacked and the personal data of millions of British citizens is breached, the Government will be squarely to blame. By issuing weak guidelines, the Government is begging for a Cambridge Analytica-style data scandal. If this technology fails to protect user privacy, everybody loses. Businesses will be damaged (just look at Facebook), the Government will be embarrassed, and the over 20 million UK residents who view porn could have their private sexual preferences exposed. It's in everybody's interest to fix this. The draft guidance lacks even the basic privacy protections required for other digital tools like credit card payments and email services. Meanwhile, major data breaches are rocking international headlines on a regular basis. AV tech needs a dose of common sense.

 

 

Offsite Video: Whiteboy...


Link Here5th August 2018
Rapper Tom McDonald articulates well on some salient points about racism See video from YouTube

 

 

Offsite Article: Internet shutdowns...


Link Here5th August 2018
Internet censorship in Africa threatens democracy and the economy

See article from dw.com

 

 

Adult humour...

Deadpool 2 Super Duper Cut momentarily rated 18 in Ireland


Link Here4th August 2018
Deadpool 2 is a 2018 USA action comedy adventure by David Leitch.
Starring Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin and Zazie Beetz. BBFC link IMDb
There are no censorship issues with this release. Exists as a Theatrical Version and an extended 'Super Duper $@%!#& Cut' Both are 15 rated by the BBFC.

Ben spotted something unusual on the Irish Film Classification Office website. The Super Duper Cut was originally rated 18, and then a few days later, this was amended to the current 15 rating.

It is not yet clear whether this was down to an appeal, a change of heart by the censors or possibly a mistake.

IFCO's decisions so far on Deadpool 2 are as follows:

  • 3rd May 2018. The Theatrical Version was passed 16 for cinema release for Strong violence, language and sex references (+ moderate drugs issues noted in a website check box)
     
  • 23rd July 2018. The Super Duper Cut was passed 18 for very strong violence (+ strong drugs issues) for video release.
     
  • 23rd July 2018. The Super Duper Cut was passed 15 for very strong violence (+ strong drugs issues) for video release.

 

 

I don't feel very much like Pooh today, said Jinping....

China bans Christopher Robin due to sensitivity of the Winnie the Pooh character being used to mock President Xi


Link Here4th August 2018
Full story: Film Censorship in China...All Chinese films censored to be suitable for kids
Christopher Robin is a 2018 USA children's musical by Marc Forster.
Starring Hayley Atwell, Ewan McGregor and Chris O'Dowd. IMDb

The Children's film Christopher Robin has been banned by Chinese film censors. No reason was given for the denial, but a source pinned the blame on China's crusade against images of the Winnie the Pooh character, which is widely used as a mocking representation of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Last summer, authorities began blocking pictures of Winnie the Pooh on social media when bloggers drew comparisons between the pudgy bear and Xi, which has put the country's censors in overdrive. In June, Chinese authorities blocked HBO after Last Week Tonight host John Oliver mocked Xi's sensitivity over being compared to Winnie the Pooh.

 

 

The business bourgeoisie know nothing except their profit...

Amazon is banning Nazi themed products from its stores


Link Here 4th August 2018
Amazon has removed products bearing Nazi and white supremacist symbols from its online store.

The retailer had faced criticism for letting sellers offer a variety of far right-wing paraphernalia including clothing and jewellery.

Amazon said it had blocked the sellers of onesies with burning cross motifs, jewellery using the Nazi swastika as well as music and audio books pushing fascist views.

In a report released last month, the Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy claimed Amazon was helping Nazi and modern white nationalist groups prosper by letting them sell their merchandise and materials.

The report prompted Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota to write to Amazon expressing his alarm that it was allowing the sale of products that promote hateful and racist ideologies.

As well as stopping items being listed and blocking sellers, Amazon said it was now working to get the items removed from its fulfilment centres. It said it used automated methods as well as teams of investigators to scan listings looking for items that break its policies or national laws covering hate speech, violence or racial intolerance.

 

 

Updated: Beyond the pale ale...

Rajan Zed complains about 2 different beers with a hindu deity on the label


Link Here4th August 2018
Perennial whinger Rajan Zed is urging Latina (Lazio, Italy) based Pontino Brewery Birrificio Pontino to apologize and withdraw its Sons of Shiva beer; claiming it to be highly inappropriate.

Label of Pontino's Sons of Shiva beer (Harvest Pale Ale, American IPA style) carries an image of Hindu deity Lord Ganesha holding a bottle in one hand.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed. Moreover, linking a Hindu deity with an alcoholic beverage was very disrespectful, Zed added.

Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.

Update: And another

29th July 2018. See article from rajanzed.com

Rajan Zed has found another beer to rage about. He is urging the Missouri based award-winning Springfield Brewing Company to apologize and not use Hindu deity Lord Ganesha's image on its Bombay Brown IPA, calling it highly inappropriate.

He, said that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Bombay Brown is described as a session-strength IPA with piney, citrus, and floral notes of American hops balanced by bread-like aromas from a blend of dark malt. The brewery websites comments about the Hindu connection:

The artwork for this beer features Ganesha, the Hindu deity revered as the Remover of Obstacles and more generally as the lord of beginnings and the lord of obstacles, patron of arts and sciences, and deva of intellect and wisdom. Brewing is often described as a blend of art and science and Ganesha is a fitting symbol of the brewers' art.

Update: Browned off

4th August 2018. See  article from dailymail.co.uk

A Missouri brewery has apologized and removed artwork depicting a Hindu deity from one of its beers.

In a statement released Friday, the brewery said it never intended to offend anyone and would remove the artwork from the Bombay Brown beer and its website.

 

 

Commented: Half Times...

Qatar censors The New York Times as it highlights the difficulties faced by the Qatar LGBT community


Link Here3rd August 2018
Qatar has removed whole articles from the Doha edition of The New York Times for highlighting the plight of the emirate's LGBTQ community.

According to ABC News, large sections of the Qatari edition of the New York paper have been censored with a note that said exceptionally removed .

Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, as it is in many other Arab countries, and homosexual acts can be punished under current laws.

The New York Times told the U.S. news channel that the decision to censor the articles was made by a local vendor or distributor. A spokesman said:

While we understand that our publishing partners are sometimes faced with local pressures, we deeply regret and object to any censorship of our journalism and are in regular discussions with our distributors about this practice.

Offsite Comment: My Article Was Censored. I Found Out Why

3rd August 2018. Thanks to Nick. See article from nytimes.com by Shannon Sims

The censored article covered a New Orleans museum show as a whole, but focused on one artist's contribution: an exhibit exploring an overlooked, dark chapter of the history of the L.G.B.T.Q. community in New Orleans. The artist, Skylar Fein, researched the tragic killing of 32 people at a gay bar in 1973, and he recreated both the feeling of the bar and the limited -- and sometimes homophobic -- news coverage around it at the time.

The article featured images of Mr. Fein's exhibit and the artist shot by a local photographer, William Widmer. Though the images may be suggestive (a shirtless man, for example), they are not explicit. In fact, the article was similar in many ways to other Arts pieces that have been published in The Times, and not particularly edgy.

See the full article from nytimes.com

 

 

Google is developing a censored search engine for China...

No doubt western governments will soon be calling for Google to deploy the same technology in their countries


Link Here 2nd August 2018
Full story: Google Censorship...Google censors adult material froms its websites
Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest, The Intercept can reveal.

The project, code-named Dragonfly, has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, according to internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans.

Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app, different versions of which have been named Maotai and Longfei. The app has already been demonstrated to the Chinese government; the finalized version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials.

Google's current search engine is blocked in China.

 

 

First social media tax, now porn blocking...

Uganda's internet censors introduce porn website blocking with an initial list of 27 sites


Link Here2nd August 2018
Full story: Internet Censorship in Uganda...Banning VPNs and taxing social media

Internet censors of the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) have instructed telecommunications companies and ISPs to block a list of pornography websites. Godfrey Mutabazi, Executive Director at the UCC, has said that they have identified 17 popular local and 10 international pornography websites which they, as the UCC, have asked ISP's and telecommunications companies to block.

The commission received the list of porn sites from the Pornography Control Committee. The committee has established that the list of the websites attached hereto is currently streaming pornography to Uganda in breach of section 13 of the Anti-Pornography Act, 2014.

Mutabazi has warned that telecom companies and internet providers risk penalties if they don't comply with the new directive.

Perhaps the recent introduction of high taxes on social media websites has pushed Ugandans onto the next best internet freebie, porn.

 

 

Offsite Article: New Halloween movie gets an MPAA R rating...


Link Here2nd August 2018
The producers would have been burned at the stake had they tried to release a PG-13 movie

See article from collider.com

 

 

The Equalizer 2...

BBFC category cuts required for a 15 rated UK cinema release


Link Here1st August 2018
The Equalizer 2 is a 2018 USA action crime thriller by Antoine Fuqua.
Starring Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Bill Pullman. BBFC link IMDb

UK: Passed 15 for strong violence, threat, language, drug misuse after BBFC advised pre-cuts for:

  • 2018 cinema release
The BBFC commented:
  • This film was originally seen for advice at which stage the company was informed it was likely to be classified 18 uncut but that their preferred 15 classification could be achieved by making reductions to scenes of strong violence and gore. When the film was submitted for formal classification these scenes had been acceptably reduced.

The film is uncut in the US where it is rated R for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content.

The running time suggests that the cut UK version will also be shown in Ireland rated 15A for strong violence.

Summary Notes

Robert McCall serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, but how far will he go when that is someone he loves?

 

 

Rearranging the mnemonics...

Chinese media and internet censors are in the process of restructuring


Link Here1st August 2018

It was announced in spring of this year that the Chinese media censorship body State Administration of Press, Publications, Radio, Film, and TV (SAPPRFT) was being replaced. Now a job recruitment advert has revealed a little more information about the restructuring

  • Most of SAPPRFT's duties -- and its domain name -- have moved to the  newly formed SART (State Administration of Radio and TV), which posted the recruitment ad to their SAPPRFT website.
  • Film censorship duties will now fall to the Party's Publicity (Propaganda) Bureau ,
  • while the Cyberspace Administration of China seems to have become the major censor for online news and information.

SART's ad does not mention censorship specifically, and given the recent organizational changes, one can only guess at the purpose of the new hires, but this is what we know from the ad:

  • A research institute affiliated to SART is looking to fill three specialized applied research roles.
  • Big data
  • Internet of Things (IoT) and
  • cryptography (including blockchain) are the focus areas.

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