Censorship
'We don't see the joke': Senator tells students to remove page
Adelaide senator Nick Xenophon has warned ACT students to remove a joke Facebook page that pretends his party will fight for South Australian jobs in …
Nick Xenophon TeamChristian preachers win appeals over shopping centre sermon
<b>Two street preachers who were fined for a sermon delivered to shoppers have won appeals against their convictions.</b><p>Michael Overd, 53, and Michael Stockwell, 51, were convicted of a religiously-aggravated public order offence in February.<p>But judges at Bristol Crown Court said it was not proved the …
Freedom Of SpeechSexual violence on campus must not be tolerated — but using Title IX as a censorship tool is not the answer
There's good reason to mistrust Betsy DeVos on this issue. But a crackdown on campus discussion won't help<p>What should we do about the scourge of sexual violence on American college campuses?<p>I don’t know, to be honest. But here’s what I do know: We’ll never get good answers to the question if we …
Liberal POVChina censors drop the soap operas, sitcoms
<b>Analysis</b> A disturbing trend toward ever-greater censorship in China has seemingly crossed a line with the banning and blocking... well, fun, …
Rights & FreedomsFormer victims' commissioner is new Parliament watchdog
<b>Kathryn Stone has been appointed as the new parliamentary commissioner for standards.</b><p>Ms Stone will take on the role of overseeing the code of conduct and rules for MPs, including the register of financial interests.<p>She has previously served as the commissioner for victims and survivors of the …
Rights & FreedomsWhat Russia Does Not Want You To See: Kremlin Tops List For Flagging Google Content
The Russian government's requests to remove online content from Google peaked in 2016, dwarfing the rest of the world.
World NewsCensorship: It’s Always for Your Own Good
From the New York Times to the British government, the paternalism of the speech police shines through.<p>Censorship is demeaning.<p>When the <i>New York Times</i> …
Rights & FreedomsKyrgyzstan Blocks Archive.org on ‘Extremism’ Grounds
Image taken from Kloop.kg. Creative commons.<p>In an effort to combat extremism, a court in Kyrgyzstan blocked the popular US-based Internet Archive …
Liberal POVStudying media can help us understand our human rights, says new book from City academic
News from City, University of London<p>Arts & Culture Series:<p><i>Professor Howard Tumber has co-edited The Routledge Companion to Media and Human …
Freedom Of SpeechRussia’s Parliament Went on a Censorship Binge Today
The Kremlin is cracking down on online anonymity. Again. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.<p>Russia's lower house of parliament approved a spate of …
PrivacyThe curious case of China’s ‘ban’ on Winnie the Pooh
It's not every day that Winnie the Pooh makes global headlines, but recently, amid a rush of serious news, the bear became the talk of the town.<p>Last weekend, the Web went wild over reports that A.A. Milne's “bear of very little brain” had been blocked in China because of his resemblance to Chinese …
World NewsSelf proclaimed guardians of free speech push bill to make it a felony
The same people who opposed overturning Citizens United on First Amendment grounds want to criminalize supporting a boycott of Israel.<p>The American …
Freedom Of SpeechChina WhatsApp crackdown only scratches surface of worsening internet censorship
<b>Hong Kong (CNN) —</b> As Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate, lay dying in a heavily-guarded hospital last month, there was little mention of his fate in China.<p>For many younger Chinese, Liu is an unknown figure, the culmination of years of intense censorship of his life and works. The …
Internet CensorshipBe Worried About the Future of Free Expression
"Ads That Perpetuate Gender Stereotypes Will Be Banned in U.K., but Not in the Good Ol' USA!" reads a recent headline on the website <i>Jezebel</i>. Yay to …
Freedom Of SpeechAmid VPN crackdown, China eyes upgrades to Great Firewall
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese telecoms carrier said it had begun closing virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools that can bypass the so-called Great Firewall, which state authorities use to filter and block traffic between Chinese and overseas servers.<p>A spokesman for Guangzhou Huoyun …
ChinaA University’s Anti-Free Speech Rules Upheld — For Now
The old saying, “You can’t win ‘em all” applies to the case <i>Abbott v. Pastides.</i><p>It is a rather typical case involving a school’s policies that restrain …
University of South CarolinaWhy It's Really Easy For Anyone To Censor WhatsApp
China started censoring certain parts of WhatsApp earlier this week, according to reports. Though there was no comment from the state, many presumed it came as part of a broader response to outcry over the death of political prisoner and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.<p>Using the so-called Great Firewall …
EncryptionChina’s Top Cyber Watchdog Is Making More Demands on Tech Firms
China's top cyber authority ordered the country's top tech firms to carry out "immediate cleaning and rectification" of their platforms to remove …
ChinaCriticism And Free Speech
Our group Resisting Hate come under a lot of flak for the stand we take against hate speech. We regularly butt heads with defenders of free speech who feel we have a pro censorship agenda and who believe we want to silence the voices of those with differing views to us and to eliminate all …
Rights & FreedomsCambodian media’s ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ mindset prevails, with change hard to come by
T<b>heary was spending her lunch break scanning her Facebook feed, on a bench outside the garment factory where she worked, when something caught her</b> …
Phnom PenhSorry, Professor, Speech Is Not Violence, Even To Your Neurons
“She Blinded Me With Science” is a wonderful 1980s song by the Brit Thomas Dolby. It could be the signature tune for Professor Lisa Barrett’s deeply …
Conservative POVUC Berkeley Can't Find Venue for Prominent Conservative Speaker, Claims No Censorship Intended
Berkeley College Republicans were planning on hosting Ben Shapiro, a Harvard Law School graduate and conservative political commentator, on campus in …
UC Berkeley5 Ways to Convince College Students That Free Speech Matters
In recent days, college students have shouted down, pepper-sprayed, punched and otherwise shut down the campus guests whose ideas they considered …
Conservative POVMilo Yiannopoulos’s Book ‘Dangerous’ Has Sold Half as Many Copies as He Claims
The right-wing commentator dismissed independent book sales figures as "fake news."
PublishingTrolling ourselves to death in the age of Trump
How we arrived in this Twilight Zone, in which the norms of public discourse have broken down and grotesque spectacles of incivility feel like the …
WinnipegHow China’s Internet Disruption Is Impacting the ‘Wang Hong’ Influencer Economy
WhatsApp is the latest service to be disrupted by China’s digital clampdown, but commercially motivated changes to Sina Weibo could be even more damaging for the ‘internet celebrity’ influencer economy.<p><b>LONDON, United Kingdom</b> — This week, Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp was disrupted by a …
WeiboRussia Does A 'Copy/Paste' Of Germany's New 'Hate Speech' Online Censorship Law
A few weeks ago, we warned about a dangerous new German law that would fine social media companies if they didn't magically block "hate speech" on …
Rights & FreedomsChina orders tech firms to tighten censorship controls
China has ordered the country's biggest technology firms to immediately “rectify” violations and shut accounts that publish “bad information”, in the …
Rights & FreedomsNetizen Report: Authorities in China and Indonesia Threaten Whatsapp, Telegram Over Political Content
Flock of birds. Photo by Christoffer A Rasmussen, via Wikimedia. Licensed to public domain.Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an …
Liberal POV“Computational Propaganda”: Armies of Cyber-Troops Manipulating Public Opinion.
<i>The Computational Propaganda Research Project (COMPROP) investigates the interaction of algorithms, automation and politics. This work includes</i> …
Rights & Freedoms