This week's net.wars, "The censorship-industrial complex", ponders the Oscars' move to YouTube; watches Waymos freeze in San Francisco's power outage; and wonders why bar *those* five individuals and NGOs from the US: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/12/26/the-censorship-industrial-complex/. #NetWars #censorship #uspol
USA verhängen Einreiseverbot u.a. gegen zwei Deutsche die sich gegen Hass im Internet engagieren
Außenminister Rubio schreibt unter der Überschrift "Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship-Industrial Complex" folgendes
"Diese radikalen Aktivisten und als Waffen eingesetzten NGOs haben die Zensurmaßnahmen ausländischer Staaten vorangetrieben – in jedem Fall gegen amerikanische Redner und amerikanische Unternehmen."
Betroffen sind:
- Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization;
-Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index;
-former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs.
- Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate;
Nach der Attacke durch die GLS-Bank auf linke Strukturen in Gestalt der Kündigung von Bankkonten, folgt nun einen weitere Maßnahme des Versuchs der Einschüchterung, wobei Einreiseverbote mutmaßlich nur der erste Sdhritt sein dürften. Dass die USA auch ehemalige und politisch gut vernetzte EU-Kommissare ins Visier nehmen, sollte allen klar machen, dass die US-Regierung jede und jedem mit Maßnahmen überziehen kann und wird, derer sie namhafr wird.
Die AfD baut ihre US-Kontakte aus und es darf unterstellt werden, dass die AfD willige Zulieferin von weiteren Namenslisten ist, von Personen die sie gerne sanktioniert sähe.
Quelle für die Sanktionierung:
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/12/announcement-of-actions-to-combat-the-global-censorship-industrial-complex
Quelle für die Namen:
https://apnews.com/article/state-department-trump-immigration-rubio-visas-87c8a4692f3184e4f83fdd8ed5093886
@hateaid
#hateaid #einreiseverbote #JosephineBallon
#Hodenberg #us #usa #uspol #uspolitics #statedepartment #usgov #rubio #RubioMarco #cenaor #gls #glsbank #rotehilfe #rotehilfemtigliedschaft #ABCDresden #ThierryBreton #eu #europeancommission #eukommission #afd #feindesliste #melford #hass #digitalerhass #statedebt #politik #deutschland #weihnachten #weihnachten2025 #heiligabend #mittwoch #censorship #censored
To my followers here, a note of both sincere gratitude and apology for my protracted silence. As I posted on May 3 (see the link below), out of the blue and with no notice or explanation from this Mastodon instance, on May 3, I received a spate of notifications that multiple postings of mine had been removed.
This happened on the eve of a trip I was making to see a friend I hadn't seen in eight years.
🚨 **Privacy Alert: The New French Surveillance Law** 🚨
The proposed law not only targets drug trafficking but also poses a significant threat to the very foundation of our digital privacy. By mandating "backdoors" in encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp, this legislation compromises the security of all users. This sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to widespread surveillance and abuse.
🔍 **Why It Matters**: Encryption is essential for safeguarding our personal communications from prying eyes, including those of malicious actors. If the government can access our messages, so can hackers.
📢 **Take Action**: Join the fight against this invasive law! If you are a French national or resident, contact your representatives and demand they prioritize our digital rights. 📚 For more information, including how to find and contact your local representative, visit the French article: [La Quadrature du Net](https://www.laquadrature.net/narcotraficotage/).
#PrivacyMatters #Encryption #DigitalRights #SurveillanceState #France #MassSurveillance #DataPrivacy #Censorship #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #FreedomOfSpeech #Activism
The DOE “book banning hoax” press release claimed that challenged books are “age-inappropriate, sexually explicit, or obscene”. Only 13% of banned books in 2023–24 included “on the page” sexual scenes—but 36% featured PoC characters and 25% featured LGBTQ characters.
A press release from Aix Marseille University today said that the program is for American scientists who “may feel threatened or hindered in their research,” and is “dedicated to welcoming scientists wishing to pursue their work in an environment conducive to innovation, excellence and academic freedom.”
In an interview with AFP, University management said that the invitation is in the “DNA of Marseille” values, and that it has previously invited researchers from Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Palestine as part of a program that supports researchers and artists forced into exile.
Madness #AmericanAutocracy
‘Vaguely Threatening’: #Trump Federal Prosecutor #EdMartin Queries Leading #Medical Journal
The New England Journal of Medicine [#NEJM] received a letter suggesting that it was biased & compromised by external pressure. Other journals have also received the letter.
#law #censorship #FirstAmendment #Constitution #democracy #AbuseOfPower #authoritarianism #tyranny #dictatorship #AntiIntellectualism #science #medicine
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/health/nejm-prosecutor-letter.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=68CE025A-703F-4C94-87AA-8D0D7D06D23B
Amid anti-#DEI push, #NationalParkService rewrites history of #UndergroundRailroad
Since #Trump took office, the #ParkService -- an agency charged with preserving #AmericanHistory -- has changed how its website describes key moments from #slavery to #JimCrow
#whitewashing #WhiteSupremacy #History #racism #lies #censorship #propaganda #trumpaganda #USpol
https://wapo.st/4jdXL8m
Mike Masnick compares how the Free Press covered the (misleading-to-false) story of the #Biden admin’s "censorship" of #SocialMedia [actually trying to combat harmful #disinformation like #election & #COVID #lies & #ConspiracyTheories or #HateSpeech like #WhiteSupremacy], to how they handled the very real #censorship attack on #Wikipedia by #Trump’s DC #USAttorney #EdMartin.
Spoiler: there are differences.
#law #tech #moderation #dictatorship #FourthEstate #journalism
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/28/government-actually-threatens-wikipedias-editorial-freedom-self-proclaimed-free-speech-warriors-suddenly-have-other-plans/
There was that story last month about the Turks demanding that certain opposition Bluesky accounts be silenced. They were (mostly, sort of, it’s complicated). I dug into it and came away with an essay on what we want and don’t want concerning censorship or no-censorship and how well #Bluesky and the #Fediverse might give us that: https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2025/04/28/Censoring-Social-Media
Maybe instead of building global police states, parents should just parent their children...
#foodforthought #censorship #privacy #surveillance #internet #wtf #childsafety
100% ILLEGAL
WHAT COUNTRY IS THIS?!?!?
#Trump administration asks #IRS to revoke #Harvard’s #TaxExempt status
The directive to the IRS is a significant escalation of Trump’s feud with #HarvardUniversity & other Ivy League institutions & other #nonprofit groups his admin views as “woke.”
#law #AcademicFreedom #Constitution #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #AbuseOfPower #ExecutivePower #Autocracy #Tyranny #AntiIntellectualism #censorship #Dictatorship
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/16/trump-harvard-tax-exempt-irs/
OONI data is being used as evidence in support of a landmark public interest case in #Kenya! ✊
Our report on the blocking of Telegram during the 2023 & 2024 #KCSE exams supported a petition filed at the High Court of Kenya.
https://ooni.org/post/2025-kenya-blocked-telegram-kcse-exams/
This is disturbing. I do not care what a journalist said, nor about who. A representative of the President should not be "inquiring" about discipline at a media outlet. This isn't Mother Russia. #censorship
Trump administration must restore health articles scrubbed for transgender mentions, judge rules
#Trump #trans #health #LGBTQ #erasure #discrimination #censorship #press
微信的AI，至於這麼敏感嗎？
就因爲有「追求民主，反對獨裁」和「和平請願」，連馬敘倫的信息都要屏蔽？
太可笑了！你在怕什麼？
WeChat's AI, does it really need to be this sensitive?
Just because of phrases like “pursuing democracy and opposing dictatorship” and “peaceful petition”, even information about Ma Xu-lun is being blocked?
So ridiculous! What are you afraid of?
#china #wechat #ai #artificialintelligence #chinese #censorship #censor #blocked #democracy #dictatorship #petition #中國 #人工智能 #人工智慧 #中国 #中国式叙事 #微信 #審查 #屏蔽词 #审查 #中國特色 #中国特色 #民进 #民進 #民主 #獨裁 #独裁 #請願 #请愿
#CallForPapers for #OnlineConference: Thinking of the Children: #BookBans, #Censorship, and #Literature for Young People
For this online conference, organizers invite contributions from #scholars at all career stages, from #librarians and #archivists, and from #teachers at all levels, to consider #BookBanning and censorship of literature for young people, past and present.
#YALit #YA #Resist #CFP #Books
Not-so-happy 100th birthday to Ireland’s Committee of Evil Literature.
https://lithub.com/not-so-happy-100th-birthday-to-irelands-committee-of-evil-literature/
At PG:
"The Pivot of Civilization" by Margaret Sanger
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1689
"The Well of Loneliness" by Radclyffe Hall
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73042
"Family Limitation" by Margaret Sanger
Parts of the Internet are going dark for UK users since the Online Safety Act heaped weighty duties on platforms.
Sites are geoblocking the UK, overmoderating content, age-gating access or shutting down completely.
We need your help to track how content is being censored 🫵
Use our tool to report a site that's shutting down or restricting access to UK users as a result of the #OSA.
➡️ https://www.blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #censorship #freespeech #ukpolitics #ukpol
#Trump Urges #Congress to ‘Kill’ #VoiceOfAmerica as Its *Leader* Defends Gutting It
In a heated hearing, #KariLake, the Trump [crackpot] ally in charge of the federally funded international broadcasting network, called the #media agency “a rotten piece of fish” that should be defunded.
#law #democracy #FreePress #SoftPower #journalism #independence #censorship #authoritarianism #dictatorship #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/us/politics/trump-lake-voice-of-america.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Conservatives Get the #PBS & #NPR Cuts They’ve Wanted for Decades
The cuts speak to #Trump’s grip on his party but also to the sweeping changes in #media.
They tried under Ronald Reagan & George H.W. Bush & George W. Bush. Newt Gingrich gave it a go when he controlled the #House, & Bob Dole did, too, when he held power in the #Senate.
But for 5 decades, #Republicans failed time & again to choke off #federal #funding for #PublicBroadcasting.
#censorship #autocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/business/media/npr-pbs-funding-cuts-republicans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The way payment processors are able to control which art can be monetized and which can not is not only questionable but I think that we need regulation for that - not only in terms of money laundering but that they need to process payments for non illegal goods and services and can not determine by themselves what they are willing to process and what not.
Latest victims: itch.io and Steam
https://www.rascal.news/itch-io-delists-bans-games-under-pressure-from-payment-processors-and-an-australian-anti-porn-group/
Age verification is creating an information desert.
The Online Safety Act sets every UK user to child as default.
Teenagers? Blocked. Adults? Content denied unless we do age checks with unregulated companies.
It's not just porn! News on Gaza and Ukraine is being scrubbed from view, threatening #freedomofexpression as well as #privacy ⛔
#OnlineSafetyAct #onlinesafety #OSA #palestine #gaza #ukraine #reddit #ageverification #ageassurance #censorship #ukpolitics #ukpol
no more music for U-18s in UK 🙃
#OnlineSafetyAct #OSA #AgeVerification #Spotify #Tech #Technology #Privacy #Censorship #Surveillance
⚡️ Today we published a new research report on the ongoing blocking of X/Twitter in #Tanzania, which started in May 2025.
OONI data indicates that ISPs employ several censorship techniques, suggesting a “defense in depth” approach to censorship.
Learn more: https://ooni.org/post/2025-tanzania-blocked-twitter/ 🐙
#ooni #censorship #opensource #opendata
