MetaFilter posts tagged with censorship

Meep!

scalefree — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:05:04 -0800

By order of the Principal, all students are forbidden to say the word "meep". That is all.

Military Censorship of Photographs in World War I

NotMyselfRightNow — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:04:30 -0800

Military Censorship of Photographs in World War I: "During the course of World War I, tens of thousands of photographs were withheld from publication by the U.S. military. These included images that might have revealed troop movements or military capabilities, pictures that were liable to be used in enemy propaganda, or those that could adversely affect military or public morale. The development of military controls on publication of photographs during WWI was described in a 1926 U.S. Army report (15.75MB PDF) that is illustrated with dozens of images that had been withheld, with a description of the reasons their publication was not permitted."

Project Censored 2010

Pope Guilty — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:44:36 -0800

The ever-oddly dated Project Censored has released its list of undercovered and ignored stories for 2010.

The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion

Pope Guilty — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:27:26 -0800

Douglas Crockford, who oversaw the porting of Maniac Mansion to the NES, would like for you to know how the game changed in the porting process and why.

Celebrate freedom: Read a banned book!

orrnyereg — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 08:46:46 -0800

Banned Books Week, held annually on the last week of September, emphasizes the importance of intellectual freedom and the threat of censorship. Here's a helpful map of recent book bans and challenges in the Unites States. The American Library Association lets you search the most frequently banned books by year and author.

Rammstein is not a subtle band (NSFW)

zippy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:58:46 -0800

Rammstein's Pussy (video, really NSFW, SLnYT) gets right to the point. Youtube has taken down uploads. Facebook has taken down links (though not Links). Here's a fan-created censored version (NSFW lyrics). Contrast Pussy with their earlier work, Keine Lust, in which they parody themselves as old, fat, and sexless (until they rock, of course). Are they intentionally following a route blazed by Spinal Tap? Pussy is not the band's first controversial video. Their cover of Depeche Mode's Stripped used footage from Leni Riefenstahl's 1936 Olympics documentary, Olympia (including the beautiful diving sequence). When asked whether it was wise to base their video on a film commissioned by Hitler, the band said that they are not Nazis.

One giant leap for Chinese Internet Censorship

allkindsoftime — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:18:05 -0800

Chinese news site dispense with user anonymity. Includes an updated list of sites China actively blocks, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (?!? - both links work only outside of China). prev

Graphic Sexual Horror, a documentary

Stochastic Jack — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:01:26 -0800

A new documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Insex.com, one of the early websites. (NSFW) Co-directors Anna Lorentzon and Barbara Bell look at Insex, the people behind it, and the forces that ultimately brought it down. The stuff that Insex did tends to make even hardcore kinksters flinch a bit. However, as one reviewer points out, they at least put the activities into context, showing the performers both in the scenes (which include drowning and suffocation--some of this stuff may really hit some triggers for some people), as opposed to the notorious anti-porn documentary, The Price of Pleasure, which showed sex and kink without exploration of the performers' lives offscreen. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that they ultimately were shut down not by obscenity laws, but by federal authorities who used the PATRIOT Act to claim that hardcore porn funded terrorism.

Caijing (财经)

KokuRyu — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:39:38 -0800

Caijing (财经) is an independent, Beijing-based magazine devoted to reporting on business in China. The publication's title means "Finance and Economics." Periodical China has suggested 3 key factors that have made Caijing successful. The first is investigative reports, the second is the unique perspective of commentaries, the third is Caijing's three guiding principles-independence, uniqueness and exclusiveness... (However) how much freedom exists in the current Chinese press market for a magazine with such liberal reporting remains questionable. Hu Shuli, the founding editor of the biweekly magazine, was once suspended from a reporting job in 1989 because of her sympathy for the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, yet she has cultivated first-name familiarity with some of China’s most powerful Party leaders. Since 1998, when she established Caijing, she has guided the magazine with near-perfect pitch for how much candor and provocation the regime will tolerate. From a recent article in Caijing about increasing social unrest in China: Mass incidents are breaking out all over China, but the causes are specific, the threat to government is limited and the solutions are within reach

Wisconsin book burners

sredefer — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:32:59 -0800

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years.' " A Wisconsin couple's petition to have certain "objectionable" books moved from the young adult to the adult section of their public library has lead to heated debates on both sides of the issue and has culminated in 4 "elderly" men filing a claim against the library in question. They're asking for a book to be removed and burned as it damaged their "mental and emotional well-being". The book is called Baby Be-Bop. The American Library Association's compilation of information on book burnings (200 B.C.E - present).

Minty, fresh [CENSORED], or your money back!

cheaily — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:01:10 -0800

Internet nasties affecting network freshness? Try Censordyne! The latest campaign to shine a light on the Australian Government mandatory internet filtering initiative, supported by GetUp! See also: No Clean Feed and some background to the saga on Wikipedia

Censorship lives!

bad grammar — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:13:37 -0800

This site deserves to rank with this site and this one. Given the blatant ideology and the questionable aesthetics, it resembles a parody, but in the post-Palin era, it's become impossible to tell.

Nokia Siemens and the Iranian Government

HylandErickson — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:46:36 -0800

In 2008, Nokia Siemens’ Networks sold Iran a program called Monitoring Centre, which allows the government not only to monitor all mobile communications, but also to alter their contents, possibly for disinformation purposes. Implementation of the deep-packet inspection technology that the program uses may be to blame for the halt in mobile service that occurred after the June 12th election. According the BBC, Nokia Siemens markets the Monitoring Center product to 150 countries around the world.

Naked Lunch turns 50

Houyhnhnm — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:23:16 -0800

Naked Lunch, the infamous novel by American writer William S. Burroughs and the subject of the final literary obscenity trial in the United States, turns 50 this year. To celebrate the anniversary, the first collection of critical essays devoted to the novel will be published this month and a three-day "homage and symposium" will be held in July at the University of London Institute in Paris, with complementary celebrations taking place in New York and other cities throughout the rest of 2009.

We know a good wall when we see it

dominik — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:39:33 -0800

As of tomorrow a law will be in effect in Germany that allows the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation to block websites without any judicial approval. Both big parties voted favorably today - even in the face of protest and the most successful online petition in Germany so far. And while the original law states that only child pornography can be censored this way, politicians and music industry execs are already calling for the blocking of first person shooters and copyright-infringing content. (Last two links in German) The obligatory twitter-hash tag is #zensursula - a pun on the German word for censorship and the name of the Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen.

Whack-a-mole

infini — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:03:27 -0800

With the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on Thursday, China's ever-vigilant censors have stepped up the reach of the "Great Firewall," blocking Western sites like Twitter, Flickr, and (just one day after its launch) Microsoft's Bing. via The blocked sites include Twitter, Flickr and Microsoft’s Hotmail, according to the Telegraph. FoxNews added The Huffington Post, Life Journal and the MSN Spaces blogging tool to the list. BBC viewers in China also saw their screens black out when the news service broadcast stories about the anniversary, and foreign news crews have been barred from filming in the square. Readers of the Financial Times and Economist magazine found stories about Tiananmen ripped from their pages. Authorities also plan to begin cracking down on unapproved internet cafes, according to reports from state media. via

Apple pulls Nine Inch Nails iphone app - However will Trent Reznor respond to censorship by the Man??

njbradburn — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:15:47 -0800

Maybe Apple had never actually listened to the song Closer before approving the Nine Inch Nails iphone app, but Trent Reznor Twitted today that Apple pulled the NIN application from the store due to objectionable content. The objectionable content referenced is "The Downward Spiral." Reznor chatted with digg.com last month and talked about the iphone app's release. Though he has developed a business model for NIN that doesn't include a record label, he still needs distribution portals for their music. NIN fans will go to their website to download music and apps anyway, but the itunes store has a chance to turn new listeners on. However will Trent respond??

The Australian Government's Blacklisted Website List

Effigy2000 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:45:44 -0800

Wikileaks has posted the complete list of websites that the Australian Government intends to block under its proposed opt-out internet censorship scheme. The Government has flagged plans to expand the blacklist to 10,000 sites or more. Most of the sites have no obvious connection to child pornography, which is the Government's main justifcation for introducing the scheme. Wikileaks is one of the sites listed, as are some Wikipedia pages and "a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist." ACMA has issued take-down notices and threatened fines of $11,000 per day to websites hosted in Australia (so Metafilter should be OK) which contain material, or a link to material, on this blacklist. The scheme is expected to slow the internet to a crawl (not a great thing given we're already lagging behind most of the world on internet speeds), will significantly limit the flow of information to Australians and will place the country in the same league as China and the United Arab Emirates. Don't like the sound of this? Here's a website dedicated to opposing the laws. Think it's a great idea? Send Senator Conroy a thank you note.

Inscrutable, these grass-mud horses, what?

Joe in Australia — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:07:36 -0800

Stories about caonima, grass-mud horses have become a popular meme with their own theme song [Flash] in China. If you don't speak Chinese it's surprisingly hard to find out why: the name sounds rude. Sometimes juvenile humor can be the best way to poke fun at the ever-present government censorship.

You can say what we want you to say

adamvasco — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:27:47 -0800

The kidnapping of Philip Rizk; later they tried to get his father as well. Philip has now been freed.
The detention of protesters highlights Middle East governments' ambivalent attitudes towards support for the Palestinians.
Here it is worth noting of course that Philip is not alone in his arrest. Another blogger Diaa Eddin Gad has also been arrested as have several people attending a Muslim Brotherhood demonstration. A strong, collective message was sent last February when Egypt and Saudi Arabia introduced a pan-Arab regulatory framework for satellite television stations. The document, titled "Principles for Organizing Satellite Radio and TV Broadcasting in the Arab Region," clearly targets independent and privately owned stations that have been airing criticism of Arab governments.
This has helped trigger a Revolution, Facebook-Style. "In most countries in the Arab world Facebook is now one of the 10 most-visited Web sites, and in Egypt it ranks third, after Google and Yahoo. About one in nine Egyptians has Internet access, and around 9 percent of that group are on Facebook — a total of almost 800,000 members. An estimated 18,000 Egyptians are imprisoned under the law, which allows the police to arrest people without charges, allows the government to ban political organizations and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government".

A Kitten for Hitler

fearfulsymmetry — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:21:01 -0800

'Ten years ago, while working on The South Bank Show, Melvyn Bragg and I had a heated discussion on the pros and cons of film censorship. Broadly speaking, Melvyn was against it, while I, much to his surprise, was absolutely for it. He then dared me to write a script that I thought should be banned. I accepted the challenge and a month or so later sent him a short subject entitled A Kitten for Hitler. “Ken,” he said, “if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched.'

That film has been made. The story behind it.

The PMRC "Filthy Fifteen"

the_bone — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:51:01 -0800

Some videos: In 1985, Tipper Gore's PMRC released a list they called the "Filthy Fifteen," detailing what they believed to be the fifteen most objectionable songs of the time, and the reason they felt each song should be censored... 1. Prince, "Darling Nikki" (sex) [first link: concert footage from 1985; second link: the "backward" part at the end of the song, played forward] 2. Sheena Easton, "Sugar Walls" (sex) [music video] 3. Judas Priest, "Eat Me Alive" (sex) [album version] 4. Vanity, "Strap On Robbie Baby" (sex) [lyrics] 5. Mötley Crüe, "Bastard" (violence) [concert footage from 1983] 6. AC/DC, "Let Me Put My Love into You" (sex) [music video] 7. Twisted Sister, "We're Not Gonna Take It" (violence) [concert footage from 2008] 8. Madonna, "Dress You Up" (sex) [concert footage from 1985] 9. W.A.S.P., "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" (sex/language) [concert footage from 1984] 10. Def Leppard, "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" (drug and alcohol use) [music video] 11. Mercyful Fate, "Into the Coven" (satanism) [parody video] 12. Black Sabbath, "Trashed" (drug and alcohol use) [music video] 13. The Mary Jane Girls, "In My House" (sex) [music video] 14. Venom, "Possessed" (satanism) [album version] 15. Cindy Lauper, "She Bop" (masturbation) [music video]

Internet Sting

fearfulsymmetry — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:16:20 -0800

Several British Internet Service Providers have blocked access to a Wikipedia page (NSFW) of the 1977 album Virgin Killers by the German rock group The Scorpions. The Internet Watch Foundation had advised the ISPs that the albums cover featured imagery that was 'potentially illegal' child pornography. The way the ban was enacted has had the side effect of stopping thousands of UK users from editing articles on Wikipedia. Naturally not everyone is happy about this.

More fun with Scientology!

changeling — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:52:13 -0800

Recently, everyone who pre-ordered a certain book on Amazon.co.uk received a letter notifying them "This item has been removed from sale for legal reasons." Amazon.com claims the book is temporarily out of stock. The book? The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology by John Duignan. Interestingly, on November 5th, Tom Cruise attended an "all hands" meeting of Amazon.com bigwigs. Photos. A random coincidence? What about all those one and two-star reviews that kept disappearing from books like Dianetics and Science of Survival?

Experience the censored Chinese internet at home!

chunking express — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:48:18 -0800

China Channel Firefox Add-on: Experience the censored Chinese internet at home! The Firefox add-on China Channel offers internet users outside of China the ability to surf the web as if they were inside mainland China. Take an unforgetable virtual trip to China and experience the technical expertise of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (supported by western companies). It's open source, free and easy.