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Category Archives: Censorship

Govt Will Take Steps To Ensure Transparency In Censorship: I&B MoS – Video

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Govt Will Take Steps To Ensure Transparency In Censorship: I B MoS
The members of the censor board met the I B MOS, Rajyavardhan Rathore on Tuesday to resolve the ongoing issue on the film certification process. A resolution to a series of issues is being...

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Govt Will Take Steps To Ensure Transparency In Censorship: I&B MoS - Video

Anti-censorship group in China faces DDoS attack

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An activist group working to end Chinas Internet censorship is facing an ongoing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that threatens to cripples its activities.

GreatFire.org, a censorship watchdog based within the country, reported on Thursday that it had been hit with its first ever DDoS attack.

Although its not known who is behind the attack, China has been suspected of using the tactic before to take down activist websites.

DDoS attacks work by using an army of hacked computers to send an overwhelming amount of traffic to a website, effectively disabling it.

In an Internet posting, GreatFire said that they were seeing 2.6 billion requests per hour, and that its websites had been forced offline.

We are not equipped to handle a DDoS attack of this magnitude and we need help. the group added.

The DDoS attack is targeting mirror websites GreatFire created to let Chinese users access blocked content, such as Google, BBC, the New York Times and other sites known to offer articles critical of the Chinese government.

To create the mirror websites, GreatFire has been using Amazon.com to host them through its cloud services. If the country wanted to cut access to the sites, the government would have to cause collateral damage and risk blocking Amazon servers that also support a large number of businesses, according to the group.

GreatFire suspects that the DDoS is in response to a Wall Street Journal article about the groups use of cloud services to poke holes through Chinas censorship.

Because of the number of requests we are receiving, our bandwidth costs have shot up to US$30,000 per day, the group said. Amazon, which is the service we are using, has not yet confirmed whether they will forgo this.

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Anti-censorship group in China faces DDoS attack

Angola: Rafael Marques de Morais – "I Believe in the Power of Solidarity"

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London Angolan journalist and human rights activist Rafael Marques de Morais, joint winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism, spoke at the ceremony in London on 18 March

Both as a journalist and human rights activist, Rafael Marques de Morais has exposed government and industry corruption in Angola speaking out for those whose human rights have been violated in his country. Despite repeated arrests and threats, including a 40-day detention without charge during which he was denied food and water for days, Marques de Morais has continued his investigations, most recently detailing human rights abuses within Angola's diamond companies including 500 cases of torture and 100 murders of villagers living in the vicinity. After filing charges of crimes against humanity against seven Angolan generals, Marques do Morais is now being counter-sued for $1.6 (1.09) million. Undeterred, he continues to write on corruption in Angola. He is the joint recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism.

With an award comes a greater responsibility. It is therefore my privilege to accept this journalism award, and dedicate it to my fellow Ethiopian colleagues Eskinder Nega, Reeyot Alemo, and the Zone 9 bloggers. They are in jail, currently serving some of the harshest sentences in Africa, for the crime of exercising their right to freedom of expression. For over a year, the Ethiopian government has denied adequate health care to Reeyot Alemu, who is in desperate need.

Ethiopia is the seat of the African Union, and its regime is one of the worst offenders for upholding the freedoms of the press and of expression. When a regime in Africa succeeds in trampling their citizens' rights with impunity, and enjoys such good international standing and legitimacy as Ethiopia, it becomes a textbook case for other authoritarian regimes.

I believe in the power of solidarity. I have experienced troubles of my own. It has been the solidarity of others that has helped to strengthen my courage and resolve to continue my journey.

Back in 1996, being in London and aghast at press censorship in Angola, I decided to bring it to international attention. Because I could not speak English, I fumbled through an organization's directory, and found Index on Censorship. I could understand the word Censorship. I called them and attended a meeting on Africa. My remarks were most convincing and incredibly short! "Censorship in Angola bad. Dos Santos [the president] bad. Very bad!" Then, a few months later I had an article translated and published in Index's magazine. It was disseminated through other publications in a number of countries.

On my return to Angola from this trip, I will be sitting in court, on 24 March, as the defendant on 11 separate charges of defamation brought against me by seven powerful generals and four of their business associates. I wrote a book that exposed human rights abuses in the diamond industry, in which the plaintiffs are major shareholders and whose private security company has executed many of the violations.

I am proud and honored to stand up against such a mighty power to enable many of the victims to speak out through my reports, which I have been producing for the past 10 years. I will come out of this trial stronger and empowered by the experience.

Thank you very much for this wonderful occasion.

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Angola: Rafael Marques de Morais - "I Believe in the Power of Solidarity"

Kenya: Amran Abdundi – "This Award is for the Marginalised Women of Northern Kenya"

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London Kenyan activist Amran Abdundi, winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning, spoke at the ceremony in London on 18 March.

Amran Abdundi is an activist who, through various channels, has worked to make life safer in northeastern Kenya supporting women who are vulnerable to rape, female circumcision and murder. Despite death threats, Abdundi's Frontier Indigenous Network (FIN) has set up shelters along the dangerous border between Kenya and Somalia, an area where militant terrorist groups pose a threat to many. Alongside these shelters, FIN also maps out conflict areas, targets the illegal arms trade which fuels local conflict and has set up radio listening groups. As a way of reaching women in remote areas, these circles help to dispel myths about tuberculosis treatment and female property ownership, and to tackle doctrines spread by the area's terror organisations. She is the recipient of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Campaigning.

I want to thank the judges who selected me for this award after going through so many worthwhile and wonderful nominations that were submitted from around the world. Equally I want to thank Index on Censorship's staff. I will be eternally indebted to you all.

This award goes to marginalised women of northern Kenya whom I have worked with closely for the last ten years and who have joined hands with me in fighting outdated cultural practices that deny them the right to own property, expose them to dangerous practices like FGM, and threaten them with sexual exploitation.

The award also goes to conflict concubines who were abducted by armed youths in the height of armed violence in northern Kenya and acted as comfort women for armed militias. When these women came back from conflict zones with children born out of wedlock, they were rejected by their families. This award is for them.

Society rejected them and they live in separate makeshift areas outside normal settlement areas in northern Kenya. Working together with the conflict concubines we engaged various stakeholders women leaders, elders, local government officials, cultural leaders and youths in order to open a dialogue. This led to partial acceptance by the community in accommodating them. I am still working in engaging the stakeholders to fully accept them and still hope to integrate the conflict concubines in mainstream society.

This award also goes to women who through my organizational campaign are today enjoying their constitutional right to own property, land and livestock. This is contrary to past practice when all lands, livestocks and properties acquired by women was registered in name of their husbands. Or if the woman was single or widowed, her brother or father's name. Our campaign and advocacy managed to break that outdated cultural practice.

The award also goes to women victims of armed violence perpetrated by terrorist groups, community militias and gangs along the Kenya/Somalia border. Thugs who have used their armed power to attack, rape, gang rape and block women fleeing droughts from reaching Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya. We used our loud speakers to confront the attackers and we documented the abuses along the border.

I have done all these things not to win any award or recognition but because of a grave reality on the ground. A horror which moved me to join hands with other women and form a woman-led organisation called FRONTIER INDIGENOUS NETWORK.

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Kenya: Amran Abdundi - "This Award is for the Marginalised Women of Northern Kenya"

Censorship? 'Underboob selfie' banned in Thailand

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MANILA, Philippines Do you know what an "underboob selfie" is?

What started as a fashion trend women's shirts and bikini tops cropped and designed to intentionally expose the lower half of their breasts sported by famous celebrities gave way to a social media trend among young women: the underboob selfie.

This new form of selfie focuses on the midriff and lower portion of the breast. Some of the photos we've seen on the Internet involved women pulling their shirts up to expose them.

Thailand's Culture Ministry has taken the first step to discourage this trend among women.

The country's 2007 Computer Crimes Act bans "obscene computer data which is accessible to the public," and this involves the side of a woman's breast.

Offenders could face up to 5 years in jail, according to media reports.

It did not mention how culprits could be identified. This could be the biggest problem in the enforcement of the law.

Underboob selfies usually leave the face out of view.

"Yeah, and prostitution is illegal too and how well do they enforce that law? Ha ha," said Facebook user Martin Duffy from Thailand.

Some social media users expressed their disapproval of the "puritan crusade" and saw it as another form of "censorship."

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Censorship? 'Underboob selfie' banned in Thailand

#ModTalkLeaks: Censorship by Reddit Mods, More female character costume redesign critiques & Hotl… – Video

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#ModTalkLeaks: Censorship by Reddit Mods, More female character costume redesign critiques Hotl...
We also discuss #changethecover, Ben Kuchera #39;s rant at Chris Mancil much more. -- Links of stories: Chris mancil Blog Post; https://archive.today/FqbLH More redesings: http://muddycolors.blogsp...

By: Roll Play Podcast

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#ModTalkLeaks: Censorship by Reddit Mods, More female character costume redesign critiques & Hotl... - Video

Censorship and shaming veterans needs to end

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By Justin Evans

The Maneater reserves the right to edit letters and columns for style and length.

If movies like American Sniper can make a student feel threatened, then we have a problem. We have many veterans on campus. I am one, and I have many friends here at the law school that are veterans as well. Some of those veterans did jobs that were very similar to that of Chris Kyle personal friends of mine. Films like American Sniper are a good thing for those veterans, not because they tell a heroic story, but because they tell a more nuanced story than the John Wayne flicks of yesteryear. American Sniper isnt glamorizing war or colonialism. Its telling the real life story of someone who suffered a great deal because of the political decisions of this country, good or bad. "I feel unsafe" or "threatened" has become a weapon to use when someone with a bone to pick wants to get their way. Whether or not this student likes the wars in the Middle East (obviously she'd be in agreement with plenty of non-Muslims and even veterans in that regard), it's odd to me that we have such a problem with people giving an account of what a person actually went through in a conflict. As if this movie is contributing to something that isn't an immediate political reality anyway. Does the presence of our veterans on campus offend this student or make her feel threatened? Should those students be allowed to speak with pride about their service for fear that it would make a student feel threatened? It seems to me that the real problem here that this student simply doesn't like how positively Americans respond to stories like that of Chris Kyle. And if the presence of this movie on campus is somehow a threat to her, how does she ever make it anywhere outside of the confines of the University? It was a fairly big hit at the box office, after all.

Were living in a time when academics will write letters in support of taking down the U.S. flag at a federally funded university. Why? Because of colonialism, and because of shameful moments in American history. Many of the same excuses are used by this student. But despite moments in American history that are terribly shameful, are we really saying that we have to pack it in? Dismantle our pride in America as a nation? Take down the flags, get rid of the monuments, and tell our veterans that we are afraid of them for the jobs they did? Take a step back and think its okay to be proud of a flawed institution. Its okay to be proud of Chris Kyle as a veteran, while realizing that he was as flawed as any other human being.

Finally, and perhaps most sadly, this student has chosen to lecture the entire University on the boundaries of the First Amendment while attempting to censor a point of view that she simply doesn't like. What she's really saying is that the First Amendment only extends to points of view that everyone agrees are comfortable. Sorry, but I'm thinking she may not understand that the point of the First Amendment was to protect unpopular opinions and speech. Personally, I'm not in the business of avoiding truths because I don't agree with them, nor do I reshape reality and what other people can do or say to fit my "comfort zone."

What's funny to me is that students actually considered not showing the film. Whatever your political sensibilities, it should give you pause that "cultural inclusiveness" and "tolerance" are being used more and more as a mask for blatant attempts at silencing and censoring points of view that we disagree with. And that needs to stop. We should all be willing to let one another voice their opinions, no matter if we agree with them and no matter how politically popular they are. Thats a right that our veterans understand, and Ms. El-Jayyousi should too.

Respectfully,

Justin Evans, jme337@mail.missouri.edu

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Censorship and shaming veterans needs to end

U.S. cloud services caught in activism against China's censors

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BEIJING, March 17 (UPI) -- Activists outside China are battling China's Internet censorship by transmitting encrypted information through cloud servers operated by companies like Amazon and Microsoft, but the move also is drawing U.S. firms into conflict with China's regulators.

The Wall Street Journal reported the censored Internet traffic couldn't be blocked unless Chinese authorities agree to ban all servers run by U.S. companies. The move also would shutter China's window to outside information that does not violate official censors and present drawbacks to major U.S. companies offering cloud services.

But China's government has made moves against the encrypted Internet traffic that violates their censors. In November Beijing blocked EdgeCast, a cloud service run by Verizon Communications. In the past, bloggers have faced jail time for making comments deemed as threats to the government.

Cloud servers have accelerated the dissemination of information globally because the technology allows multiple copies of data to be saved at different locations around the world. Mirror versions of banned websites are accessible through encrypted channels for Chinese users behind the firewall.

U.S. corporations were complying with Beijing, with one firm cutting off a U.S.-based service delivering encrypted information. China's cloud-computing market is expected to grow by 45 percent this year and has already reach $1.1 billion in 2014.

Internet censorship has also hit Chinese social media, reported Forbes.

Two Chinese Internet giants, Sina and Baidu, recently complied with new regulations and deleted more than 60,000 accounts, because Beijing believed the accounts were using "harmful or misleading names."

The move is reducing online spaces of honest discussions related to China's politics and society and could reduce user engagement, reported Forbes.

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U.S. cloud services caught in activism against China's censors

Unnecessary Censorship – Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Part 2 (Censored Parody) – Video

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Unnecessary Censorship - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Part 2 (Censored Parody)
Unnecessary Censorship - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Part 2 (Censored Parody) Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is made and owned by 2K Australia and Gearbox Softw...

By: Unnecessary Censorship Central

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Unnecessary Censorship - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Part 2 (Censored Parody) - Video


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