Daily Archives: March 26, 2020

Thousands of lives could have been saved if China allowed its media freedom to operate independently, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization has claimed.

RSF published a statement Tuesday detailing how Chinese authorities suppressed whistle blowers and early warnings of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, which has since spread across the globe and killed more than 19,000 people.

"Without the control and censorship imposed by the authorities, the Chinese media would have informed the public much earlier of the severity of the coronavirus epidemic, sparing thousands of lives and perhaps avoiding the current pandemic," the RSF statement argued.

The pandemic originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, likely at a so-called "wet market" where live and dead animals are sold.

The Chinese Communist Party was accusedby President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and othersof silencing whistleblowers and hiding the severity of the outbreak, which soon spread beyond its borders.

Tight restrictions appear to have stemmed the spread of COVID-19 in China, and officials have said that the peak of the outbreak has passed. There have now been more cases and deaths outside China than inside.

But RSF cited a University of Southampton analysis published earlier this month that argued the number of coronavirus cases in Chinawhich is rated 177th out of 180 in the 2019 RSF World Press Freedom Indexcould have been reduced by 86 percent if the restrictive measures implemented on January 20 had been put in place two weeks earlier.

RSF argued that the first red flag was missed in October, when the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security ran a simulated coronavirus pandemic alongside the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The simulation produced 65 million deaths in 18 months, a result RSF argued would have sparked interest and concern in China if media organizations were able to cover it or citizens were able to see it online.

Local Wuhan officials failed to inform the media of the outbreak, even when there were dozens of patients suffering the same mysterious illness and symptomsseveral of whom had visited the Huanan fish market where the virus is believed to have originated. The market was closed on January 1.

Dr. Lu Xiaohong was among the first medical workers to suspect that something seismic was occurring, having been told of multiple infections among staff at Wuhan City Hospital as early as December 25.

RSF argued that if journalists' sources did not face such strict punishments for speaking out, Lu may have raised the alarm and forced officials to acknowledge the problem.

A group of whistleblowers tried to do exactly that, but were arrested for circulating "false rumors" on January 3. Eight of these whistleblowers have since died of coronavirus.

Though China officially alerted the World Health Organization to the situation on December 31, officials moved to censor a number of related keywords on the country's tightly-controlled billion-user WeChat platform.

By January 5, a team at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre had sequenced the virus, but the vital information was not released publicly. Only on January 11the day the first coronavirus death was confirmeddid researchers leak the genome to open source platforms, handing the international community a priceless element in their nascent hunt for a vaccine.

The first case outside China was confirmed on January 13. RSF argued that the international community "would have taken stock of the crisis and better anticipated it" if Chinese media had been able to cover the issue since December. This may have slowed its spread and avoided "its transformation into a pandemic," the organization argued.

Newsweek has contacted the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. for a response to RSF's assertions.

Read more from the original source:
China's Media Censorship Could Cost Thousands of Lives: Journalism Watchdog - Newsweek

Gorodetsky is a veteran in Murmansk media. In 2005 he established the B-Port, a news agency that has developed into a leading newsmaker in the north Russian region.

Since then, much has changed in regional journalism.

On the 25th March, the director and editor-in-chief announced that he is leaving the company he created almost 15 years. The reason is growing censorship from regional authorities, he explains in a post on Facebook.

The situation is such that our news arena is rapidly changing, and not in a good direction, Gorodetsky says.

The opinions and posts that are published on our site suddenly have become unwanted and a source of irritation, he adds.

According to the editor, his news agency is now increasingly often contacted from above and told to remove or change contents.

He argues that there have appeared absurd prohibitions and strange limitations and that it now is considered undesired to express personal opinions that diverge from settled truths.

The news team at B-Port will continue to deliver contents, but now without Gorodetsky.

Over many years I have invested not only power and resources, but also parts of my soul. And of course I will not allow my soul to be wiped by my feet.

According to MMK News, Gorodetsky owns the B-Port together with regional politician Igor Morar. Reportedly, a recent issue of conflict has been the news agencys coverage of the coronavirus.

See original here:
A champion in Murmansk media quits because of censorship - The Independent Barents Observer

Here we go again. When you're a cryptocurrency that has seen 99% of its value vanish since the crypto bubble of 2017 to early 2018, getting an articleor even a mention in Wikipediacan feel like an insurmountable task. Or it can feel like censorship.

To Charles Hoskinson, it feels like the latter. The founder of Cardano has taken to YouTube to complain about Wikipedia. In a 9:46-minute rant, he accused the community-run free encyclopedia of bias. He claimed that the site is hostile toward cryptospecifically, his crypto projectand threatened legal action.

At issue is a proof of stake Wikipedia page, which Hoskinson claims is badly out-of-date. He said that when certain Cardano community members (he didnt specify who they were) tried to edit the page to include a blurb on Ouroborosthe consensus algorithm that powers CardanoWikipedia volunteers promptly removed the changes.

This is another example of the existential danger to an industry when people rely on things that appear to be open but are actually controlled by a few people who are incredibly biased and who are not accountable to anyone else, he said.

Few people? Who is he referring to? We discovered that one of the offending editors is nocoiner gatekeeper David Gerard. Other crypto projects, notably Decred (which has since slipped five more ladder rungs to 41st cryptocurrency), have complained that Gerard has barred them from Wikipedia.

Yes David Gerard is the one who has been a censor. It has been going on for years since the Ethereum days. I don't know why he hates us so or where his ego comes from, Hoskinson, former CEO of Ethereum, tweeted.

Gerard, though, is not the only editor who has taken issue with the Ouroboros blurb.

In recent days, three other Wikipedia editors also removed the blurbonly to have Cardano members put it back in againwhile a fourth editor removed proposed links to the blurb.

Why? Wikipedia says the content is promotional and therefore verboten.

The text proposed above is hardly neutralit talks about diligent research and innovative features which lend credibility to it's[sic] claim, etc., an editor named Bonade wrote on Tuesday. That kind of wording is not appropriate in an encyclopedia, even if the content should be acceptable.

Hoskinson countered (during his video rant, which he also posted to Twitter) thats not the only instance where editors targeted Cardano. A Cardano Wikipedia page even enjoyed a brief existence before Wikipedia editors rudely snuffed it out in November 2018.

Thats unfair, especially, when historically, weve had a market cap larger than SpaceX, he argued, referring to Elon Musks aerospace project. It is very anti-crypto.

Hoskinson claimed the edits are unsubstantiated and hostile. What does Wikipedia want that the Cardano community isnt proffering up? Tell us the standard and well meet that standard...We are not afraid to have a debate. We are not afraid to represent our technology, and our progress," he said.

In fact, Wikipedia, which has been around since 2001, does have well-documented standards. For starters, to warrant an article on the site, a topic has to be notable. That means the topic needs to have significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. Reliable sources include mainstream press and peer-reviewed academic presentations.

The way to get coverage in Wikipedia is to have substantial coverage in a high-quality mainstream sourcenot the crypto press, Gerard told Decrypt, which is crypto press. [ex, Josh Quittner, founding editor: What are we, chopped liver, Gerard?"]

Crypto media does not count as a reliable source because they're really about advocacy: promoting their hodlings, he wrote in an article detailing why Wikipedia editors are harsh on sourcing for crypto articles. Crypto projects are an ongoing firehose of spam, he wrote.

It is quite possible Cardano is adequately sourced; the next stage is an article entirely sourced from good sources, Gerard said.

But from Hoskinsons position, thats simply unjust. Where coins like Spankchain can have an article on Wikipedia. A lot of other cryptocurrencies and top 20s apparently have articles, and thats perfectly fine. But then we are not allowed to have an article for some reason, even though we have been mentioned by the US Congress. Weve been mentioned by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times.

Spankchain does not have a Wikipedia page. We tried to find the reliable sources that Hoskinson listed but we couldnt find anything in mainstream beyond the slightest passing mention.

Meanwhile, citing Hoskinsons posted videoand the potential for a flood of Cardano fans to now rush in and defend the storyGerard has put the proof-of-stake article under extended confirmed protection. That means that from now on, it can be edited only by those who have at least 30 days' tenure on Wikipedia and have done 500 edits. And another editor has initiated an investigation into sockpuppetry, meaning one person in the Cardano community may be making edits to Wikipedia under different aliases, which Wikipedia does not allow.

More:
The face of crypto censorship on Wikipedia? - Decrypt

from the don't-be-Big-Brother's-little-brother dept

China keeps being China, despite all the problems it has at home. The coronavirus traces back to Wuhan, China, and it has become clear the Chinese government is doing what it can to suppress reporting on the outbreak.

The country has a fine-tuned censorship machine that works in concert with its overbearing surveillance apparatus to ensure the government maintains control of the narrative. "Ensures" is perhaps too strong a term because, despite its best efforts, information always leaks out around the edges.

Citizens of China have found numerous ways to dodge censorship and surveillance over the years. But they're not being helped much by American companies, which have more often than not complied with government demands for apologies, takedowns, and other efforts that ensure access to the Chinese market at the expense of their Chinese users.

The latest news is more of the same. A clever keyboard app that encrypted messages has been nuked from the Chinese app store by Apple following a takedown demand from the Chinese government.

Apple yesterday removed Boom the Encryption Keyboard, an app that allowed Chinese internet users to bypass censorship, from the China app store, according to its developer.

[...]

According to an email sent by Apple to [app developer] Wang Huiyu, the app was removed because it contained content that is illegal in China. The app is still available in other regions, including Hong Kong, he said.

Boom encrypted messages by changing the originating English or Chinese to a blend of emoji, Japanese, and Korean characters. To decrypt the messages, users simply copied the characters sent to them, which were reverted to their original state on the keyboard below. Not enough to thwart targeted surveillance, but more than enough to dodge blanket censorship efforts like keyword blacklists.

The app's developer suspects Boom was targeted by the Chinese government because it was being used to spread an article about the virus that was censored by the government shortly after its publication.

The article in question is an interview with Ai Fen, a Wuhan doctor who said she was reprimanded for alerting other people about the novel coronavirus. The article, published on March 10 by Chinas Ren Wu magazine, was deleted within hours of its publication. Various versions of the article, including those reproduced in emoji, English, and even Hebrew, emerged after the deletion as people scrambled to save Ais story

This is the sort of information American companies should be helping to spread, not shutting down at the behest of the parties who want to see this information buried. If this were a one-off, it would be worrying. But it's just another data point in a long string of incidents where American tech companies have endangered users in foreign countries, seemingly for the single purpose of maintaining market share.

Filed Under: app store, boom, censorship, china, codes, content moderation, emoji, encryption, keyboardCompanies: apple

More:
Apple Helps China Censor Citizens By Pulling The Plug On A Keyboard App That Encrypted Text Messages - Techdirt

Apple yesterday removed Boom the Encryption Keyboard, an app that allowed Chinese internet users to bypass censorship, from the China app store, according to its developer.

Wang Huiyu, a New York-based Chinese citizen in his 20s, told Quartz that he developed Boom together with one of his university classmates during the outbreak of the coronavirus. Part of the motivation for Wang to develop the app, which went live on Feb. 15, was to offer people a chance to counter rigid online surveillance, and to provide them with an entertaining private messaging app.

According to an email sent by Apple to Wang, the app was removed because it contained content that is illegal in China. The app is still available in other regions, including Hong Kong, he said.

I designed the app because I wanted to remind people of the importance of privacy, and my target customers are people born after 1995 or 2000. I feel those under 20 will be able to accept new things and ideas the fastest, said Wang.

Boom encrypts text, both in Chinese and English, by turning them into emoji or Japanese or Korean characters, as well as rearranging lines of text in random order. The receivers of such messages can decrypt them by copying the emoji or characters using the app, with the original text then displayed automatically on the keyboards interface. As Chinas blanket online censorship relies heavily on the detection of key words or even pictures containing sensitive words, apps like Boom can help users avoid such scrutiny.

Another app developed by Wang, which offered animated wallpapers featuring political figures including former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, was also removed (link in Chinese) from Apples mainland China app store on the same day as Boom, he said.

Apple has removed apps from its China app store in the past for containingillegal content. Among the apps that have been pulled were Quartzs news app, which was removed from the China app store last year.

Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

While most apps that enable encrypted messages and communications have long been banned in China, Wang said he suspects Boom drew the attention of authorities because of the way Chinese internet users quickly moved to preserve a particular coronavirus-linked article from being scrubbed by censors recently.

The article in question is an interview with Ai Fen, a Wuhan doctor who said she was reprimanded for alerting other people about the novel coronavirus. The article, published on March 10 by Chinas Ren Wu magazine, was deleted within hours of its publication. Various versions of the article, including those reproduced in emoji, English, and even Hebrew, emerged after the deletion as people scrambled to save Ais story, part of a broader wave of efforts by internet users in China to prevent censors from removing crucial stories and memories related to the epidemic. Wang said downloads of Boom from mainland China surged after the incident.

Apple has been repeatedly accused of bowing to China by removing apps, such as a Hong Kong live map app that allowed protesters to crowdsource police movements during last years protests in the city.

Read more:
Encryption app to avoid coronavirus censorship removed by Apple in China - Quartz

By Ulrich Rippert 23 March 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the class character of politics. The health care system has been cut to pieces, hospitals privatised and trimmed for profit, laboratory capacities and nationwide treatment options massively restricted.

Despite warnings from China, no preparations have been made to protect the population. The government cares only about the interests of big business and is making unlimited financial resources available to corporations and banks. Although the danger of the virus was known, and public life has been drastically restricted, many workers are being forced to continue their work without adequate protection.

Resistance is growing against this criminal irresponsibility by the government and employers. Various opposition groups are forming on the internet to refute government propaganda and describe and fight against the dramatic conditions in hospitals, rescue stations, care facilities and factories, but also the devastating effects of government measures on workers in precarious employment.

Politicians have responded to this opposition with calls for censorship and dictatorial measures.

At the beginning of the week, Lower Saxonys state Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (Social Democratic Party, SPD) called for sanctions against the distribution of so-called fake news in connection with the Coronavirus pandemic. He demanded that the government urgently intervene, saying, It must be prohibited to publicly spread false allegations about the supply situation of the population, medical care or cause, ways of infection, diagnosis and therapy of COVID-19.

According to Pistorius, the government must examine whether bans could already be based on the infection protection law. If not, the penal code or the law on administrative offences should be amended as quickly as possible.

The greatest misinformation currently being spread comes from the government itself. It claims that the German health care system is well prepared for the spread of the pandemic, and no one need worry. For weeks, the government played down the dangers.

Now that reality has refuted its propaganda, any criticism of it is to be criminalised and suppressed. If Pistorius has his way, the government will rigorously enforce its monopoly on information and opinion. This is a call for censorship and dictatorship.

Pistorius has long been known as a right-wing social democrat in the tradition of Gustav Noske, who during the November Revolution in 1918 allied with the German army and far-right Freikorps to suppress working-class opposition to the bourgeois order.

For seven years as Lower Saxonys interior minister, he has been advocating a strict right-wing course against refugees and for stepping up the repressive powers of the state. In summer 2017, he presented an SPD position paper on domestic policy, the central point of which was strengthening the federal police force financially and with more personnel. One year later, more than 10,000 people demonstrated in Hanover against the new police law of Lower Saxony, which Pistorius had drafted, because it massively expands the powers of the security authorities while at the same time restricting elementary civil rights.

With his call for censorship and police-state measures, Pistorius speaks for a party that has always responded to crisis situations and resistance from the population by calling for the strong state and dictatorial measures. Pistorius comes from the same political stable as former German Chancellor Gerhard Schrder, who brutally smashed up the welfare systems with the Hartz laws. For the past three years he has also been living in a relationship with Schrders fourth wife, Doris Schrder-Kpf, from whom the former chancellor separated in 2015.

There is no doubt that the fight against the pandemic requires the restriction of social contacts and individual freedom of movement. However, it must not be allowed that the conditions for a dictatorship are created under the slogan necessity knows no law! The coronavirus pandemic, its ominous health, social and economic consequences and the drastic measures required to combat it raise the question of who exercises power and controls the statethe financial oligarchy or the working class?

The ruling class everywhere is trying to use measures against the Corona crisis to strengthen its power. According to information from DPA and Der Spiegel, the president of the Bundestag (federal parliament), Wolfgang Schuble (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), for example, has proposed to the leaders of the parliamentary groups that they expand the Emergency Laws by amending the constitution.

The Emergency Laws, which were passed in May 1968 in the midst of the largest workers strikes and student protests of the post-World War II period, give the state quasi-dictatorial powers in crisis situations (natural disaster, uprising, war). Among other things, they allow for the Bundestag and the Bundesrat (the upper chamber of parliament) to be replaced by an emergency parliament, the Joint Committee. This committee consists of only 48 selected members but has the full powers of both chambers of parliament and would thus largely override the existing parliamentary system. Schuble has now brought up the idea of including a similar regulation in the constitution for the case of an epidemic.

The deployment of the Bundeswehr (armed forces), which Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced at a press conference on Thursday, must also be seen in this context. For the time being, the focus is on logistical tasks. The Bundeswehr has five hospitals of its own, 3,000 doctors, mobile military hospitals as well as logistics and transport capacities that can be used in the fight against the virus.

But Kramp-Karrenbauer has more in mind. In addition to the deployment of up to 50,000 soldiers, there is also talk of mobilizing 75,000 reservists. At the press conference, the defence minister emphasized that the troops will only be properly deployed when the civilian authorities and organizations have reached the end of their capabilities. She claimed that in the area of security and order, assistance from the military would only be available under strict conditions, but in a daily order to the troops she wrote, We will help with health care and, if necessary, with ensuring infrastructure and supplies as well as maintaining security and order.

Chief of Staff Alfons Mais wrote to soldiers saying the Bundeswehr now had the task of maintaining operational readiness for any required support. We are at the beginning of a road whose direction and length we cannot yet estimated, he declared.

In Bavaria, the conservative state government declared a disaster situation last Monday. This enables them to take far-reaching measures against the spread of the coronavirus and to call on citizens to help in the form of services, material and work. However, the disaster situation also means a far-reaching encroachment on democratic rights, which can be used to suppress social and political opposition. The working class must be on its guard.

Google is blocking the World Socialist Web Site from search results.

To fight this blacklisting:

Read the rest here:
German government prepares for internet censorship and deployment of the armed forces - World Socialist Web Site

Ministry of Information and Communications Technology-March 22, 2020

Torching banners, signs, and the entrances of centers of oppression and looting of the regime-Khamenei and Soleimanis posters

In the early hours of Sunday, March 22, 2020, defiant youths in Tehran, targeted the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the mullahs, responsible for shutting down the internet, spying, and filtering in the clerical regime. Defiant youths set fire to its door and the main sign. The ministry cut off Internet communications during the popular uprisings in 2018, 2019, and 2020, arresting, torturing, and executing a large number of protesters by controlling and intercepting their communications.

The defiant youths also torched the banners of Khamenei and Qassem Soleimani in various cities. They also torched the banners and signboards of the notorious Basij force, and Khomeini Relief Foundation in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Karaj, Gonabad, Kerman, and Shahrekord.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

March 24, 2020

Ministry of Information and Communications Technology-March 22, 2020

Notorious Basij command center in Isfahan-March 24, 2020

Karaj- Qassem Soleimanis banner- March 22, 2020

Shiraz- Khomeinis Relief Foundation-March 22, 2020

Notorious basij command center in Isfahan-March 24, 2020

Tehran- Torching Khameneis banner- March 24, 2020

Karaj-Torching Qassem Soleimanis banner- March 23, 2020

Kerman- Soleimanis banner torched-March 24, 2020

Gonbad- Torching supreme-leaders& Soleimanis banner-March 23, 2020

See the original post:
Iran: Defiant Youth Attack on Ministry of Information and Communications Technology Center of Filtering, Censorship, and Repression - NCRI - National...

Internet blocking by governments is evolving at a fast pace, and new research shows that one government in particular, Jordan, has decided to start internet throttling instead of blocking to decrease the discoverability of the governments anti-freedom of expression actions. Access Now recently published their 2019 #KeepItOn report (definitely a suggested read) which details internet shutdowns around the world. They cover everything from complete internet shutdowns like the Indian government has been doing in their Jammu and Kashmir region all the way to smaller governments blocking access to social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. The 2019 #KeepItOn report showed the world that Jordan throttled Facebook Live during a crucial election time.

In an interview with Netzpolitik, Access Now employee Berhan Taye explained that internet throttling is a new method that governments are using as part of their censorship toolkit and explained why a government like Jordan might prefer internet throttling to straight up internet blocking:

Governments typically throttle services because it is hard to prove incidents like throttling when compared to blockings or shutdown.

In fact, by throttling the internet, the Jordani government was actually counting on people directing their anger at the throttled social media platforms instead of the government controlled internet service providers and mobile data providers. Taye continued:

Moreover, people that are not able to upload or live stream events are most likely going to assume theres something wrong with their internet as every other part of the internet functions well, rather than questions their service providers.

Governments that are in control of the internet infrastructure within their borders have a myriad of ways to throttle or straight up block parts of the world wide web from their citizens. Taye detailed 5 ways in which internet traffic can be throttled both as a whole or towards specific protocols or target websites and services.

Bandwidth management / Traffic shaping and policing: Bandwidth management, which can be done by source or destination IP addresses, IP subnets, VLANs, or MAC addresses.

QoS: Networking technologies such as QoS (Quality of Service) are sometimes used to prioritize particular types of communication (protocols) over others, which can have a throttling effect on the deprioritized communication protocols traffic.

Inline DPI: Inline DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) devices at layer 5 and above can be used to introduce latency.

NIC / Port partitioning: NIC (Network Interface Card) / port partitioning at layer 2, which will affect all traffic.

Routing path: The routing path can be altered to be longer, or go through lower capacity chokepoints in the network to create a throttling effect.

Each of these methods is a lot harder for the end user to detect when compared with navigating to a site and being served with a blocked by X agency message. Commenters on Hacker News also noted that similar internet throttling is done by the governments of Egypt, Kazakhstan, and China.

A lot of the time, the government institutes internet shutdowns as a way to stop people from organizing around or discussion certain topics or to call for change in the oppressive government. Access Now has been tracking internet shutdowns since 2011 and Taye noted that these actions are not effective in the long term:

One important thing to note, however, is that since we started this work back in 2011, we have seen that an internet shutdown might delay change, but it never is effective in squashing protests or peoples call for change. For instance, if you look at Sudan, the government shut down social media for over a month and tried to disrupt the protests, but the people still managed to organize and bring down a 30 years old dictatorship in less than a year. So shutdowns are rarely effective at disabling peoples ability to organize and call for change.

Of course, there are ways to get past internet blocks but they might not work as well for internet throttling. Specifically, bandwidth management, traffic shaping and policing, port partitioning, and routing path could also throttle Tor or VPN traffic in general. When asked by NetzPolitik about whether the use of Tor and VPNs would allow users to get past internet throttling or blocking, Taye gave a well thought out answer:

Most people can circumvent social media blocking by using Tor and VPNs. However, whether people put themselves in danger or not depends on the country and the context they are in. Some states make circumvention or the use of VPNs and Tor illegal, while others dont criminalize circumvention.

Even if circumvention of internet throttling or internet blocking isnt illegal, it requires some technical know-how and there will always be affected internet users that wont be able to get over this barrier to entry. That is to say, internet throttling for the purposes of censorship is always successful to some degree in preventing the average citizen from acting how they wish to act online. This is extremely heinous because freedom of expression online has been classified as a basic human right by the United Nations. At the end of the day, internal pressure to change still will continue to build, even with such throttling or blocking actions in place. What we as the larger, uncensored internet community can do though is to apply external pressure by condemning the actions of these governments. Internet throttling and internet blocking are not tools to be used for political gain and the sooner the worlds governments realize that, the better.

Caleb Chen is a digital currency and privacy advocate who believes we must #KeepOurNetFree, preferably through decentralization. Caleb holds a Master's in Digital Currency from the University of Nicosia as well as a Bachelor's from the University of Virginia. He feels that the world is moving towards a better tomorrow, bit by bit by Bitcoin.

More:
Jordan uses internet throttling instead of internet shutdowns and blocks to censor websites - Privacy News Online

With millions of people all over the world staying at home to quarantine themselves from the COVID-19/Coronavirus outbreak, the Internet is enjoying the latest memes inspired by the pandemic, and there's a bunch of them that will make you laugh. However, Facebook has censored some of the obviously fictional onesfor "False Information" that were checked by "Independent fact-checkers".

For instance, check out this COVID-19 meme featuring Cthulhu, the iconic cosmic entity created by writer H.P. Lovecraft. This meme was posted on the Fantasy and Sci-Fi Rock My World Facebook page:

(Note that the embedded posts below don't show it as censored but when you view it on Facebook, they are censored the way shown in the screenshots below).

Thanks for confirming that Cthulhu doesn't exist, Independent fact-checkers!

Another post from Coronavirus Public Meme Service, aFacebook dedicated to Coronavirus memes, got the same kind of censorship:

It's hilarious that Facebook is fact-checking memes that obviously feature creatures that don't exist in this world. I guess Facebook's anti-fake news alogirthms just can't take a joke. The reactions in thecomments are also amusing.

Maybe Facebook memers need their own multipass:

Related:COVID-19 May Delay The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

Originally posted here:
Facebook Censors Coronavirus Memes with Zombies & Cthulhu For Sharing False Information - Epicstream

The coronavirus pandemic now seems to dominate our every waking thought. While we look to news sources and health experts for answers,many movie-lovers are also rewatchingContagion. For the 2011 movie about an infectious disease that humans spread across the world, screenwriter Scott Z. Burns used extensive research and the opinions of experts to portray a realistic (while still fictionalized) global pandemic.Recently, Burns shared his advice on the coronavirus outbreak, based on what he learned working on Contagion. While the movie is almost a decade old, it can still teach us a lot about how to respond in a pandemic. And most importantly, Burns believes: we need to listen to public health experts.

Contagionscreenwriter Scott Z. Burns sat down withSlateto discuss the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

Based on the research you did and the way you gamed out this fictional scenario, they asked Burns, what in your opinion is the gravest mistake we are making right now?

I think the gravest mistake is not giving the space and the microphone and all of the support to the public health officials who can help guide us through this, the Contagion scribe replied. Burns lamented the censorship that hes seen happen in the Trump administration. He continued:

We have really good people in this country. They need to get together and be allowed to speak to us clearly and not be filtered. I have read accounts in the press that Dr. [Anthony] Fauci isnt really allowed to speak until Mike Pence has approved his messaging. That is concerning to me. If we are going to get through this in the best version, it is by empowering those people and giving them the resources that they need.

One tricky aspect to add to the mix?

This is an election season, Burns told Slate. Thats one of the few things the current crisis doesnt have in common with Contagion.

It concerns me very much that anybody on either side would use this moment to advance any sort of political agenda or edit the story to make themselves look good, he continued.

The screenwriter said that type of approach helps no one.

Burns also spoke toVarietyabout the American governments response to coronavirus. The fact that the Trump administration cut the pandemic task force made the Contagion writer feel terrified.

The notion that were going to cut these things and well just try to rebuild them when we need them is foolish and dangerous, Burns said.

The Contagion writer continued with his criticism.

The fact that this administration decided to do away with that puts all of us at risk, he said. Burns told Variety he couldve never imagined an outbreak scenario in which the government leadership left us so unprepared.

I hadnt contemplated as a screenwriter what would happen in an administration where we defunded public health and defunded pandemic preparedness and defunded science, and then went one step further and discredited health officials who were trying to protect us.

See the rest here:
'Contagion' Screenwriter Says Our 'Gravest Mistake' in the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Censoring Health Experts - Showbiz Cheat Sheet