Evolution Of A Queen: Tumblr Censoring This is Thin Privilege
Since June of 2012 the tumblr This is Thin Privilege has been inundated with trolls trying to silence and shut down a blog that has been bringing to light the experiences of fat people. Over the last few weeks TITP has tried to contact tumblr support after they noticed that their posts were no longer showing up in tumblr tags and reblogs of their posts are not shown in the notes of each post. While this could just be a bug, Tumblr support has not responded to requests to have these issues fixed. Just last week I was experiencing issues with my own blog and I had a response within an hour after sending in a request for help.
At this point, with tumblr not responding to support tickets, TITP is continuing to post content but they are unable to run their blog as they have been over the last year. If it is tumblr censoring TITP this is yet again another case of tumblr not supporting the social justice community that has grown on tumblr over the past few years.
This is Thin Privilege and I would really appreciate you reblogging this post, to not only support TITP but to also speak out against Tumblr censoring blogs due to troll complaints. The moderators at TITP have also started a petition to hopefully make their blog fully functional again, so that they can continue their mission of giving fat people and their experiences a voice.
TPB gets censored in the UK
The Western countries of the world all complaints about the censorship in Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and so on. But they are really the worst culprits themselves, having double morals in doing an even worse thing themselves.
Today news was out that the UK high court has decided that TPB is “massively infringing on copyright”. The facts that no copyright is being infringed upon here at the site was not a welcome fact, so that was ignored apparantly.
Noone from TPB was invited to the court case, which would be normal to do in a democracy. This is not the first time this happens, it’s been the same in most countries we’re censored in. We have no right to speak since we’re not rich.
Five ISPs got sued by the record companies to force them to block us. This is particularily interesting since music released and promoted exclusively here on TPB is currently in the brittish top charts. We are simply competitors that they just managed to squeeze out of their market, in a maffiesque way.
As usual there are easy ways to circumvent the block. Use a VPN service to be anonymous and get an uncensored internet access, you should do this anyhow. Or useTOR, I2P or some other darknet with access to the internets. Change your DNS settings with OpenDNS. Or use googles DNS servers… we could go on…
But don’t forget that we can’t allow this shit to happen. Next time they’re coming for something else. And yes, there will be a next time if we don’t stop them. Write to your ISP and tell them to appeal the case. Write to your local MPs and tell them that this is not allowed. Make sure your voice is heard. Remember, we’re all the pirate bay, and we must stand united against the censorship from our opponents!
(Source: officialdarknightscitylights)
So. British government is actively censoring its citizens. Nice. cool. lovely.
more about it:
British web providers begin blocking Pirate Bay
Pirate Bay hits out over High Court blocking order
Is the UK’s Love Affair With the Internet at Risk?
Also read the TorrentFreak article on the matter, which includes a proxy link. Fuck Internet censorship!
(Source: howllor)
“Not Okay”: MovieBob on Sexism and Harassment in Nerd Culture.
Good enough to be repeated. FOREVER.
(via charrrlotte)
Facebook refuses to remove pages that promote rape and sexual assault and instead asks the page owners to add a [humor] tag to make sure everyone knows the graphic and often threatening content was just a “joke.” But now the site has started taking down pictures of a tray of vulva cupcakes as “pornography.” What gives, Facebook? Rape jokes are cool, women’s anatomy in food form is not?
The Iranian Cyber Police published new rules on Wednesday designed to allow officials to know exactly who is visiting what Web sites. Before they can log on, Iranians are required to provide their name, father’s name, address, telephone number and national ID, according to an Iranian media report cited by Radio Free Europe. Cafe owners will be required to install security cameras and to keep all data on Web surfers, including browsing history, for six months.
The rules, which come as the country prepares for parliamentary elections in March, are a deterrent to activists who might want to use the Internet cafes to organize protests. Calls to boycott elections distributed via social networks or e-mail will be treated as national security crimes, the Iranian judiciary announced last week, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal. Government officials claim they need to control access to the Internet to counter what they say is a “soft” cultural war being waged by Western countries to influence the morals of Iranians.
Monitoring Web surfers is an interim measure until the government is done building out its own domestic intranet that is “halal,” or pure. Initially, the Iran intranet will run in tandem with the Internet before the global Web is shut off to the 23 million Internet users in Iran, according to reports. Payam Karbasi, spokesman for Iran professional union Corporate Computer Systems, told Iranian media that the domestic network, which was announced last March, would be launched in coming weeks, the WSJ reported.
Iranians have reported that during the intranet tests this week, Internet connections have slowed down and Web sites have been blocked. Access to VPNs (virtual private networks) Iranians use to access sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have also been affected, reports said.
Widespread protests over purported fraud in the 2009 election, which brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back to office, prompted the Iranian government to cut off access to opposition Web sites and mobile telephone networks. But protesters flocked to Twitter and Facebook to skirt the communications crackdown, to spread videos and news and to organize demonstrations. Tor and other tools were then used to get around government shutdowns of those sites.
Some of the extreme censorship measures adopted by Iran have also been used in Libya and in China, which deploys the “Great Firewall” to keep objectionable content out of the country. China also requires identification to use Internet cafes in Beijing, and has a history of shutting down blogs as well as allegedly meddling with Gmail and targeting activists with cyber attacks.
Ummm….I believe the censorship is to protect copyrighted materials. Don’t YOU feel smart? In no way, shape, or form are they attempting to take away your free speech. They’re taking away your ability to steal shit that’s not your and use it as your own.
<3 McfutFunny story, nobody who’s into piracy has ever paraded the works as their own. You’re thinking of plagiarism, dear.
Now, the actual issue: they can talk about the importance of stopping piracy all they want but it’s still the kind of overkill that ends imagination. It’ll assumed that, if a video on YouTube infringes on copyright—which, by the way, can include music playing in the background or sung by amateurs—every video on YouTube infringes on copyright, and as such all of YouTube is in violation and thus all of it will be shut down. All of those dancing baby videos, all of those cute cat videos, all of those It Gets Better videos, all of those video diary videos—all of it, gone. And that’s not the only site in violation.
Not to mention that it would probably read positive for fan-fiction which is a major outlet for a lot of amateur writers, despite being absolutely harmless to the producer of the original work: it’s proved to be a useful asset, actually, for a work to have a thriving fandom, as it encourages people to buy the work—ooh, and like it in a way that causes severe guilt if they don’t support the original creators, too, so they’re more likely to actually buy it.
But as near and dear as that is to my heart, it’s not the real problem. The real problem is that us introverts who have finally been finding our niche by talking to people without going face-to-face. Those of us with anything but majority views are able to talk to people we can’t talk to otherwise and actually make real best friends. But where are we going to meet them if Facebook and YouTube and Tumblr have all been shut down because of a few videos that infringe on laws that essentially protect the kinds of big corporations that’ll have only a handful of individuals making lots of money for not making all that much of an improvement to society.
Oh and by the way you don’t really stop piracy this easily. The bill that’s running around these days doesn’t make it impossible to pirate. It just makes it a little harder, or a little less convenient. Remember the piece I shared at Writers’ Guild where I never used the right words? That’s what this kind of censorship does. It makes you adapt so that you can do the same “wrong” things in different ways so that they don’t get caught. This is the same problem that happened during the Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.: alcohol was made illegal, so the mafia rose because the drunkards were sober long enough to get into a more exclusive, organized kind of crime.
I’m sorry, dear, that your bubble has been burst, but please learn to prioritize things a bit here.
I HAVE NOT SEEN ANYONE ELSE MENTION THE BOLDED AND IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT. Some people have problems and can’t go out into the world very easily. For these people, the Internet ties them to vital friendships and services.
Rock on, Z.
All of it is really important. Think of all the websites you use, and then remember on how many of them you’ve seen copyrighted material, whether it’s pictures, videos or text. This bill will endanger all of those websites.
I was nervous, but the call went really well. Please call your representative. Tumblr makes it really easy for you.
The Internet is my home; keep it free.
In case you’re on the fence.
Again, not in America, but this is for all of you who are and who care about keeping the Internet a free place, not one controlled by your government.
Government Orders You Tube To Censor Protest Videos
In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate.
The latest example is You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group’s Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.
This is what’s called Fascism.
Yeah, you see this? Now is pretty much the time to be scared.
This needs more notes. Get on it people. I will repost this all damn day if I have to. WAKE THE HELL UP IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY I WILL GRAB YOU AND SHAKE YOU.
okay this is fucking terrifying
this is the most fucked up shit
I know this is kind of like telling people to use Google+ instead of Facebook, but megavideo allows free uploads. Upload your vids over there if youtube is fucking up like this.
Is this real? Good god.
Doesn’t surprise me to be honest. There is a ridiculous amount of censorship going on that we don’t even realise.
