RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL Twitter has quietly updated its COVID-19 misleading information policy to impose new sanctions on tweets about vaccines, PCR tests, and health authorities.

These sanctions include removing and labeling tweets. Both types of sanctions also result in Twitter users accruing strikes on their account, leading to a permanent suspension.

While the top of Twitters COVID-19 misleading information policy page currently states Overview November 2021, a December 2 archive of the page shows that the page was updated, and the Overview November 2021 text was added after December 2.

One of the most notable changes to this COVID-19 misleading information policy the reclaimthenet site noticed is related to claims about whether vaccinated people can spread the coronavirus.

The policy now states that Twitter will label tweets with corrective information and give users a strike if they:

Another change is that Twitter will start giving a strike to and labeling the tweets of users that use research and statistical findings to make claims contrary to health authorities if it decides that their claims misrepresent research or statistical findings pertaining to the severity of the disease, prevalence of the virus, or effectiveness of widely accepted preventative measures, treatments, or vaccines.

Previously, Twitter would sanction what it deemed false or misleading information about research findings, but there was no provision about contradicting health authorities.

In addition to this, Twitter will give users two strikes and remove their tweets if they claim that vaccines approved by health agencies (such as Pfizers Comirnaty vaccine in the United States) did not receive full approval/authorization, and therefore that the vaccines are untested, experimental or somehow unsafe.

This appears to be a reference to criticism of a footnote in the Federal Drug Administration (FDAs) full authorization documents for the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) vaccine, which revealed that the FDA had extended the emergency-use authorization for the same vaccine.

Furthermore, users that claim that vaccines are part of a global surveillance effort will have their tweets removed and be given two strikes. The introduction of this provision follows vaccine-related surveillance tech, such as vaccine passports, being introduced in many countries.

Some of the other claims that will be sanctioned under Twitters updated policy include:

Under Twitters current strikes system, two or three strikes results in a 12-hour account lock, four strikes result in a seven-day account lock, and five or more strikes result in a permanent suspension.

This means users with three tweets removed or five tweets labeled under this updated COVID-19 misleading information policy will have their accounts permanently suspended.

And as part of this policy update, Twitter has added new provisions that can result in accounts being permanently suspended, even if they dont have strikes.

We may immediately permanently suspend accountsif we determine that the account repeatedly violates the COVID-19 misinformation policy over 30 days, or if we have determined that the account has been set up for the expressed purpose of Tweeting false or misleading information about COVID-19, the updated policy states.

Labeled tweets may also be subject to additional restrictions, which include:

Agrawal has served as CEO, Twitter has censored several high-profile accounts, prohibited the sharing of photos and videos of people without their permission, and censored a link to the American Heart Association. A secret Twitter program that fast-tracks elite users takedown demands were also made public in the last few days.

Here is what the CDC says:

Also CDC:

Although it was clear from the beginning of the pandemic that symptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs, presymptomatic transmission has also been described (16).

Furthermore, transmission from asymptomatic cases was deemed possible based on findings that the viral load of asymptomatic cases was similar to that of symptomatic cases

So according to the CDC

With information from Reclaimthenet

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Covid-19: Twitter will now ban users that repeatedly claim vaccinated people can spread the virus - The Rio Times

There is a new scourge befouling the media landscape, one that our self-appointed mandarins have declared themselves eager to combat: misinformation.

The Aspen Institutes Commission on Information Disorder recently released a report that blamed misinformation for a range of social problems: Information disorder is a crisis that exacerbates all other crises Information disorder makes any health crisis more deadly. It slows down our response time on climate change. It undermines democracy. It creates a culture in which racist, ethnic, and gender attacks are seen as solutions, not problems. Today, mis- and disinformation have become a force multiplier for exacerbating our worst problems as a society. Hundreds of millions of people pay the price, every single day, for a world disordered by lies.

With $65 million in backing from investors such as George Soros and Reid Hoffman, the newly organized Project for Good Information also vows to fight fake news wherever it roams. As Recode reported, the groups marketing materials claim, Traditional media is failing. Disinformation is flourishing. Its time for a new kind of media. The project is run by Democratic operative Tara Hoffman, whose company ACRONYM created the app that spectacularly bungled the Iowa Democratic caucus vote in 2020.

And as Ben Smith reported in the New York Times, the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University has been hosting a series of meetings with major media executives to help newsroom leaders fight misinformation and media manipulation. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for his platforms role in spreading misinformation.

The origin of this new wave of portentous declarations and hand-wringing can be found in the Trump years. In an insightful piece in Harpers, Joseph Bernstein labels this effort Big Disinfo.

Its a new field of knowledge production that emerged during the Trump years at the juncture of media, academia, and policy research, he writes. A kind of EPA for content, it seeks to expose the spread of various sorts of toxicity on social-media platforms, the downstream effects of this spread, and the platforms clumsy, dishonest, and half-hearted attempts to halt it.

As Bernstein argues, As an environmental cleanup project, it presumes a harm model of content consumption. Just as, say, smoking causes cancer, consuming bad information must cause changes in belief or behavior that are bad, by some standard.

Big Disinfo has gained in popularity in mainstream media outlets in part because it claims to solve the problem of bad information while placing blame for it on anyone other than mainstream media. In fact, those diagnosing our illness and prescribing the cure are themselves purveyors of the infodemic they claim is upon us.

The Aspen Institutes commission, for example, includes several people who have actively engaged in misinformation efforts. As the Washington Free Beacon reported, one of the commissions advisers, Yoel Roth, was the Twitter executive who blocked his sites users from sharing the New York Post story about Hunter Bidens laptop just before the 2020 election.

Adviser Renee DiResta is something of a misinformation wunderkind as well: She was an adviser to American Engagement Technologies, which, the Beacon reports, is a tech company that created fake online personas to stifle the Republican vote in the 2017 special Senate election in Alabama.

The commissions co-chair, Katie Couric, is also familiar with manipulating facts to yield favorable outcomes. She admitted in her recently published memoir that she had removed and edited statements made by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about athletes protesting the playing of the national anthem. Ginsburgs criticism of the practice might have angered her fellow liberals, Couric feared.

Commissioner Rashad Robinson, head of the activist group Color of Change, also helped spread misinformation by promoting the hate-crime hoax of actor Jussie Smollett even after it was clear Smollett, who last week was convicted on criminal charges related to the staging of the attack, was lying. And then there is commission member Prince Harry, an expat British ex-royal with few qualifications but a lifetime of evidence of his own questionable judgment (such as dressing up as a Nazi and, more recently, whining to Oprah about the family that funds his lavish lifestyle).

Earlier this year, Harry declared the First Amendment bonkers.

The Aspen Commissions report says there is no such thing as an arbiter of truth, and yet our media gatekeepers have claimed that mantle for themselves with decidedly mixed results for some time.

Consider the fact that Russiagate, a yearslong effort to prove that Donald Trump was being blackmailed and controlled, proved untrue yet was given constant media attention, while the story of Hunter Bidens laptop and its contents, which proved true, was actively suppressed with the explicit purpose of protecting Joe Bidens chances of becoming president. We live in a surreal information moment when the lie was given ample airtime and featured prominently in print, while the truth was smothered and labeled disinformation.

And yet our self-appointed misinformation warriors have proven unwilling to engage in self-reflection. Harvards Shorenstein Center used the New York Posts story on Hunter Bidens laptop computer as the basis for one of its case studies during its recent misinformation sessions.

The lesson that the centers leaders drew, however, was not the one anyone who values the truth should follow. According to the Times, the Shorenstein Center claimed that the Hunter Biden story offered an instructive case study on the power of social media and news organizations to mitigate media manipulation campaigns. In other words, the suppression of information deemed by experts to be misinformation was precisely the kind of Good Information objective we should be pursuing. The research director of the center, Joan Donovan, told the Times that the Hunter Biden case study was designed to cause conversation its not supposed to leave you resolved as a reader.

But what is there to resolve about the fact that the Fourth Estate eagerly embraced the role of chief information censor on behalf of a Democratic candidate for president?

Misinformation and disinformation are nothing new. Propaganda, political dirty tricks, and deliberate lies have been with us a while and have often been a point of pride for their practitioners. It was not that long ago that Ben Rhodes, then a top aide to President Barack Obama, boasted about creating an echo chamber in the media to spread falsehoods about the details of Obamas Iran nuclear deal.

It is true that misinformation has taken on greater significance thanks to the scale and speed of the social-media platforms that spread it. But the new sanctimony about misinformation should be leavened with some healthy skepticism about the movements major actors.

As Bernstein noted, in some sense the disinformation project is simply an unofficial partnership between Big Tech, corporate media, elite universities, and cash-rich foundations. The crusade against misinformation is an approximate mirror image of Donald Trumps war against fake news.

Control of information is control of one of the most valuable commodities in the developed world: peoples attention. And people want their confirmation biases affirmed. But scholars and commissioners studying misinformation also suffer from confirmation bias. Contra the proposals made by panels and commissions on misinformation, the most radical thing we could do right now isnt to give more power to elites or the federal government to control information.

Their record of late Russiagate, Hunter Biden, the Covington kids, the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis, Border Patrol officers with whips, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial has not been stellar. It would be far better for the health of the information ecosystem that these supposed experts are always invoking if reporters focused on shoring up what were once unassailable tenets of journalism balance, iron-clad sourcing, and critical independence from and skepticism about the powerful. Instead, they are powers handmaidens.

From Commentary

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Inside the hypocrisy of media manipulators, censors who claim to fight misinformation - New York Post

When civic spaces are closed and groups deleted, individuals with few or no connections outside of social media have backlogs of resources and connections taken away. In the case of WeChat specificallywhich users in China utilize for chats, payments, blog publishing, travel, and other digital record keepinga suspension or ban cuts a user off from many everyday communication and life tools.

This is not about topics. This censorship is fundamentally about the dismantling of social resources. Content takedowns not only address the shorter-term problem of text or images that government actors want to remove, they also weaken activists' ability to rebuild by isolating them and dampening their ability to create new resources. Censors can ensure that these groups stay silent. Conceptualizing censorship in a solely piecemeal way neglects the damage that destroying the foundations of organizing and civic society components can do.

Chinese censors have not operated using content- or keyword-only censorship for nearly a decade, finding early on that the social nature of social media was key to modernizing and maintaining Chinas Great Firewall. Xi Jinping himself characterized cyberspace in a 2016 speech as a spiritual garden for information innovation and cybersecurity. He claimed that this conceptual garden has a clear sky, and crisp air with a good ecology in cyberspace conforms to the peoples interests. A pestilent atmosphere with a deteriorating ecology in cyberspace, in turn, does not conform to the peoples interests. Unsaid but key to his analogy was what, and who, would have to be pruned and removed.

Communist Party internal literature also acknowledges the power of digital social networks beyond banning specific keywords. In preliminary studies of community environments on Weibo that led to increased control over social influencers, researchers identified the environment as a new frontier in civic spaces. Party scholars wrote: Because cyberspace has no systemic barriers or binding ideological constraints different classes, areas, and types of media can exchange, integrate, or confront ideas, making the public opinion environment increasingly complex.

Topic-based bans do remain an integral part of censorship, barring mention of historically taboo events like the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and content published by banned media outlets like The New York Times, Washington Post, and BBC. However, after the rise of bloggers and social media influencers in the late 00s, the public opinion environment was also precisely targeted by campaigns meant to curtail influencer impact and the capacity of nongovernment thought leaders to build community.

In theory, social media users with large followings were private citizens. However, the mid-2010s handed them a choice: They could serve and support the politics of Chinese authorities, or they could face discipline by law enforcement and the dismantling of their communities. In 2013, amidst a flurry of blogger crackdowns, novelist Hao Qun summarized the trend aptly: They want to sever those relationships and make the relationship on Weibo atomized, just like relations in Chinese society, where everyone is just a solitary atom.

By the time Peng appeared in a November 2021 video call with IOC chair Thomas Bach, the Weibo and WeChat environments had virtually purged discussions with offending keywords or references to an earlier, clumsier cover-up email sent to the Womens Tennis Association.

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The Case of Tennis Star Peng Shuai Reveals the Real Purpose of China's Censorship - WIRED

Conservative efforts to censor books is a form of erasing minority identities.

I remember in high school my mom angrily talking on the phone about the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie being challenged in school. She expressed how, because of it, kids finally finally had an engaging book that explored situations relatable to marginalized identities.

I didnt pay much attention to her argument at the time, but nowthat the same discussions about censorship are arising today, I realize how this is another attempt to erase minority identities to preserve white supremacist narratives.

Iowa Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, announced he is working toward legislation that would attach felony charges to teachers using books conservatives deem unsuitable because of Iowas obscenity laws.

Some examples include The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Its ironic that conservatives are pushing for this censorship when a lot of their agenda is centered around hands-off government and freedom of speech.

These are award-winning books that highlight experiences and environmentsin which students live and grow up. According to the Iowa American Civil Liberties Union,The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was originally challenged in 2015 due to abrasive language and references to masturbation.

Both of these things are normal aspects of teenage experiences. In reality, conservatives are using this as a scapegoat to censor a book that highlights an example of minority experience in America.

Two parents in the Johnston County Community School District complained about The Hate U Give due to its anti-police rhetoric, though the school board eventually voted to keep the book.

Beyond touching on the reality Black people face when it comes to policing and the justice system, this book validates the experience of Black kids growing up in impoverished neighborhoods and experiencing systemic racism.

The Ankeny Community School District was also under fire from parents complaining about books regarding LGBTQ experiences. The two books they focused on were All Boys Arent Blue by George M. Johnson and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. All Boys Arent Blue discusses the experience of being Black and queer growing up. Its important for students to be exposed to material that includes the intersectionality of different identities and how that influences experience.

I doubt it is a coincidence that all these books revolve around marginalized identities.

Who is this censorship for when these books involve themes that apply to the real lives of many students? Banning students from engaging in difficult material that reflects real experiences is not protection, it is censorship that allows us to turn a blind eye on systemic issues in our country.

In addition to these books doing valuable work to showcase minority experiences, Todd Petty, a University of Iowa Law professor, said isolated incidences of sexual references do not make a book obscene. Petty also cited how The First Amendment protects books from being banned due to obscenity laws if they have literary merit, which all the aforementioned books clearlydo, as theyve received major literary awards.

If we were focused on protecting our students, we wouldpay attention to real threats to their well-being. For example, taking the necessary measures to prevent school shootings, prioritizing closing the achievement gap between white and Black students, and investing in infrastructure in impoverished communities.

Instead, Chapman is focused on preserving the erasure of underrepresented communities in books.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.

Continued here:

Opinion | Censoring books is another form of minority erasure - UI The Daily Iowan

One of the more pathologically fascinating parts of the current pandemic is the hue and cry in the mainstream media over disinformation. Why is it fascinating? Because mostly this label is used to attack people whose beliefs dont line up with your own. But then if one protests about that belief, a straw man is inevitably hauled out saying you also must want unrestricted pedophilia, or other societally objectionable material, to be propagated.

Let me give a little insight into how all this works and why making a decision to censor views on any of the social media platforms is actually a huge deal, not simple, and absolutely not in the interest of a free society.

Lets start with the universally objectionable content terrible crimes against individuals and children. Though this is a changing landscape with advances in artificial intelligence, most of this type of content moderation is done overseas in countries like the Philippines. Wired magazine has written about it, and the effects on the minds of the censors is tragic, and often ruinous for peoples lives. Watching terrible sexual crimes and beheadings on loops creates trauma for the censors, and anyone who signs up can only watch so much before they are forced to quit.

Others are paying for your clean feed, and while Im not advocating for a change here, the least we can do is realize that people far away are paying for our own ability to use social media modestly shock-free.

The label for political and scientific disinformation is far less clear-cut. Many issues in play in the public are not clearly resolved, or can only be resolved over time. Eighteen months ago, if you had asked me do masks work? I would have said potentially. But the data came in, and I changed my mind. For voicing that opinion, I was accused of disinformation locally. Now that the various randomized controlled trial papers have, or are about to be, published, its becoming increasingly clear that I was right masks dont work. And finally, more and more experts are lining up behind my position. Disinformation indeed.

Often, fights in our own media are spurred on by forces the majority of people in our own country have no idea even exists. The whole lockdown paradigm for COVID-19 had never been attempted in public health until the recent COVID-19 crisis.

Yet communist China championed this early on, and it fit into the brains of control-oriented leadership across the world. Local advocates and government officials sprung up, and many countries followed this path.

But if you think that the responsibility for these disastrous policies, many that continue today, is totally on our elected leadership, youre wrong. Ever heard of the 50 Cent Party? Funded by the Chinese Communist Party, they constantly flood social media with support for extremely repressive COVID-19 policy in posts numbering almost a half a billion.

Why no extensive coverage of the likely source of COVID-19 as coming from a lab leak from the Wuhan lab? Media voices investigating this on Youtube and other channels attempting to get the word out get flooded by complaints by members of the 50 Cent Party for sexual content, when there is none. This causes Youtube to pull the counter-narrative against the CCP and its responsibility for COVID-19.

There is no reservoir in Youtube of absolute truth that is used to make censorship decisions. Instead, it is a true information war. And just because we as a country are unaware of most of it, doesnt mean it has no effect. For those interested in all this, go to Wikipedia and look up Little Pink.

Everyone can agree that there has to be some content moderation on social media. But we can at least be aware that it comes at a price, and absolutely should not be used against people debating the current issues of the day. Because just because you cant see those political forces dont mean they arent in play.

Pezeshki is a professor in mechanicaland materials engineering at WashingtonState University.

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His View: Understanding disinformation, censorship on the internet - Moscow-Pullman Daily News

This week, the American Library Association (ALA) finally released a statement about the uptick in book challenges across the country. In it, they not only note the fact most of the challenges are coming for books by and about people of the global majority, as well as queer people, but they quantify wha theyve documented: 155 unique censorship incidents since June 1. The number is low, and given that these are ones either submitted to the ALAs Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) or ones that the OIF documents, its not a stretch to say its probably twice that number, if not more. Because so many of these happen on a very local level, they arent always reported, and even when they are, they may only be a line or two in a short news report about something else. That number also doesnt include any of the quiet or soft censorship which happens.

Whats maybe most noteworthy, though, in the statement is that theres no note on action. The OIF offers direct support and consultation to those who seek out their services during a challenge 120 of the 155 documented cases since June have had their help but theres no actionable steps laid out for what can be done without their intervention. What can an average citizen do? What can an average librarian or school board member or educator do? Actionable steps are essential to include here, especially as the ALA makes nice, sharable graphics with the information from the statement. Sharing this information on social media is great; sharing this information on social media doesnt put an end to the challenges nor offer anyone the opportunity to do something beyond report cases to the OIF. Thats a step, and a good one, but its not going to do anything as extremists show up at schools and libraries.

Were well beyond the point of depending on one organization to do all of the work and for all of that work to happen outside the public eye. More needs to be done externally thats actionable. Awareness campaigns like Banned Books Week arent enough. Groups like Moms for Liberty, along with other national and local right-wing groups, have their talking points down (see: obscenity, pornography, and other similar words being used in every single challenge), have their targets selected (critical race theory, social emotional learning, and specific book titles that have shown up again and again), and deploy their tactics in ways that are wide open (show up to school board meetings, read passages, make signs, run for local boards). There is a lot of money and energy behind these groups.

Change happens when we unite and take action, and its well beyond time for more than numbers and words. Book challenges will continue through the rest of 2021 most will be overlooked or not highlighted because its a ripe time to take a break from bad news but theyre going to amp up even more in the new year. Heres to hoping ALA and other organizations with power behind them use that to equip as many people as possible with the language, the actions, and the means to stand up against censorship. More, knowing what the groups behind these united movements are and having ready access to what it is theyre doing or taking aim at would put tremendous power into the hands of every person invested in protecting First Amendment rights. An organization like ALA, tasked with being a professional leader for information professionals has the capacity to not just advocate behind the scenes for intellectual freedom and information dissemination; they can be leaders in ensuring that anyone invested in the same principles has quick, accurate, and sound information about the people and groups working in opposition to those values.

Of course, you dont have to wait for an organization to offer that. There are tons of ways you can put in effort to protect intellectual freedom, whether its a few minutes or a few hours. Our toolkit for how to fight book bans and challenges can get you started.

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Heres a look at this week in book censorship news. There are some positive updates, along with a slew of stories that offer less hopeful resolutions.

Lets end this on a really positive note: a library in small town Pennsylvania had their funding cut when library commissioners (AKA the board) learned that an LGBTQ+ group met in one of the librarys meeting rooms. The community responded to this by raising tens of thousands of dollars for the library far more than the budget that was cut.

At the end of the day, the people who are loudest are the ones who get the biggest news stories. But its clear that they dont speak on behalf of the majority.

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Thereve Been More Than 155 Book Challenges Since June: This Weeks Censorship News, December 3... - Book Riot

A list of nine books has started a bitter battle in a Utah school district over pornography and censorship and who can control what students read.

The latest culture confrontation began about a month ago, when a mom first emailed administrators at Canyons School District about the titles that she found concerning. She had heard about them on social media and discovered they were in the high school libraries in her districts suburbs at the south end of Salt Lake County.

There are many more but it is exhausting, mentally, watching and reviewing these books content, she wrote in a letter that has since been shared widely online by conservative groups.

Most of the books she listed focus on race and the LGBTQ community, including The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison and Gender Queer, a graphic novel about the authors journey of self-identity that has been at the center of the growing movement over banning books in school districts across the country.

The mom copied on her email a member of Utah Parents United, the group that has led efforts against masking in schools and in favor of dropping a social-emotional learning program, also at Canyons, because it linked to a site about sex.

And from there, debate over the books erupted.

Canyons spokesman Jeff Haney said the district has received hundreds of emails about the books and from parents who want to add more to the list for being too explicit. Utah Parents United has also since released an hourlong video encouraging its members to call their local police departments when they come across materials like this at their school libraries.

Pushing back against them is a growing list of advocates. Librarians and civil rights attorneys who support keeping the books on library shelves say this conflict is about limiting what viewpoints students can seek out on their own with a library card, especially diverse viewpoints from historically marginalized groups. None of the titles, they stress, are required reading.

Richard Price, an associate professor of political science at Weber State who tracks censorship in school districts, said: If you dont want to look at it, then you dont have to check it out. But I fear what this group is trying to do is forbid all people from reading them. Theyre trying to parent for all parents.

In response to the crossfire, the district has decided to temporarily pull the original nine titles from library shelves until it can further review them and its own policy for handling challenges.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Four of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin.

UNDER REVIEW

The books under review in the Canyons School District are:

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, about an 11-year-old Black girl growing up in Ohio that includes scenes about racism and molestation.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, which has drawn particular attention for its cartoon drawing of oral sex, but it also covers the confusion around young crushes and being yourself in society.

Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin, a nonfiction book based on interviews with six transgender and gender neutral young adults.

l8r, g8r by Lauren Myracle, the third book in a series written in instant messages about three friends navigating high school. Parents have protested this novel because it includes drug use and an inappropriately flirtatious teacher.

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, about a young Mexican American boy examining what it means to be Brown in this country.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which is the only traditionally classic novel on the list and tells the story of a professors pedophiliac relationship with a 12-year-old girl.

Mondays Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson, which is a fictional story about a Black girl who goes missing and whose disappearance is dismissed as just another runaway. The book delves into racism, mental illness, friendship and consent, received the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

The Opposite of Innocent by Sonya Sones, a story about a teenage girl with a crush on one of her parents male friends.

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Prez, about the relationship between a young Mexican American girl and a Black teenage boy in 1930s Texas.

The mom stood at the podium and turned to page 200 in the book. She began to read aloud.

The excerpt started with one character telling another: Get your hand off my butt. From there, it gets more explicit, detailing an older cousin molesting a younger boy.

The mom, Jessica Anderson, told the school board for Canyons District that she found the book at Alta High School in Sandy. This book should have never been available to any student, she added during the board meeting on Nov. 8.

One board member urged her to stop reading. Another, Mont Millerberg, shook his head and thanked Anderson for bringing it to their attention. He added: My question is not if those should be taken out or not thats intuitive. My question is, How the hell did they get in there in the first place?

Anderson was reading from a book, All Boys Arent Blue by LGBTQ activist George M. Johnson, which she and others with Utah Parents United are calling to be added to the list of titles to be pulled. They say every book in the district needs to be reviewed for sexual content.

The current policies and practices are not working, Anderson said.

Many of the books in Canyons School Districts libraries are not directly reviewed by school librarians who place them on the shelves. Some are given to the district for free, for instance, and placed in the collection without any more formal process. Thats typical in most schools.

But the districts current written policy, approved mostly recently in May 2020, only allows someone with a direct tie to a school a student who attends there, a parent of a child who attends there, or an employee who works there to raise concerns about a book in that specific schools library. The mom who sent the first email has students in middle and elementary school in Canyons; the books she raised alarms about are in four high schools in the district: Alta, Brighton, Corner Canyon and Jordan.

Haney said if someone objecting to a book doesnt fit the criteria in the policy, then the districts board is instructed to respond with silence and ignore the complaint.

The board, which leans conservative and represents a more right-learning area of the county, has decided that approach doesnt work, after hearing Anderson read the explicit paragraphs. It is now redrafting the policy to be broader and allow for anyone to bring up concerns that will be heard by the full board.

Haney said a committee has already met twice to work on revisions. A new draft is expected to come before the board next week at its regular Tuesday meeting.

During that discussion, a staff member talked about how the initial changes would create a process for any patron to raise concerns about a book and for librarians to more carefully comb through books coming in, based on criteria around age-appropriateness.

Those who oppose removing the books note that the policy does still state that titles are supposed to remain in use during the challenge process until a committee can read them and decide if they are appropriate for students.

They argue that Canyons violated that by taking the books away from students before that plays out. The ACLU of Utah has called it a reminder [that] constitutional protections cannot be simply ignored.

A joint statement from the Utah Educational Library Media Association, Utah Library Association and Utah Library Media Supervisors said due process must be followed to protect the First Amendment and all students rights to access diverse literature.

The states largest teachers union has joined them, as has the National Coalition Against Censorship. Several other national groups are signing on, too, including the Authors Guild, the National Council of Teachers of English and PEN America. Each has written a letter to Canyons District, urging that the books be returned.

Even Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox cautioned against a knee-jerk reaction during his November news conference.

Im not saying every book should be in every classroom, the governor said. But lets be thoughtful about it. Lets take a step back, take a deep breath and make sure that were not doing something well regret. Any student of history knows that banning books never ends up well.

State Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, is considering running a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would require all public K-12 school districts and charters to follow a set process to review books under challenge before removing them from libraries.

Without set criteria, she and others worry that schools and school districts could easily throw out any material considered controversial by one parent; that one obscenity or one sex scene taken out of context could get a book tossed.

Libraries aim to expand readers perspectives, including providing books on subjects outside their comfort zones, and an interested patron should be able to access such titles, book defenders say.

When people can learn these things and read books, you can be so much kinder and compassionate and see outside of your bubble, said Wanda Mae Huffaker, a librarian with the Salt Lake County library system.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County Library System Librarian Wanda Mae Huffaker, Nov. 23, 2021.

Huffaker has studied intellectual freedom and defended books against being censored in Utah schools. When Davis School District pulled the book In Our Mothers House, about lesbian moms, from its shelves in 2012, she helped get it returned. And the district was required to pay out legal fees and agree in a settlement to never remove a book again based solely on its LGBTQ content.

Huffaker also notes that curriculum what students must learn in the classroom is different and separate from content in libraries, and she asserts they cannot be held to the same standards.

The book that is causing the most division on the list of nine titles in Canyons School District is Gender Queer considered the top banned book in the country right now.

Huffaker says its currently available in Salt Lake Countys public libraries, where its also been challenged but remains on shelves.

When I read that one, I thought I dont understand what that feels like because Ive never been there, she said. And it made me appreciate so much and to relate to that. It opened my eyes. Thats what literature does.

Huffaker, who is 64, said she recalls a little girl who frequently came into the Tyler Branch in Midvale where she works. One day, the librarian asked her how many brothers and sisters she had. The girl struggled.

She said she had two brothers, two sisters and one sibling that was both a boy and a girl. Huffaker said that experience, shortly before reading Gender Queer, also opened her eyes. And now she asks a more gender neutral question about siblings.

She worries what message removing the book sends to students like that or students who are LGBTQ and looking for a book that shows their experience. She believes those opposed to it are turning only to the controversial pages of the graphic novel, which does include some graphic depictions, and not considering the book as a whole.

Troy Williams, executive director for Equality Utah, added: This is about censorship. And it is immoral to try to deprive minority students in Utah from their culture and the voices that reflect their lives.

After the book was banned in Texas, author Maia Kobabe told The Texas Tribune: I also want to have the best interest of young people at heart. There are queer youth at every high school and those students, thats [who] Im thinking about, is the queer student who is getting left behind.

Utah Parents United, though, insists that the group is not trying to eradicate books about the gay community. They say their target is explicit sexual content. They call it pornography both written and drawn in the form of the cartoons in Gender Queer.

When asked for comment, the group said, this is our statement, and shared tens of images from each of the books on its list, showing excerpts of explicit scenes, pages detailing the use of condoms and lubricants, sexual positions, and one encouraging masturbation. Others were screenshots of rape scenes.

Its just so shocking, said Brooke Stephens, the curriculum director for Utah Parents United. I think Gender Queer needs to get out now.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is one of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021.

She said the scene in the graphic novel where the main character is forced to perform oral sex on another man is beyond inappropriate for high schoolers, with those as young as 14 years old being able to check it out in Canyons School District.

This isnt about the left or right deciding no Dr. Seuss or no Tom Sawyer, Stephens added. Its not about debatable books. Its about explicit porn.

But Price, the professor studying censorship at Weber State, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said its not about porn.

The examples of sex in the books on the list, including Gender Queer, arent about titillation, Price said. Theyre about relationship imbalances and manipulation often real experiences from the authors that are meant to show the reader how the situation is wrong and warn them if theyre going through something similar.

Its about figuring our where your boundaries are and drawing them. Thats very healthy, Price said.

Amanda Darrow, the director of youth, family and education at the Utah Pride Center, said thats especially important in a conservative state where it can be difficult to be LGBTQ or talk openly about it.

Emma Houston, who works on diversity issues at the University of Utah, also worries that the targeted books are largely about experiences of race. Of the nine books, six directly address racism.

Its saying that were removing your lived experience. Its saying that individuals who look like you are not valued, said Houston, special assistant to the U.s vice president of equity, diversity and inclusion.

Shes particularly concerned about Toni Morrison novels being removed. Morrison, an award-winning author, wrote about what it means to be Black.

Utah Parents United say they object to The Bluest Eye, though, because of a rape scene; and Stephens points to her four adopted children, who are all Black and attend Davis School District (where there have been severe cases of racism reported) as a way to say that, to her, its not about race.

She says, though, that she believes parents should individually talk about race issues with their children. For instance, she does not support discussion of critical race theory which academics define as the history of race and slavery as a founding principle of America in the classroom. There is no evidence its being taught in K-12 schools in Utah.

But Houston says that should absolutely be allowed in books in the library. And, she added, the rape in The Bluest Eye is obviously brutal, but its a piece that cant be overlooked. Its part of the whole book as much as its part of a system that doesnt help people of color when they experience assault, she said.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is one of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021.

She also worries whats next. Will Asian writers be removed? Hispanic authors? Will students only see one perspective about being white? Houston doesnt support the books being removed, but if they are, she would like to see each book by an author of color replaced by another, to keep a diverse collection in school libraries.

In a statement, thee NAACP of Salt Lake backed the review and said it believes all material should be age-appropriate.

It is not about the titles but the contents within these books that the NAACP is concerned about through these book challenges, said President Jeanetta Williams in a statement. The NAACP would like to see the process play out.

Price said it would be unfair to ignore that the challenges from the books are also largely coming from straight white women, the professor believes. Price noted thats been a trend across the country, where book ban challenges are popping up largely in white suburbs that have been starting to become more diverse. That includes where Canyons School District sits in Salt Lake County.

Utah Parents United is organizing to review books in every district in the state. And Stephens has started a Facebook page where parents can report titles to her that they find concerning. Its everywhere, Stephens said. I dont think people know whats inside these books.

A parent in Washington County School District in Southern Utah sent a list of five titles to administrators there that she took issue with being in elementary schools. Those include Julin is a Mermaid, which is a picture book about a boy who wants to become a mermaid, as well as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. That books deals with racism and police brutality, and the parent said she objects to the profanities in it.

Washington County School District spokesman Steven Dunham said the district is following a set process to review the books, with a committee that is expected to read all of each one.

He said districts should balance whats age appropriate with providing diverse titles that represent all kids.

I also think its interesting how parents are challenging these books in our libraries, he added. This is the place that they think their children are going to be corrupted. But they are also giving them phones where they can look up anything.

The school board is expected to weigh in on the titles in January.

Haney, the Canyons spokesman, said the district there also cares about making sure titles are representative. He did a search of the library system in the district and found 102 titles with the keyword transgender, 44 with queer and 31 with LGBTQ.

But now some parents are asking for a full catalog of every book so they can review whats available.

Possible solutions are just as debated. Allowing parents to block books on a students account wont stop them from looking at the same titles if their peers check them out, Stephens said.

And putting them in a separate office to check out is othering, Darrow with the Utah Pride Center added. Some students might also not want their parents to know what theyre reading, as it could reveal their identity, Darrow said.

This latest effort to ban books is the broadest and most organized Huffaker has ever seen, she said, and to her, seeing it play out feels like a campaign out of George Orwells 1984.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Lily Aguilar, 10, reads in the Children's Section of the Ruth Vine Tyler Library, Nov. 23, 2021.

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How 9 books started a fight over censorship and pornography in this Utah school district - Salt Lake Tribune

In Turkey, as in several countries in the Middle East, audiovisual productions such as movies, soap operas or series must be developed respecting the laws and traditions of their respective territory and all this is supervised by the government of the day. That is why in Turkish dramas you hardly ever see risque scenes and an example of this is the soap opera Unfaithful.

In recent years, one of the countries that has been considered the cradle of successful international soap operas is Turkey. In his different productions, intimate or related scenes are not seen. This is because it is established by the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTUK).

This entity of the Turkish government has the function of ordering that all audiovisual productions follow to the letter the ethical rules suitable for all audiences. These rules are strictly based on traditional values. That is why scenes where alcohol consumption is observed, risque scenes or of that nature are censored.

The protagonist of the telenovela Unfaithful, Cansu Dere He ruled on this type of situation that has become normal in his country due to the fact that there are laws which have been established to be respected.

During her time in Spain, the famous actress gave an interview to some media and was consulted on this issue.

Censorship always limits, in any field, be it your work or your normal life. There is a limitation in our work, obviously. There are rules that we have to comply with by the country in which we are living. It is not very good to have so many limitations, but we have to complyCansu Dere expressed.

But this only, as revealed by the actress, happens with the productions of the state channels, something that does not happen with the pay channels.

Beyond the theme in which the telenovela revolves UnfaithfulWhich is Volkans infidelity towards Asya, the actress pointed out that the messages that can be seen in Turkish productions can help more people to get out of the situation they are in if they are going through a similar case.

There are many women who are experiencing infidelities in their real life. Through my last job (Infidel) a woman who has suffered from infidelity can imagine how she can fight in society and how she can get what she deserves. Asyas fight inspires many women in Turkish society, assured.

In an interview with the journalists to the actress, Cansu YouShe was also asked how she would feel if she made a bawdy scene in a series in Spain, because she is not used to doing this type of production.

Working in Spain, participating in a series would be fantastic for me, it would be another triumph, but I always see the works (productions), I get the script, the story, I value it and I give my answer. I would love to be in Spain working, He sentenced.

Cansu Dere He was born in Ankara on October 14, 1980, so, in 2021. At first, his career was planned to be different, because he studied Archeology at Istanbul University. He studied for two years and, in 2004, his life changed drastically.

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Disclaimer: This article is generated from the feed and not edited by our team.

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Infiel: what Cansu Dere thinks about censorship in Turkish soap operas - Market Research Telecast

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake County Library System Librarian Wanda Mae Huffaker holds four of nine books that have been removed from schools in the Canyons School District and placed under review, Nov. 23, 2021.

| Dec. 2, 2021, 8:54 p.m.

Nine books are removed from libraries in one school district prompting accusations of censorship. Scientists work to better understand the omicron variant of the coronavirus, and to better predict its impacts on the pandemic. And a look at how discriminatory housing practices from Utahs past carry through to the present day.

At 9 a.m. on Friday, Salt Lake Tribune data reporting fellow Shane Burke, reporters Andy Larsen and Courtney Tanner, and news columnist Robert Gehrke join KCPWs Roger McDonough to talk about the weeks top stories.

Every Friday at 9 a.m., stream Behind the Headlines atkcpw.org, or tune in to KCPW 88.3 FM or Utah Public Radio for the broadcast. Join the live conversation by calling 801-355-TALK.

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A new variant, censorship accusations, Utah's redlining consequences and more on 'Behind the Headlines' - Salt Lake Tribune

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Harry Potter series.

This group of novels is not merely just a list of some of the greatest books ever written, rather it is a list of some of the most frequently banned books in American schools during the past decade alone.

The rise of political correctness is undoubtedly impacting the flow of literature in the American education system; however, it is evident over the course of our history that books have been banned for many reasons. While what we define as political correctness today is a large cause of the modern banning of these books, ultimately the censorship of books comes down to suppressing ideologies and ceasing immoral language.

Over the course of American history, Mark Twains novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (in addition to some of his other works) has garnered calls for its banning from many different angles. Originally, the 1884 novel was banned throughout the southern United States for what was considered pro-African rhetoric. Ironically, the book would later become a place of controversy from the Civil Rights Movement onward for the use of its racial slurs and derogatory depictions of African Americans.

This contradiction of why the book should be banned accurately shows how culture has evolved. At the time it was written, Twain took a very liberal approach to the situation of slavery, condemning it (along with other ideas such as religious traditions) and questioning the entire basis that Jim was not intellectually comparable with Huck. While much of Jims characterization, from his dialect to his interactions with other counterparts, can be attributed to exaggeration and satirizing the archaic ways of thinking that Twains peers believed, the novel itself still contains very offensive racial slurs that are not easy to read.

This scenario exemplifies my belief in anti-censorship because even though the novel is insensitive and offensive, I believe it is crucial for children to learn about how we have changed as a society. It is important for us as a people to realistically understand the places we have come from and the places we dont want to go back to, and that is why I think that banning books like these is wrong.

Another trend in book banning campaigns is the basis that what the book describes is too dangerous or that it goes against strongly held cultural beliefs. This is seen predominantly in the reasons for banning books based on anti-capitalism or general anti-American doctrine. The Invisible Man and Death of a Salesman are just two examples of books condemned as anti-American, especially in the McCarthyism era.

In examples like these I believe it is beneficial for us as an American society to be aware of different thought processes and ideologies. While we dont have to agree with what is said in these books, we should learn about how and why critiques of our society arise; this in turn can only lead us to become more educated and better equipped at answering these criticisms, which will only make our cultural values stronger.

Trigger books are now one of the biggest reasons that books are banned today. The trigger is described as a word or idea that propels, or triggers, someone to do something, usually a very negative action. This is not necessarily a new phenomenon; however, the rise of trigger words on college campuses seems to coincide with this rise in trigger books.

Common examples of trigger books are The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Color Purple. The themes of most trigger books involve suicide, depression, rape, homosexuality, and school shootings.

These topics are very difficult to talk about and should not be dismissed lightly; with that being said, I believe it is good to normalize these topics and allow discourse to be had about them instead of blanketing them as taboo.

Furthermore, books are often banned for being too obscene or immature. By now Im sure that you know what my opinion is on the banning of these books as well.

One of the most ironically banned books is Fahrenheit 451. The book was banned for its anti-television undertones and criticism of Christianity and the Bible (which in and of itself is a widely banned book). The irony of the situation is that the entire plot of the book revolves around the quest to stop the burning of books, which metaphorically represents censorship itself.

Though many books have been banned over our history, it seems we may be taking strides in the right direction. There is now a national banned books week which encourages students to read books which have historically been censored. I believe it is through this engagement of uncomfortable discussions that will allow our society to fully grow and develop into its highest potential.

Link:

Censorship in Society - Pennsylvania State University