Hong Kong publishers have been told to remove references to the separation of powers and protest slogans from school textbooks, in a move decried as censorship by the authorities.

Six publishers voluntarily submitted eight textbooks to the education regulator for vetting and were asked to make revisions, reports in Hong Kong and mainland media said on Wednesday.

Its the latest in a series of extraordinary moves on Hong Kongs education system since Beijings national security law was implemented in late June.

Liberal studies has been mandatory for senior students in Hong Kong for more than a decade, but has drawn criticism from some pro-Beijing figures who claimed its teaching materials - which schools can choose without government approval - were biased. Last year a voluntary review service was offered to publishers.

According to a comparison conducted by the South China Morning Post, two publishers have removed the phrase separation of power in sections about Hong Kong, and other illustrations of Lennon walls and protesters holding placards have been replaced. At least one textbook added text to say that if protesters violated laws they would be held legally accountable, Chinese state media outlet the Global Times said.

Cheung Yui Fai, executive council member of the Professional Teachers Union, told the Guardian government attempts to censor school subjects had been going for some time. The vetting meant the textbooks now may not reflect the real picture of Hong Kong, he said.

We would like the students to have the full picture of the development of the social issues, including the pro government side and the criticism of the governments [in Hong Kong and mainland China].

In Hong Kong now the political pressure is really high for teachers. If youre brave enough you can try your best to tell the truth to the students and lead them to have more rounded discussion of the social issues.

Cheung also said the inefficiency of the vetting process, which began before the national security laws were passed, meant the new versions had been approved only a week before school returned, and may face more amendments if even the new version were found not be within the law.

Tang Fei, a principal at Hong Kongs Heung To Secondary School, told the Global Times previous versions of the textbooks failed to prevent students falling into the traps of opposition groups propaganda.

It is entirely untrue and pure propaganda to say that Hong Kong society widely believes in the so-called separation of three powers, and opposition groups used to implant ideas in textbooks to promote their political agenda among the youth.

Despite assurances from the government that the law would make no difference to the regular lives of law-abiding Hong Kongers, schools and universities have experienced a chilling effect and actual curtailments on what they can teach, discuss, and allow.

Security chief John Lee has previously pledged to deal with the schools in the governments crackdown on dissent. Lee claimed around 40% of the protesters arrested were students, and more than 100 were teachers.

The education bureau and a textbook publisher have been contacted for comment.

Read more here:

Hong Kong censorship fears as protest slogans removed from some textbooks - The Guardian

A new report indicates that presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has received preferential treatment from tech giants, but Donald Trump Jr. plans to make sure Republicans dont allow the seemingly coordinated campaign against his father to continue.

The Media Research Center unveiled its latestTechWatchReport on Tuesday, whichfound thatmore than 260 conservative users on Facebook and Twitter had their posts about Biden scrubbed from the social media platforms in the months leading up to the Democratic National Convention.

EVENING NEWSCASTS 150 TIMES MORE NEGATIVE TORWARD TRUMP THAN BIDE, STUDY SAYS

Since my father won the 2016 election, Big Tech has been engaging in a seemingly coordinated campaign to stifle and suppress right of center voices, Donald Trump Jr.told the MRC.

Donald Trump Jr. said Twitter and Facebook have been engaging in a seemingly coordinated campaign to stifle and suppress right of center voices. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Though they will of course claim otherwise, the obvious goals of these left-wing tech companiesisboth to make my father a one-term president and to ensure Democrat control of Congress moving forward, Trump Jr. said.

They're willing to engage in blatant election interference to make those dreams a reality.

Trump Jr., the president's oldest son, added that companies such as Facebook and Twitter hold immense power in our Republic and the GOP needs totake action.

It's long past due for elected Republicans to finally take seriously the threats that these near-monopolies pose to our inalienable rights and hold them accountable legislatively for their abuses, Trump Jr. told the MRC.

BIDEN TALKS TO CARDI B AS PRESSURE MOUNTS TO FACE TOUGH QUESTIONS FROM REPORTERS

The MRCsTechWatchdivision has collected and independently verified incidents ofcensorshipsince March 2020 and found that260 users had posts or accounts censored due to their criticisms of Biden, with 129 of the incidentscomingon Facebook and 131 coming from Twitter.

Posting an innocent meme showing light coming from Bidens eyes meant an immediate suspension on Twitter for anywhere between 12 hours and two months. Facebook users who argued that Biden was creepy or posted actual pictures of the former vice president hugging, sniffing, or kissing children have had their posts removed as well, MRCanalystsCorinne Weaver and Heather Moon wrote.

Former editor of Psychology TodayDr. Robert Epstein told Weaver and Moon that its absolutely election interference and the censorshipcould be considered a valuable, undeclared, in-kind contribution to a political campaign, which is unlawful.

Facebook and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The study found that the 129 instances of censorship on Facebook includedvideo of a stammering Biden accidentally endorsing Trump and a collage of photos that depict Biden sniffing, hugging, or kissing young girls has been censored on a regular basis,Weaver and Moon wrote.

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Meanwhile, Twitters 131 examples of censorship include a crackdown on memesthat mock Bidens health and fitness for office.

Facebook and Twitter openly deny working with Biden. Yet the platforms appear to cover for him,Weaver and Moon wrote. Actions speak louder than words. Both social media platforms are using their algorithms to muffle negative statements or jokes about Biden.

Read more:

Donald Trump Jr. blasts tech giants over report that Facebook, Twitter censor anti-Biden posts - Fox News

Were dipping into the Far Out Magazine vault to look back at a moment in musics rich history as hip-hop and punk combined to take on a common enemy, the PMRC. In this permutation of the good fight against censorship, we see Dead Kennedys leading man Jello Biafra combine forces with the iconic Cop Killer rapper Ice-T.

The duo verbally duelled with a host of conservative voices alongside Tipper Gore, the then-wife of failed presidential candidate Al Gore on The Oprah Winfrey Show back in 1990. It remains one of the most brilliant pieces of daytime television youll ever witness.

Parental Advisory stickers have become a part of musics lexicon these days and we cant say theyve really affected much in the way of deterring kids from buying any record that comes with one plastered on it. However, that doesnt mean that they arent a needless addition to an art form, after all, you wont see one at any gallery you ever walk through. The stickers were at the time plainly referred to as Tipper Stickers.

Backed by the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Centre), Tipper Gore who labelled herself a liberal Democrat during the debacle found herself leading the charge against the danger of music during the 80s and 90s. It just so happened to be one of the eras of music in which America wasnt just at its most potent but most powerful too.

With two sides seemingly unwilling to compromise or back down, the PMRC pushed for more and more musical censorship, citing it as the reason for pretty much any unexplained run of crimes or suicides. Equally, music was becoming more opaquely provocative, songs like Ice-Ts Cop Killer receiving particular heat during unsettling times of civility. There was only one way to settle this, a daytime TV chat show.

In the 90s there was only one name that mattered in daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey. The iconic TV host played the peacekeeper when she invited Gore, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Juan Williams, Ice-T and Jello Biafra to discuss the continuing issue. It would seem that Dee Snider and Frank Zappa telling you off wasnt enough for Gore.

While many would have expected Gore, a politically savvy Washington-type to be able to negotiate a snotty punk but Biafra was quick to show her just how intelligent he was, emboldened by his search for justified art. It had all started back in 1986 when the PMRC had Biafras house raided and brought him to trial for distributing harmful material to minors as part of the Dead Kennedys album Frankenhrist.

The charges werent actually brought against his music in particular but rather the pull out in the record which included a print of H. R. Gigers poster Landscape XX (Penis Landscape). Biafra has always suggested that the raid and charges were politically motivated and had been angled towards him because he had comparatively low funds to fight the case.

In court, it may have cost Biafra a pretty penny to be heard but on The Oprah Winfrey Show he was given all the time and space he needed to mount his attack on Gore and he doesnt hold back. Biafra became famed for his anti-censorship stance and channelled a lot fo the trial into his subsequent spoken-word albums.

But, for us, theres no greater moment than when he and Ice-T sat down across from Gore and delivered a rant worthy of burning anybody to the ground. Joyous.

Go here to read the rest:

When Jello Biafra and Ice-T took on censorship on The Oprah Winfrey Show - Far Out Magazine

Governments around the world are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to justify or to divert attention from crackdowns on press freedom.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested in Hong Kong earlier in August as police enforced a new national security law. In June, journalist Maria Ressa was convicted of " cyber libel " in the Philippines. In Egypt, at least 12 journalists have been arrested this year under laws against "spreading misinformation" related to the coronavirus.

In some cases, regimes have moved to curb alleged misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic that doesn't align with official proclamations about its spread or severity. In others, the pandemic serves as a distraction by directing national attention away from these incidents.

Egypt, for instance, has been jailing young journalists such as Nora Younis, editor-in-chief of the al-Manassa news agency, who according to the International Press Institute was arrested on June 24. In Russia, the AP found at least nine cases against ordinary Russians accused of spreading "untrue information" on social media and via messenger apps, with at least three of them receiving significant fines.

The IPI has been tracking media freedom violations since the pandemic began. Such repression includes arrests and charges, restrictions to access to information, censorship, excessive fake news regulation, and physical attack.

Incomplete figures make it difficult to say whether such crackdowns are on the rise. At least 17 countries, including Hungary, Russia, the Philippines and Vietnam, have enacted new laws ostensibly intended to fight misinformation about the coronavirus, according to an IPI tally. In reality, those measures have actually served as pretexts to fine or jail journalists who are critical of the government, the organization said.

In Hungary, for example, Prime Minister Viktor Orban passed a coronavirus law that could mean up to five years in prison for false information. Russia can fine people up to $25,000 or imprison them for five years if they're deemed to have spread false information about the virus. Media outlets can be fined up to $127,000, according to the IPI.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has tracked 163 violations of press freedom related to the coronavirus this year as of July 29. The group says its data is not comprehensive. The IPI has tracked 421 violations related to the virus, including arrests, censorship, excessive "fake news" regulation and physical or verbal attacks.

"We see an ongoing crackdown on the press that is compounded by the coronavirus," said Courtney Radsch, CPJ's advocacy director.

Even incidents unrelated to alleged pandemic misinformation can escape broader notice amid the flood of coronavirus news. Jimmy Lai's arrest in Hong Kong, for instance, shortly followed enactment of a new national security law that gives China more power to squash dissent in Hong Kong. Lai operates Apple Daily, a feisty pro-democracy tabloid that often criticizes China's Communist Party-led government.

The libel convictions of Ressa and another journalist were also unrelated to COVID-19. But Radsch said the pandemic can serve as a distraction for such cases that might otherwise have gotten more international attention.

"There's just much less attention being paid to a lot of this since people are just caught up in other news," she said. "It's difficult to break through the morass to raise concerns and public concerns about crackdowns."

That's been exacerbated by the absence of a robust response from the U.S. under President Donald Trump, experts said.

"In the age before Trump, clearly the United States would be the one advocating for press freedom and independent media worldwide," said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, and a former UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression. Trump routinely refers to the mainstream press as "fake news."

While the Trump administration sanctioned Chinese officials, including Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, over Lai's arrest, its traditional rhetoric in support of the free press has fallen short. "We don't see the robust condemnation that we would expect from the U.S. over press freedom crackdowns or deaths of journalists in custody," Radsch said. The administration also could have done more for Ressa, she said, as the journalist holds American as well as Filipino citizenship.

"We have not seen a robust call at the highest level for charges to be dropped," she said. "It's not what we expect."

The U.S. does still intervene on occasion. For example, U.S. negotiators have been active negotiations over Austin Tice, a Houston journalist and veteran held in Syria. But that is a rare exception.

Kaye said increasing media repression is a direct consequence of a global rise in authoritarian government.

"Authoritarians and populists of the last several years have been elected into office," he said. "There's been pressure on independent media, that hasn't changed, and that has been happening in parallel prior to and into COVID."

The pandemic "has added a new vector toward repression," he said. "There is existing repression that's continued, and COVID-oriented repression that's new."

Follow this link:

How COVID-19 gives cover to press crackdowns the world over - Minneapolis Star Tribune

There are significant cultural and other differences between the United States and India, but one feature seems to unite them seamlessly: the inability (at least as reflected in media and among campaigners and activists of various persuasions) to reach political consensus on whether Facebook is implementing too much or too little censorship?

And just like in the US, in India, too, accusations that Facebook needs to step up its censorship game are coming from the left, while those telling opposite ideological beliefs say their speech on the global social network is already muzzled to an unacceptable degree.

One, but not insignificant difference, is the way this dissatisfaction is expressed against Facebooks representatives: in India, Reuters said, Ankhi Das, a top exec with the giant, has had to formally turn to the police with a criminal complaint against those making death threats against her. They accuse Das and the platform of allegedly giving a leg-up to the ruling BJP party, led by the countrys prime minister.

The case against Das and Facebook is that hate speech coming from BJP supporters is not being removed, just as we see from the left in the US and Europe.

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Facebook is meanwhile denying the accusations of exhibiting political bias in India not only those coming from the left, but also those simultaneously voiced by the right, including the BJP, who say their nationalist voices are the ones censored on the platform.

OpIndia presents this side of the row, saying that the perception of Facebook favoring the prime ministers party is false, and a result of local liberals joining forces with whats referred to as WSJ propagandists.

This report finds evidence that if any, Facebook has a pro-left bias that is evident in its own guidelines used as the basis for moderation and censorship, especially on issues like hate speech and gender identity.

In addition, says OpIndia, Facebook took down as many as 687 pages with links to the Indian National Congress ahead of the 2019 India elections, also targeting BJP pages which, the article warns, amounts to involvement in electoral malpractice.

The rest is here:

In India, the push for censorship on Facebook comes from the left, just as it does in the US and Europe - Reclaim The Net

The ABC has been accused of censorship by a Q+A panellist, on an episode dedicated to whether Australians can trust the media.

Indigenous musician Ziggy Ramo took the national broadcaster to task on the program, saying his preferred choice of song for the episode's closing segment was rejected.

The song, April 25th, includes these lines:

"You didn't give your life

"You weren't an Anzac

"If you're gonna love your soldiers

"You've gotta love the blacks

"But you fly your flag

"Water off your back

"If this don't make sense and you lost your way

"Just remember how much you hate it when I say

"F*** those Anzacs, screaming, f*** those Anzacs. Now, how f***ed up is that?"

Ramo questioned whether his inclusion on the Monday night panel was "performative" diversity on the part of the ABC, after talking about the lack of representation of people from minority backgrounds at media outlets.

"For example, on this show today the song that I'm going to perform is called Stand For Something," Ramo said.

"The song I initially was going to perform was called April 25th, and this was a song that I was not allowed to perform.

"I was basically censored, in the fact that the ABC said that it was not appropriate.

"Me sitting on this panel ticks off a box for the ABC that is cultural diversity, but if I'm not able to express my perspective, is it performative or is it actual cultural diversity?"

He then referenced an earlier comment from Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, about the importance of freedom of expression.

But Mr Joyce indicated he felt there were limits, and sided with the ABC's decision on the song.

"I imagine when we say April 25th, we are looking at Anzac Day or something like that," Mr Joyce said.

"You have to be careful what you say.

"You go to a point where you insult people. I could talk to Indigenous people where I grew up and there are so many Indigenous people who are part of the RSL movement, and what are you saying to them?

"What do you say to all the members? What are you saying to them? You don't respect them?" Mr Joyce added.

Host Hamish Macdonald then offered to let Ramo explain his position.

"I want to celebrate the Anzacs, and I do celebrate the Anzacs," the rapper said.

"I myself, have gone to [World War I battlefields in] Belgium when I was 17. I had the privilege to go there and celebrate and understand the sacrifice that people have laid down for this country.

"The whole point of a song about April 25th is saying that I've seen this country recognise the sacrifices that have been made so that we could all sit here today.

"We can't just pick parts of our history that we want to recognise, and bury the others.

"If in World War II, we fought against genocide, yet we don't recognise the genocide in our own country, that's a double standard.

"So the whole reason why the song says, 'I hate the Anzacs,' is to demonstrate, that how outrageous is that?

"If we can recognise how outrageous that is, why can't [we] recognise that on [Australia Day] January 26?

"Why can't we recognise that when we ask to raise the age from 10 because 600 kids last year were locked up, we're 2 per cent of the population, we make up 65 per cent of those kids incarcerated.

"Do we not understand the hypocrisy?"

An ABC spokesperson confirmed Ramo had been asked to "perform an alternative song to close the show".

"[The ABC] instead invited him to present his points of view on all topics, including the sentiment and lyrics of the song April 25th and the reasons he wrote it, during the discussion," the spokesperson said.

"He took up the opportunity to explain those sentiments in detail."

Ramo later closed out the show with an emotional performance of Stand For Something.

Watch the full episode again on iview or via the Q+A Facebook page.

Read the rest here:

Musician Ziggy Ramo accuses ABC of censorship over Anzac song on Q+A - ABC News

Bookstores that received a Banned Books Week promotional kit from the American Booksellers Association last year will receive the 2020 kit in the September Box mailing. This year, the Banned Books Week celebration will be held September 27 to October 3 and will feature the theme Censorship Is a Dead End.

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read that brings together the entire book community, including booksellers, librarians, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), eight of the 10 most challenged books of 2019 were challenged or banned because of LGBTQIA+ content. In 2019, the ALA tracked 377 attempts to censor library, school, and university materials and services, encompassing 566 books that were challenged or banned. The list includes George by Alex Gino (Scholastic); Sex Is a Funny Wordby Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth (Triangle Square); and Drama by Raina Telgemeier (Graphix).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the kit has been slightly modified from past years with the understanding that many bookstores are open in limited capacity. This year, the kit will include:

ABA members can also download a 8.5x11 Banned Books Week poster to print as a counter card or use on social media under the Marketing Assets section on BookWeb.org. Booksellers can choose from one of two designs, with a black or white background.

Booksellers can take advantage of Ingrams 3 percent discount on banned, challenged, and relocated titles in advance of Banned Books Week. The promotion is running from August 1 to October 4. Place your orders from a list of 2020 banned and challenged titles on ipage. No promotional code is needed.

The American Libraries Association has also created a list of 40 virtual program ideas for Banned Books Week. Ideas include story time or Q&A with a banned author, a partnership with a local LGBTQIA+ group to address why LGBTQIA+ stories are overwhelmingly censored, an online bingo based on banned book titles, and a partnership with an organization that centers on Black voices to discuss racism and the continuing challenges books about racism and police brutality face.

As you prepare for the upcoming Banned Books Week, booksellers are encouraged to share their plans and photos of their displays by tagging ABA and using #BannedBooksWeek on social media or contacting socialmedia@bookweb.org.

The full list of hashtags associated with this years event are: #BannedBooksWeek, #bannedbooks, #FirstAmendment, #freespeech, #censorship, #intellectualfreedom, #bannedbookslist, #freespeechfighter.

Here is the original post:

Banned Book Week 2020: Promotional Kits, Ingram Discount, and Virtual Programming Ideas - BTW

David Robie also blogs at Caf Pacific

The silence from Facebook is deafening and disturbing.

At first, when I lodged my protests earlier this month to Facebook over the immediate removal of a West Papua news item from the International Federation of Journalists shared with three social media outlets, including West Papua Media Alerts and The Pacific Newsroom, I thought it was rogue algorithms gone haywire.

The breach of community standards warning I also received on my FB page was unacceptable, but surely a mistake?

However, with subsequent protests by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) media freedom watchdog and the Sydney office of the Asia-Pacific branch of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the worlds largest journalist organisation with more than 600,000 members in 187 countries, falling on deaf ears, I started wondering about the political implications of this censorship.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

READ MORE: Melanesia: Facebook algorithms censor article about press freedom in West Papua

We had all complained separately to the FB director of policy for Australia and New Zealand, Mia Garlick, and were ignored.

Several news stories were also carried by Asia Pacific Report, RSF and RNZ Pacific. No reaction.

The blocked item was purportedly because of nudity in a photograph published by IFJ of a protest in the West Papuan capital Jayapura in August last year during the Papuan Uprising against Indonesian racism and oppression that began in Surabaya, East Java.

Media freedom in MelanesiaThe FB photo was published with an article about the content of the latest Pacific Journalism Review research journal with the theme Media freedom in Melanesia which highlighted the growing need to address media freedom in the region, particularly in Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and West Papua.

The two protesters in the front of the march were partially naked except for the Papuan koteka (penis gourd), as traditionally worn by males in the highlands.

As I wrote at the time when communicating with RSF:

Anybody with common sense would see that the photograph in question was not nudity in the community standards sense of Facebooks guidelines. This was a media freedom item and the news picture shows a student protest against racism in Jayapura on August 19, 2019.

Two apparently naked men are wearing traditional koteka (penis gourds) as normally worn in the Papuan highlands. It is a strong cultural protest against Indonesian repression and crackdowns on media. Clearly the Facebook algorithms are arbitrary and lacking in cultural balance.

Also, there is no proper process to challenge or appeal against such arbitrary rulings.

Using the flawed FB online system to file a challenge in this arbitrary ruling three times on August 7, I ended up with a reply that said: We have fewer reviewers [to consider the appeal] available right now because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Two letters unansweredMy two letters to Mia Garrick on August 10 and 11 went unanswered.

RSFs Asia-Pacific director Daniel Bastard wrote to her on August 11, saying: Since it is a press freedom issue, we plan to publish a short statement to ask for the end of this censorship. Beforehand, Im enquiring about your view and take on this case.

The IFJ followed on August 14, two days after their original FB posting had also been removed, with a letter by their Asia-Pacific project manager Melanie Morrison, who described the FB the censorship as a cruel irony:

As a press freedom organisation, the IFJ strongly condemns the removal of posts on spurious grounds. Such an action amounts to censorship.

West Papua is subjected to a virtual media blackout. Access to the [Indonesian-ruled] restive province is restricted and one of the only ways to get information out is through social media.

The photographer, Gusti Tanati, is based in West Papua and is no stranger to operating with harsh restrictions. To have his photos censored, along with an article that points to the increasingly hostile media environment in West Papua, is a cruel irony.

Hinting at the political overtones, Morrison also noted that if Facebook was made aware of this photo by a complaint made by a Facebook user, it is highly likely that the complainant objects to any coverage of West Papua that may be critical of the repressive situation in the province.

She added that understanding the background to this ongoing censorship is critical.

Tracking truth and disinformationListening to journalist and forensic online researcher Benjamin Strick in an interview with RNZs Kim Hill last Saturday about tracking truth and exposing disinformation prompted me to revive this FB censorship issue.

In 2018, Strick was part of a Peabody Award-winning BBC investigative team that exposed the soldier-killers of two mothers and their children in Cameroon The Anatomy of a Killing.

But I was alerted by his discussion of his investigation last year of the Indonesian crackdown and disinformation campaign coinciding with the Papua Uprising.

Discussing collaborative journalism and the West Papuan conflict with Kim Hill, he said: The war is really online.

He became interested in the resurgence or pro-independence sentiment and racial tension after incidents when some Javanese students branded West Papuans as monkeys and with other extreme abuse, which sparked a series of protests from Jayapura to Jakarta.

I was investigating this thinking that it was going to be another mass human rights crime committed in West Papua, he recalls. But instead, when the internet was off and I was searching online, I was seeing these tourism commercials about West Papua and I was also seeing these videos on Twitter and Facebook about the great work the Indonesian government was doing for the people of West Papua.

And they were using these hashtags #westpapuagenocide and #freewestpapua. I thought to myself this has got nothing to do with genocide, providing tourism in this context.

Hashtag hijackingThis is a process known as hashtag hijacking.

Stricks research exposed hundreds of bogus sites sending our masses of scheduled bots automated accounts and were traced back to a Indonesian public relations agency InsightID linked to the government.

Recently, I was engaged with a high ranking Indonesian Foreign Affairs official, Director of the European affairs Sade Bimantara, in a webinar hosted by Tabloid Jubi journalist Victor Mambor when we talked about web-based disinformation.

However, my experience of this disinformation has been overwhelmingly linked to Indonesian trolls, and even our Pacific Media Centre Facebook page has been targeted by such attacks.

In October 2019, Strick and a colleague, Famega Syavira, wrote about this for the BBC News in an article titled: Papua unrest: Social media bots skewing the narrative. They wrote:

The Twitter accounts were all using fake or stolen profile photos, including images of K-pop stars or random people, and were clearly not functioning as real people do on social media.

This led to the discovery of a network of automated fake accounts spread across at least four social media platforms and numerous websites.

Fake accounts removedReuters reported that more than 100 fake Indonesian Facebook and Instagram social media accounts were removed for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Five months later, in March this year, Facebook and Twitter pulled about 80 websites publishing pro-military propaganda about Papua.

In February 2019, Reuters had earlier reported Facebook removing hundreds of Indonesian accounts, pages and groups from its social network after discovering they were linked to an online group called Saracen.

This syndicate had been identified in 2016 and police arrested three of its members on suspicion of being being paid to spread incendiary material online through social media.

For the moment, we would be delighted if Facebook would remove the block on our shared items and not censor future dispatches or human rights news items about West Papua.

The truth deserves to be told.

Disclaimer: David Robie is editor of Pacific Journalism Review.

Go here to read the rest:

Facebook censorship on West Papua then deafening silence - thedailyblog.co.nz

TheBelarusian media on Monday wenton strike over election result and censorship, saying that would not return to work unless the government implemented five demands, including new elections and the removal of television censorship.

Approximately 300 employees of Belarus One,the national channel supporting the government, have resigned as many at the channel feel they can no longer work for the propaganda machine. It has a total strength of 2000employees.

Also read:Belarus President Lukashenko gives nod to fresh elections

According toKseniya Lutskina, a documentary maker among oneof those who signed,People feel that if we cant do honest journalism, then we wont work.

The problem for a lot of people is that the theres no other television to work at in the country its all state-controlled,'' she added.

Some employees walked out even before the recent elections, feeling suffocated by the atmosphere as Lukashenko jailed his political opponents and looked set to rig the election.

Also see:We come in peace: Belarusian women dressed in white protest against corrupt leadership

Alexander Luchonok, who worked for 18 months as a special correspondent on the twice-weekly current affairs programme Under the Presidents Control, handed in his resignation a week before the election.

Talking about Lukashenko's supporters he said,Even if they dont believe everything in the reports, they think its important to keep Lukashenko in office.

Even as the country was plunged into chaos last week, there were attempts to portray business as usual.

Workers at a state-run factory confronted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko with chants of "Leave!" on Monday as pressure built on the strongman to step down over a disputed election.

Employees at several factories also walked off the job after a historic protest on Sunday brought tens of thousands to the streets.

Pressure has been building on the ex-Soviet nation's longtime leader since the August 9 election, which he claims to have won with 80 percent of the vote.

More than 100,000 people took part in a "March for Freedom" in the capital Minsk on Sunday following calls from main opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya for continued demonstrations.

A brutal police crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation and appears to have turned even Lukashenko's support base at state-owned industries against him.

See the original post here:

Wont work, if we cant do honest journalism: Belarus media goes on strike over election result and censorship - WION