Category Archives: Censorship

We now know with certainty that the FBI actively worked to alter the outcome of a U.S. presidential electionagain. But as the larger ramifications of their actions are being digested, some additional questions come to mind. How did the FBI know the New York Post was about to run a story on the laptop? Was the FBIs coverup of Hunter Bidens laptop also related to former President Donald Trumps first impeachment trial? And why is it that the FBI had a physical office located within Ukraines National Anti-Corruption Bureau since June 2016? And finally, the big question: Was the subsequent FBI investigation of Hunter designed to actually protect Joe and Hunter Bidenand perhaps more importantly, protect the FBI?

In a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, Sen. Ron Johnson recently disclosed that whistleblowers alerted him that FBI officials intentionally undermined efforts to investigate Hunter Biden. Johnson noted that after the FBI obtained Hunters laptop, local FBI leadership told employees, you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop. The supposed reason given for this inaction? The FBI was not going to change the outcome of the election againwhich is certainly some strange logic to use, because by choosing not to investigate the Hunter Biden laptop, the FBI did, in fact, directly impact the outcome of an election.

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The Far-Reaching Implications of the FBI's Censorship of Hunter Biden's Laptop | Truth Over News - The Epoch Times

The Ethereum community, which is known for a sunny rainbow-and-unicorns vibe, is unusually serious as of late. Following a recent move by the U.S. Treasury Department to target a batch of crypto-related open source code, one word keeps coming up in Ethereum circles: censorship.

The concern surfaced earlier this month when the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency mixer that allows users to obfuscate transactions, and a series of Ethereum addressesbarring all Americans from interacting with both the mixer and the addresses.

According to Treasury officials, Tornado Cash has laundered over $7 billion in cryptocurrency since its creation in 2019, and has become a favorite destination for the infamous North Korean hacking outfit known as the Lazarus Group.

The Tornado Cash announcement marked a watershed moment for the crypto world. Although the Treasury has long targeted financial criminals and those who support terrorist activity, its unusual for the agency to sanction a piece of technologyin this case a mixerdirectly.

All of this set off concern within the Ethereum community about whether the blockchain is resistant to government censorshipconcern that has only increased as Ethereum approaches its highly anticipated merge upgrade next month.

Though applications existing on Ethereum can be censored, as weve seen with Tornado Cash, whether the Ethereum blockchain itself can be subject to censorship has been a topic of debate, especially with Ethereums upcoming merge.

Thats because the merge will shift Ethereum from a proof of work (PoW) consensus model to proof of stake (PoS), and, in turn, validators will have the responsibility of creating new blocks on-chain and verifying transactions, rather than miners. To become a validator, one must deposit 32 Ethera sum, currently worth around $50,000, that is intended to ensure that participants have a stake in the success of the network.

A single entity, however, can also run multiple validators, so long as the entity can afford it, and in doing so arguably garner more control. As a result, some within the Ethereum community have become concerned about the emergence of powerful, centralized entities after the mergeentities that could be pliant when it comes to carrying out government censorship requests.

Those concerned about censorship have raised various hypotheticals: Might a validator refuse to confirm a block to the Ethereum blockchain because it contains Tornado Cash transactions? Would fear of legal repercussions lead them to ignore or reject such blocks?

It is unknown whether any of this will happen, or whether the government will target validators, but such questions have been at the center of debate onlineespecially as it circulated on crypto Twitter that 66% of the Beacon Chain [or proof-of-stake chain] validators will adhere to OFAC regulations, including Coinbase and Kraken.

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin weighed in on this discussion himself, and signaled his support in slashing the stake of any validators that censor the Ethereum protocol if asked by U.S. regulators.

Even Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong suggested hed rather stop the staking business of his cryptocurrency exchange than comply with any potential censorship.

Another concern post-merge involves MEVmaximal extractable value (formerly miner extractable value)and potential MEV-Boost issues, and how these could increase the potential for censorship.

MEV describes the profit a validator can earn by selecting or reordering transactions within blocks, while MEV-Boost is an optional software built for proof-of-stake Ethereum.

MEV-Boost allows validators to outsource block production to maximize their reward. Though there are upsides to MEV and MEV-Boost, both can also be used by bad actors in a malicious way. Specifically, some within the Ethereum community are worried about censorship of MEV-Boost relay operators, or entities that connect validators to block builders; the fear is that the existence of these relay operators offers a big new target for censorship.

The concern is so widespread that it was addressed during the most recent Ethereum Core Developers meeting.

If we allow censorship of user transactions on the network, then we basically failed. This is the hill that Im willing to die on, developer Marius van der Wijden said during the call. If we start allowing users to be censored on Ethereum then this whole thing doesnt make sense, and I will be leaving the ecosystem.

Most Ethereum developers, however, sounded hopeful that potential MEV-related issues, especially involving censorship, would not be prevalent threats, and remained focused on building Ethereum as a censorship-free protocol.

While some may take the topic more seriously than others, experts in the cryptocurrency space dont believe censorship-related fears are overblown, especially if blockchains are more widely used by normies as time goes on.

If crypto is going to go mainstreamits going to have to exist within a modern regulatory framework. That means adhering to OFAC sanctions, allowing for strong protections from money laundering, and so on, Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO, tells Fortune. The question vis--vis ETH validators, however, is whether that adherence should occur at the foundational technological layer, or on the application and user side.

Hougan made an analogy involving the internet, asking whether libel and hate speech should be banned by the internet itself, or handled at the user and application layer instead. History suggests that freedom, innovation, and growth are best served when technologies are allowed to be credibly neutral, and we police bad acts by policing bad actors, he said.

And though the merge hasnt happened yet, weve already seen forms of censorship on Ethereum in a few ways.

Ethereum infrastructure companies Infura and Alchemy have blocked access to Tornado Cash. Circle, the company behind the popular USDC stablecoin, froze Tornado Cashlinked addresses. Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange on Ethereum, has also reportedly blocked Tornado Cashlinked addresses. Even Ethermine, the largest Ethereum miner, stopped processing Tornado Cash transactions, being dubbed the first hard evidence seen of censorship actually happening in block production online.

Looking ahead, only time will tell how, or if, censorship resistance is maintained.

Some online predict the decentralized finance (DeFi) space will continue to split into two: one being a regulated, compliant version of DeFi, and the other being badlands DeFi, as Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, wrote on Twitter. Most blue-chip projects will embrace the former.

To Hougan, an interesting part of this process is that the Ethereum community is determining through discussion how important decentralization is as a core value. Different blockchains will decide on different answers to this question, and it will be interesting to see which answer the market rewards and punishes.

Until then, the debate surrounding censorship on Ethereum is likely to get louder.

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The Ethereum community is worried about censorship as the merge approaches. Heres why - Fortune

In reaction to the sanctions, organisations such as Coin Center have defended the mixer, stating that the smart contract code is not a sanctionable entity.

It is unknown whether privacy coins such as Monero would face similar restrictions in light of this new precedence. A hard fork upgrade on August 13 made it more challenging to trace Monero transactions.

Contrary to the idea that all bitcoin transactions are private by nature, the data on a blockchain is public, and transactions may be traced. Crypto mixers and privacy coins were established to facilitate the open financial systems anonymity. But each faces unique uphill struggles.

A crypto mixer, also a tumbler or blender, is a transaction mixing tool or service anybody can use to conceal a crypto wallets source of funds. These technologies were initially built for bitcoin in 2013, but once solutions like Tornado Cash made them available for a range of cryptocurrencies, they became a popular alternative to privacy coins.

Blender.io was the first custodial mixer sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC). It didnt garner the same attention as Tornado Cash since it belonged to the pattern of prior punishments against individuals and organisations.

Tornado Cashis an Ethereum-based crypto mixer that mixes ETH and ERC-20 tokens using non-custodial smart contracts. Through a zero-knowledge proof contract, users contribute funds to smart contract addresses that arrange them by the amount and efficiently mix the deposits.

For instance, suppose you wish to combine 11 ETH. Because deposits are categorised by amount, you send 10 ETH to the 10 ETH mixer and 1 ETH to the 1 ETH mixer. Once funds are given to each mixer, the zero-knowledge proof verifies that you provided a deposit to each one without revealing which one was initially yours. This provides the equivalent of a withdrawal authorisation slip for each mixer.

On August 8, 2022, OFAC added a list of Tornado Cash-related addresses to the same list of sanctioned addresses, including Blender.io. OFAC used the same language for Blender.io as it did for Blender.io, but failed to recognise their significant custody distinction. Coin Center asserts that Tornado Cash has two distinct components: the decentralised group of governing members, Tornado Cash Entity and the immutable smart contract coin mixers Tornado Cash Application.

The Tornado Cash Entity cannot modify or update the Tornado Cash Application due to the destruction of the original developers administrative keys. Smart contracts exist so long as the Ethereum blockchain is operational. Therefore, even if the Tornado Cash website is down, anybody can develop a replacement front end or communicate with the smart contracts directly that gives users access to the same mixers.

The issue is that OFAC included these immutable addresses for smart contracts on its list of penalties. Consequently, there are currently innocent Americans with funds in these mixes. If they attempt to transfer the funds, they will violate the law and face penalties. And because the application is not a legal business, it cannot petition OFAC to remove the sanctions.

Coin Center claims that OFAC did not cite the legal authority to add the smart contract addresses to the sanctions list since the Tornado Cash Application is not an organisation, triggering constitutional concerns. In response to OFACs notification, firms agreed to filter individuals associated with these IP addresses. Aave, a decentralised financial application, prohibited any user that received Tornado Cash payments in a dust assault.

Privacy coins are digital currencies that employ various techniques to conceal IP addresses, wallet balances, and the movement of transactions. Z-cash and Monero are the two most popular privacy-centric cryptocurrencies. Z-cash is a cryptocurrency that protects transaction data primarily through zero-knowledge proofs. They vary from crypto mixers in transforming financial privacy into a product rather than a benefit.

Since this early setback, Z-cash has never returned to the highs of the 2017 bull cycle and presently stands second in total market capitalisation behind Monero. While Monero prices were able to hit 2017 levels in 2021, they could not surpass their all-time high.

Monero is a privacy-centric cryptocurrency that provides financial anonymity via privacy-enhanced blockchain encryption. Every transaction uses one-time stealth addresses to conceal the balances of public addresses.

The protocol for Monero was improved on August 13. The earlier version of Monero provided a layer of anonymity, but its entire untraceability was questionable. In 2018, detractors said that the process of elimination might discover the signature rings inputs. And in 2021, CipherTracer purportedly patented a transaction-tracking technology used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Even if CipherTracer uncovered actual flaws, the scope of their repercussions remains unknown. They did not reveal their tactics or degree of success. Since it prevented CipherTracer from being accessed by anybody unwilling to pay, this earlier version nevertheless provided some financial anonymity.

In Canada, efforts were undertaken to trace the sources of funding for the trucker freedom convoy. The authorities sanctioned 34 cryptocurrency wallets associated with the movement, and Monero addresses were included on that list.

By raising the number of transactions in a ring signature, the Monero team expect this upgrade will solve any possible security loopholes. Even if the anticipated Monero chain enhancements are essential, the principles of tracking the likely source of funds remain the same after the fork. If the update is successful in eliminating these backdoors, there is a danger that OFAC might take similar action against Monero.

The developers prospective capacity to benefit from these smart contracts renders him accountable. The Dutch financial crimes agency FIOD detained a Tornado Cash developer suspected of using the application to launder money. It is unknown if he was arrested for his attempts to launder money or for his association with others who did so.

Though major privacy coins like Monero and Z-cash are actively trying to improve transaction privacy, they havent obtained the same level of acceptance as leading layer-1 blockchains such asEthereum. Many rivals, notably Secret Network and Oasis Network, believe that privacy coins do not provide a privacy layer that can be utilised to create Web3.

In 2020, Secret Network was the first privacy-based blockchain to offer the programmability of smart contracts. It resides in the Cosmos ecosystem and works towards a Web3 privacy goal. Multiple applications have been released, including the decentralised messaging service Altermail and the decentralised exchange SiennaSwap.

However, Secret Network and its rivals confront the typical difficulty of a crowded market. They have a long way to go before overcoming the market domination of Monero and Z-Cash. The prospect of punishment has spurred many members of the Z-Cash community to investigate the possibility of programming their smart contracts.

Amid the battle for financial privacy, the state has used two distinct instruments thus far. They employed the regulatory sanctions hammer with crypto mixers. If one financial privacy method is too popular with criminals or difficult to trace, their strategy may be to eliminate it.

Advocacy groups such as Coin Center may challenge such measures in court, but this may take years. In the meanwhile, the sanctions are probably harming innocent Americans.

They may continue their cat-and-mouse game with developer upgrades via investigations for other privacy solutions.

However, user adoption is a crucial aspect of this game. As more users use mixers or privacy coins, tracing transactions becomes progressively more difficult. It is comparable to the traditional police pursuit into a tiny alley. If the suspect approaches a busy procession, they can brush themselves off and blend with the crowd.

If a privacy coin, mixer, or base-layer privacy solution obtains widespread adoption, its resistance to censorship might increase. State officials would struggle to garner political support for sweeping punishments or the necessary technologies to circumvent privacy protections. And the possible repercussions of Tornado Cash punishments on Ethereum validators may draw millions more into this discussion.

See the original post here:
Can Crypto Mixers And Privacy Coins Withstand Censorship? - Coin Culture

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has written to the Madison County School Board in Ridgeland, Mississippi, regarding recent restrictions on 10 books, requiring students to obtain parental permission in order to read them.

The 10 books in question address race-related or LQBTQ+ themes, and we are concerned that the district may have unconstitutionally targeted these books for the political views they express.

We understand that school districts can be subject to heavy pressure to censor books, which is why it is vital to have strong book challenge procedures. The district should strive to address the concerns of parents by explaining the pedagogical purposes of the library and instructional materials chosen by qualified education professionals, rather than by simply labeling them as supposedly problematic.

NCAC strongly urges the district to reconsider this policy and to adopt alternatives which do not endanger the rights of students to read and learn.

Please read our full letter to the Board here:

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Madison, Mississippi, School District Restricts Books on Race and LGBTQ+ Themes - Blogging Censorship

In my earlier Times Argus commentary July 27, I criticized Publisher Steve Pappas for holding back on publishing many articles from the New York Post in October 2020, which exposed salacious and incriminating information found on Hunter Bidens laptop (clearly implicating President Joe Bidens deep corruption). This story was buried yet, for almost more than the five years prior to that, Publisher Pappas chose to publish numerous AP stories incriminating Donald Trump. These stories were all leaked sources from the DOJ, FBI (incidentally, which is a crime), and from people not authorized to speak to the press and those who demanded anonymity. But the press ran with those leaked stories and continued the narrative Donald Trump was a Russian agent. We got him this time. Where did those years of incriminating, false stories end up? We read little about that in the Times Argus. After all, the mainstream media did not want to admit they were wrong.

Why was that? In my opinion, the government was never able to convict Trump after all the years of Russia, Russia, Russia because there was not enough proof (worthy of impeachment and indictment) and the media could never admit to their loyal readers they got this story so wrong. After all, losing credibility from your readers could have serious consequences for their financial viability.

So where are we now with the raid on Mar-a-Lago? Agree with Donald Trump or have a visceral hatred, we are now in a very similar media frenzy with this event even before anyone really knows the facts. Sound familiar? It is apparent the Department of Justice and Merrick Garland (by extension) are feeding information to the media and by doing so, are creating provocations which all are going to have the effect of damaging an already wounded DOJ and trust in the FBI. Perhaps, more importantly, American opinion of equal justice under the law will continue to erode. If you dont believe this, read all persuasions.

This DOJ behavior is questionable and the legal basis for raiding a past presidents home remains to be determined. Lets wait and see. We currently have a sewer of leaks without regard to fairness and are only two weeks into this event. Our government currently feels emboldened they can control the narrative through leaks to the media. They have obviously leaked information to the Washington Post and New York Times, a reminder of how they approached the Russia hoax: same game plan, drip, drip, drip. Intelligent, aware American citizens (and Times Argus readers) should understand this with open minds and eyes wide open. Failure to do so make haters giddy but, remember, what goes around, comes around.

Interestingly, Dave Gram (worked in Vermont journalism for 35 years) excoriated me in his Aug. 2 commentary by saying I was wrong for criticizing Publisher Pappas and said Newspaper investigations often take years to develop into publishable stories.

How is it, Gram, that Publisher Pappas can print an AP story about the Mar-a-Lago raid less than two weeks after it happened and at the end of this -page story, which said after prosecutors interviewed another witness who told them that there were likely additional classified documents still stored at Mar-a-Lago, the person said. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dave Spaulding lives in Montpelier.

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Spaulding: Censorship at the top? | Commentary | rutlandherald.com - Rutland Herald

This week, the local-to-me Moms For Liberty contingent lost their bid to get Gender Queer removed from Barrington School District 220. Parents and community members who supported the right to read and queer students and educators in the district showed up to the meeting, and the committee reviewing the book found it to be appropriate for their high school library.

As this was happening, a new billboard showed up in Crystal Lake, Illinois, which is just a few miles west of Barrington. The billboard said that districts in the town needed to stop sexualizing children, and at their school board meeting the same night, a regular right-wing staple showed up and spoke about government conspiracies related to the 1918 pandemic (shes been mad about a book in their school library since at least January). That individual filed three FOIA requests in a span of minutes to the school district. The first, which was denied, demanded to know the sexuality of educators and students in the district. The second and third were requests that could be Googled.

Snuggled in between Crystal Lake and Barrington is Cary, which has its own breed of right-wing parents itching to get their say in education.

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Barrington, Cary, and Crystal Lake are close to Lake In The Hills, where UpRising Bakery was vandalized in July because they were hosting an all-ages drag show brunch in their private business. The event was canceled as they cleaned up the damage from the individual who drove over an hour to destroy the space the night before the show, and what followed was a lawsuit from the ACLU against the town because of how it decided to proceed. The queer-owned bakery was able to host the show to a sold-out crowd just days later.

UpRising also sent educators in Barrington a welcome back feast to kick off the school year and support them as they endure continued attacks by groups who have agendas and no background in education.

Never fear, though. The local Moms For Liberty group tweeted their support of educators as parnets (yes, misspelled that way), then showed up to the board meeting to talk about indoctrination.

Im sure Im not saying anything that will shock readers here, but if its not clear already, perhaps this makes it clear: while this is about the books, it is in no way about the books. Its about the systemic erasure of queer people. If the books arent available and the teachers are called any number of names, then queer people disappear, right? And if a private business is vandalized by someone who was at the January 6 insurrection its not about education or indoctrination, is it?

I was unable to make the board meeting in Barrington to support queer members of the district. Despite that, and despite not being a citizen of the community but one of a town nearby, I wrote a letter. Im sharing it here in hopes that this can help others looking for ways to act and how to approach letter writing. You are welcome to copy and modify as appropriate.

Ive shared a template before. This is that template expanded. In addition to offering support for the book and for queer community members, I took the time to lay out who the people behind these pushes to curtail intellectual freedom are and the where and how of these coordinated movements.

In addition to sending the letter to the board, I also emailed every teacher librarian in the district and thanked them for their hard work. One board member thanked me for that, as they knew how much ugly rhetoric and discussion around these hard-working members of the school community were fielding.

So much for the Joyful Warrior parnets supporting educators.

I wanted to share the above story because much of this is news to me this week. I live here, I spend a lot of time researching book bans and access to information, and yet, I did not know what was happening in Crystal Lake. It was a reminder how wide-spread this right-wing nationalism is and, more, how local media fails to keep their eye on these things its being put on citizens to share this information and to band together, show up, and make sure that student rights are at the forefront of education.

This is not the beginning nor the end of challenges in Barrington. The district retained Lawn Boy earlier this year, and several other books are on the docket for review. Those include Flamer, This Book is Gay, Fighting Words, and All Boys Arent Blue.

It is equally disturbing that, aside from Chicago Media Collective, not a single Chicagoland media outlet had reported on this story until Thursday (the meeting was on Tuesday). They gave space to those who created the queer panic earlier this summer, but it has been radio silence still. This means parents who want to show up in support of education as a means to expanding world views remain completely in the dark about whats happening.

The lack of local media, as well as the focus of legacy media on only the clickiest stories, is in no small part why we are where we are and why well continue to be plowed by these well-organized, well-funded hate groups.

The Get Ready Stay Ready toolkit, built by parents and librarians, is one way to be prepared as an average citizen. This on-going effort is an incredible resource for staying up to date on issues relating to censorship and how you can prepare and fight back against these agendas. There are letters and templates you can use to contact school and library boards, training and educational resources to up your knowledge, and and resources aplenty for civic engagement, for supporting queer people, and for seeing and boosting voices of marginalized people. Save this and refer to it often as you continue your work ensuring access to information and ongoing support for queer and BIPOC students, educators, and library workers across the country.

Continued here:
Defending the Right to Read: Book Censorship News, August 19, 2022 - Book Riot

Russia's failure to secure a quick victory against Ukraine forced Vladimir Putin to adapt.

Over the past six months, Russia has been fighting an information war alongside its military campaign.

How Moscow rerouted the internet

On 30 May the internet connection in occupied Kherson dropped. It returned within hours, but people could no longer access sites like Facebook, Twitter and Ukrainian news.

The internet had been rerouted to Russia. The online activity of those in Kherson was now visible to Moscow and was subject to censorship.

Internet traffic in Kherson was originally routed from network hubs elsewhere in the country and passed through Kyiv.

These connections remained in place during the first three months of the invasion before it was rerouted.

As Russia gained strength in southern Ukraine, reports emerged that it was taking over control of local internet providers in Kherson either through cooperation or by force.

Once in control, Russia could reroute the internet to Moscow via a state-owned internet provider in Crimea.

This briefly happened on 1 May, before Ukrainian officials managed to reverse it. But on 30 May, with Russia now in control of more infrastructure, it happened again. It now appears permanent.

With the people of Kherson now forced to use Russian internet if they want to go online, they are subject to Moscow's censorship.

For three months they have been unable to access Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Some Ukrainian news websites are also blocked.

Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, an internet monitoring company, says the rerouting has "effectively placed Ukrainian citizens under the purview and surveillance of the Russian state at the flick of a switch."

Internet operators and monitors report internet access in large areas of Kherson is censored to a similar level as experienced in Russia. Some smaller areas are experiencing even tougher censorship, with some Google services blocked.

Ukrainians in Kherson are finding ways to evade Russia's efforts to monitor and censor their online activity.

When Ivanna (not her real name) leaves her home, she deletes social media and messaging apps like Instagram and Telegram in case she is stopped by a soldier who may search her phone.

"You need to be careful," she tells Sky News, using an online messaging app.

She goes online using a VPN (virtual private network) which hides the user's location and allows them to bypass Russian censorship.

Searches for the software spiked in Kherson when internet controls tightened.

Russia has also shut down the mobile phone network in Kherson and new SIM cards are being sold for locals to use.

Ivanna told Sky News a passport is needed to buy the sim cards, prompting fears their use may be tracked.

Cautious, she paid a stranger to buy a SIM under his name.

TV and phone communications targeted

In the unoccupied parts of Ukraine, Moscow has sought to destroy the communication infrastructure - such as TV towers and communication centres.

It's a tactic Russia initially wanted to avoid as it did not want to damage resources that would be useful as an occupying force, explains William Alberque, director of strategy, technology, and arms control for the Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Russia thought they were going to win so fast [so wouldn't] destroy infrastructure as it was going to own that infrastructure," he tells Sky News.

Subscribe to the Ukraine War Diaries on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker

But by keeping the lines open, Ukrainians were able to communicate with one another and the wider world.

Ultimately Russia moved to destroy what it was unable to quickly seize.

Examples of the attacks on communication infrastructure have been logged by the Centre for Information Resilience, which has been tracking and verifying attacks like these using open-source information.

One incident logged by the group was a communication centre in southern Ukraine.

Russia's attempt to control information has also included targeting TV towers.

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Power cuts in Ukraine have also caused the nation's biggest broadband and mobile internet providers to lose connectivity.

Disinformation has doubled since the war began

Russia has used disinformation during the war to influence those in Ukraine, the country's allies, as well as its own population at home.

Examples of pro-Russian fake news include a clumsily faked video of the Ukrainian president telling people to surrender (known as a deepfake video) and social media posts accusing bombing victims of being actors.

Some of Russia's efforts have been effective. Moscow claimed the invasion was in part to tackle nazism in the Ukrainian government. Searches for "nazi" in both Russia and worldwide spiked in the first week of the war.

The number of disinformation sites has more than doubled since the Russian invasion in February, according to Newsguard, which provides credibility rankings for news and information sites.

In March, its researchers found 116 sites publishing Russia-Ukraine war-related disinformation. By August, that number had risen to 250.

It's not possible to show that all of those sites are run on the orders of Russia, however, Moscow has allocated a boosted pot of funds for its propaganda arm.

The independent Russian-language news site The Moscow Times reported the government had "drastically increased funding for state-run media amid the war with Ukraine".

The article cited figures provided by the Russian government. It said 17.4bn rubles (244m) had been allocated for "mass media" compared to 5.4bn rubles (76m) the year before.

It said in March, once the war was underway, some 11.9bn rubles (167m) were spent. This is more than twice as much as the combined spend of the two months before, which was 5bn rubles (70m).

The research comes as no surprise to Mr Alberque, who says Russia's disinformation campaign has been "constant".

"As they shift into war mode, [Russia] has to go to directly paying salaries and no longer hoping that people will echo its messages but paying them to send a certain number of messages per day," he told Sky News.

Looking forward, Mr Alberque believes the death of the daughter of an ally of Vladimir Putin will be a distraction for those directing Russia's disinformation efforts.

Russia has pointed the finger at Ukraine for carrying out the fatal car bombing in Moscow but Kyiv denies any involvement.

An apparent high-profile assassination in the capital has sparked a number of conspiracy theories, including claims the responsibility may lie with a Russian group looking to influence the war.

"The Russian government is going to have to try to control this narrative," Mr Alberque explains.

He adds that propaganda resources that would be focused on Ukraine may now be drawn into the fallout of the death, saying: "I think it's going to be a huge information sink for them because it's going to take up time and attention."

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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Originally posted here:
How Putin used internet censorship and fake news for six months to push the Ukraine war agenda - Sky News

Disney+ booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2022.Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP (Getty Images)

Apparently, you can now add farting to the list of abhorrent things worthy of censorship according to Disneys tedious Standards & Practices department. The Guardian reports that Disney+ will re-evaluate their ban on a fart-centric episode of the Australian cartoon series Bluey, after facing backlash for yet another odd case of censoring content on the streamer.

The episode from season three of the Emmy-winning series titled Family Meeting seems as silly and harmless as you can get. Set up as a court case scenario, the anthropomorphic Blue Heeler kiddos accuse their father of a crime most heinous: performing a fart or fluffy in their face. While fart jokes are a tale as old as time in kids television (were reminded of Neds DeclassifiedSchool Survival Guide icon Timmy Toot-Toot), Disneys S&P department decided that this was a joke too smelly for the kiddos of Disney+, removing the episode from the lineup when Bluey was added to the platform.

However, censoring shows and movies isnt anything new for the folks at Disney. In celebration of Gravity Falls 10th anniversary this year, series creator Alex Hirsch documented all the insanity that the series faced against Disneys S&P department, including believing the show was referencing furries and wanting the word crud altered as it was viewed as inappropriate. Thats not to mention the butt-fiasco with Splashs arrival on Disney+, which saw the worst digital addition of hair, all to cover up a quick shot of Daryl Hannahs backside in the film.

After fans begin to spot the missing episode while pointing out how ridiculous the whole thing was, Disney has now backtracked on their initial banning of the episode.

Family Meeting will roll out on US platforms soon, said a Disney spokesperson to childrens entertainment site Pirates & Princesses. Some of the Bluey content did not meet Disney Junior broadcast S&P in place at the time the series was acquired. Now that it is rolling out on other platforms, it is a great opportunity to reevaluate which is what we plan to do.

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While dog families arguing about farting has now been recognized as viewable content for kids on Disney+, this begs the question as to what other ridiculous items are on Disneys S&P banned list.

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Disney Plus to "re-evaluate" censoring of Bluey episode focused on farting - The A.V. Club

Former kickboxer turned social media sensation Andrew Tate has now officially been banned from Meta platforms. Tate widely gained fame for his controversial views on women and society in general and became one of the most polarizing figures on the internet recently.

Moreover, his ban has sent the internet into a frenzy as people were divided on this decision. Top Gs polarizing personality can be perfectly displayed after his ban as people flocked to two sides. Some came out to support Tate claiming that this was an attack on freedom of speech and expression while others stated that his controversial views should not be spread across the internet.

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Renowned Youtuber Coffeezilla, who even made a video exposing Tates Hustlers university, stated that Tate should not be banned. He claimed that although he did not agree with Top G, banning him was not the answer.

Another controversial Youtuber Sneako defended Tate calling out Meta for promoting an agenda.

Moreover, former MMA champion Jake Shields also defended Top G. He stated that people who call out Tate for manipulating young boys had no problem with models like Kim Kardashian influencing young girls.

Political commentator Mike Cernovich stated that former Illumisoft CEO Dan Price was accused of far worse things than Tate. However, there was no call for him to get banned.

Furthermore, Youtuber Daz Black took shots at the left wing claiming that they can get anyone banned.

Social media insider KeemStar called out people for harassing him because he thought Tate should not be banned.

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Moreover, Instagram personality George Resch stated that Tate got banned because he said things everyone was too afraid to say.

This was not all as internet personality LizardKing stated that censorship was not the answer to the problem.

Twitch streamer InfernoOmni was shocked by this ban and asked his audience whether the ban was justified.

However, some people thought that this ban was justified as feminist page Whor*sofYore tried to troll Top G.

Another influencer Mattxiv, whose initial post calling out Tate went viral on Instagram, stated that freedom of speech does not apply on social media platforms. He claimed that Tate had a right to free speech, but his being on the platforms was entirely up to them.

However, Youtube sensation Jake Paul also came out to address both sides of the issue. He stated that he didnt agree with Tates opinions and also did not agree with censorship.

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While many people may not agree with Tates opinion, censoring him will only add to the problem. We have seen many cases where banning a controversial figure only adds to their popularity. Moreover, the argument that social media platforms have a right to ban people should be debated heavily. In todays world, the integration of these platforms in our lives has made it impossible to voice our opinions without them, and as history tells us the key to a good society is healthy discourse and debate, not censoring individuals that some people dont agree with.

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Censorship Is never the Answer: Influencers Flock to Twitter Over Wild Ban on Andrew Tate - EssentiallySports

The IDFs Military Censor finally admitted to what everyone already knew, that the IDF uses armed UAVs to target its enemies.

It was found that there was no impediment in publishing the IDFs use of attack drones as part of its operational activities, a statement from the censor said on Wednesday evening.

Until now, the censor blocked Israeli journalists from officially confirming that Israel used attack drones despite the fact that foreign media outlets regularly reported on the phenomenon and Israel is a world leader in UAV technology.

In 1991, Israel began operating in adherence with the guidelines of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a multinational informal agreement to limit the proliferation of missile technology.

However, perhaps due to the fact that the use of armed drones is now so ubiquitous, Israels silence on the matter has ended.

(YWN Israel Desk Jerusalem)

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After Yrs. Of Censorship, IDF Admits To Using Attack Drones