Category Archives: Censorship

Lots of people are outraged that Sony Pictures Entertainment is dropping plans to release The Interview, the Seth Rogen comedy that depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Folks from Hollywood stars to film critics are complaining that pulling the film due to vague threats against theaters scheduled to show it is in essence allowing terrorists to triumph.

For instance, actress Mia Farrow says the bad guys won due to Sonys decision. At Vox, writer Todd VanDerWerff says Sony has committed an act of cowardice.

The move has set a bad precedent thats already affecting future movies, according to Mr. VanDerWerff entertainment company New Regency has now scrapped another North Korea-based film set to star Steve Carroll. Its de facto censorship emanating from Pyongyang, writes Mr. VanDerWerff.

Sony is not an arm of the US government, however. Its a multinational corporation legally accountable to shareholders. Given that context, did it make the correct business decision to cancel the comedy?

The answer to that might be yes.

Most theaters werent going to show the movie to begin with. The big US cinema chains had made it clear that they would not risk any violence in their buildings by screening it, however vague the threats. Going to the movies is supposed to be fun, not an act of personal courage, in their view.

The movie business is already facing stiff competition from the fast rise of streaming services and high-quality television productions. Cinema owners did not want The Interview to give patrons another reason to stay home on the couch. Since most theaters are multiplexes, they feared the controversy could drive down attendance for other movies as well.

Then theres the legal question. The chain which owned the theater in Aurora, Colo., attacked by a gunman in 2012 has defended against lawsuits by saying the incident was not foreseeable. The threats against The Interview might have rendered this defense moot.

Once the hackers threatened physical violence, the films cancellation became almost inevitable, write Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply in The New York Times.

Plus, the film was not getting great reviews, alleged North Korean threats aside. While that might not bear on the question of censorship, it could play into an executives decision as to whether to absorb the cost of scrapping Sonys investment in the film.

See the original post here:
'The Interview' cancellation: Did Sony make right business move?

Lots of people are outraged that Sony Pictures Entertainment is dropping plans to release The Interview, the Seth Rogen comedy that depicts the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Folks from Hollywood stars to film critics are complaining that pulling the film due to vague threats against theaters scheduled to show it is in essence allowing terrorists to triumph.

For instance, actress Mia Farrow says the bad guys won due to Sonys decision. At Vox, writer Todd VanDerWerff says Sony has committed an act of cowardice.

The move has set a bad precedent thats already affecting future movies, according to Mr. VanDerWerff entertainment company New Regency has now scrapped another North Korea-based film set to star Steve Carroll. Its de facto censorship emanating from Pyongyang, writes Mr. VanDerWerff.

Sony is not an arm of the US government, however. Its a multinational corporation legally accountable to shareholders. Given that context, did it make the correct business decision to cancel the comedy?

The answer to that might be yes.

Most theaters werent going to show the movie to begin with. The big US cinema chains had made it clear that they would not risk any violence in their buildings by screening it, however vague the threats. Going to the movies is supposed to be fun, not an act of personal courage, in their view.

The movie business is already facing stiff competition from the fast rise of streaming services and high-quality television productions. Cinema owners did not want The Interview to give patrons another reason to stay home on the couch. Since most theaters are multiplexes, they feared the controversy could drive down attendance for other movies as well.

Then theres the legal question. The chain which owned the theater in Aurora, Colo., attacked by a gunman in 2012 has defended against lawsuits by saying the incident was not foreseeable. The threats against The Interview might have rendered this defense moot.

Once the hackers threatened physical violence, the films cancellation became almost inevitable, write Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply in The New York Times.

Plus, the film was not getting great reviews, alleged North Korean threats aside. While that might not bear on the question of censorship, it could play into an executives decision as to whether to absorb the cost of scrapping Sonys investment in the film.

Continued here:
'The Interview' uproar: Was ditching flick right business call for Sony?

Nafeez Ahmed On Media Censorship, 9/11, And ISIS
https://twitter.com/blacktowerradio https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Tower-Radio/308157709207443 http://wnrt.worldnewsradio.today.

By: BlackTowerRadio

See original here:
Nafeez Ahmed On Media Censorship, 9/11, And ISIS - Video

Rich of ReviewTechUSA - Loot Crate Is Pro Censorship (Dec 15 2014)
Basically Rich got dropped from Loot Crate for his Feminazi video he made a week ago. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXK9YTLc7NM) Rich ended up removing this video as soon as he uploaded.

By: FANtomCore

See more here:
Rich of ReviewTechUSA - Loot Crate Is Pro Censorship (Dec 15 2014) - Video

The newly-released iPad port ofPapers, Please, Lucas Popes dystopian bureaucracy simulator, has had its pixelated nudity restored after Apple rolled back itsinitial kibosh, according to a tweet from Pope.

The 2013 game casts you as a border control agent for the fictional country of Arstotzka. As the game goes on, the rules governing whom you can and cannot allow into the country grow increasingly complicated, as do the means at your disposal for determining who is eligible. One of the tools added later in the game is a full body scanner, much like thosecontroversially instituted by the TSAin American airports in recent years. The scan is used to check for smuggled contraband.

Related:Have a bureaucratic holiday: Papers, Please coming to iPads on December 12

In the original game, a menu option toggles whether the people are revealed in their underwear or fully nude. When the game was submitted by Pope for iPad, Apple originally rejected the feature as a violation of the companys pornography policy, forcing Pope to remove the option.

Through subsequent conversations Pope was able to convince the censors otherwise. The feature has since been reinstated via an update, and can now be turned on from the options menu. The games rating has also been accordingly bumped up to 17+.

Papers, Please is available now for iPad only through the iOS App Store for $8.

Link:
Apple reverses censorship of pixelated nudity in iPad Papers, Please

Intrigue piles upon intrigue in the Chinese online TV world right now, as top U.S. shows are banned from online streaming sites but are being lined up to re-appear on the state broadcaster CCTV.

So fiendish are the twists and turns of the story so far that it would not be out of place among the fleshpots and ultraviolent warriors of the HBO series Game of Thrones, which, incredibly, aired on Chinas national broadcaster CCTV on Sunday.

Webizens are wailing and gnashing their teeth over a government decision to pull The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, The Good Wife and The Practice from online streaming sites. They are calling it the latest attack on free speech, and poignantly asking for the return of Sheldon, one of Big Bang Theorys most beloved stars in China.

However, this may really be all about business and re-imposing state control.

As Game of Thrones Cersei Lannister would put it: You win or you die."

They are showing Game of Thrones and yet Big Bang Theory isnt safe. Something is wrong with that, a senior source at an online TV company, who requested anonymity, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Until now, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television has allowed video websites to operate with few of the restrictions imposed on movies or TV, as it tries to encourage a high-tech industry where China has opportunities to lead the field.

Online companies such as Youku, Tencent and Sohu have operated with far more freedom to show edgy material, such asThe Walking DeadandHouse of Cards, than the traditional media, such as TV and cinema. Its long been baffling how the government allows shows likeHouse of Cards, particularly the second season, which had a storyline critical of Chinese government corruption.

As reported inThe Hollywood Reporterearlier this month, SAPPRFT said it was planning to increase censorship of foreign content .

The regulators have been working on proper regulations since 2009. I firmly believe that the government will leave enough room for us and the online TV content providers. We provide lots of revenues for them, said the source.

See the original post here:
Harsher Censorship or Cunning Plot? Confusion Reigns Over Chinese Online TV Bans

By Sisi Wei, ProPublica, Dec. 17, 2014

Every day since Nov. 17, 2014, ProPublica has been testing whether the homepages of international news organizations are accessible to browsers inside China. Of the 18 in our test, 9 are currently blocked. Below are the results. To test, we use GreatFire.org, a censorship monitoring service in China that launched in 2011. Methodology

Hover over the graphic to see dates. Click on a date to see more details.

Our automated tests run shortly after midnight U.S. Eastern Time, which is 1 p.m. in Beijing. They run on up to eight servers in separate locations in China, and can return one of four results:

ProPublica will continue to monitor news sites daily, and may add additional news sites in the future. Know a site we should add? E-mail Sisi Wei at sisi.wei@propublica.org.

Additional design and development by Lena Groeger, Mike Tigas and Yue Qiu.

ProPublica, with permission, used data from GreatFire.org, a free service that anybody can use to test if a website is accessible within China. Its pseudonymous founders are activists who created the site to highlight online censorship in China.

GreatFire.org runs tests only upon request. Historical test results are therefore not necessarily available every day. On Nov. 17, 2014, ProPublica began initiating daily tests for 15 international news sites, and on Dec. 5, we added three more sites for testing. We plan to continue testing and updating this database every day for the foreseeable future.

We chose the 18 sites in our test because of their status as internationally important news sites or because theyve recently run stories that led them to be blocked inside China. We are able to add more sites to the database. If you think you know a site we should be testing, let us know by emailing sisi.wei@propublica.org.

The most accurate test of censorship is conducted inside the censoring country, but doing so comes with a variety of risks. Continual attempts to visit blocked sites are detectable by the local authorities, and can therefore be dangerous political activity. ProPublica has spent the last year attempting to perfect a way to test censorship around the world using computers inside each censoring country. We have not yet found a testing method that would ensure participants safety, though we continue to look for a solution. In the meantime, were using the GreatFire service already available inside China.

Go here to see the original:
Inside the Firewall: Tracking the News That China Blocks

Aamir Khan Roots For Self Censorship; Rejects Trashy Cinema
Aamir Khan, while promoting his film #39;PK #39; in Ahmedabad, said why he doesn #39;t believe in censorship in creative field and advocates for self-censorship. He stu...

By: BollywoodHungama.com

Read this article:
Aamir Khan Roots For Self Censorship; Rejects Trashy Cinema - Video

#39;Face-sitting #39; protest against porn censorship
Sex workers and campaigners demonstrate against acts banned from online pornography - saying changes could be the thin end of a wedge. .Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on...

By: Channel 4 News

Read more from the original source:
'Face-sitting' protest against porn censorship - Video

China on Wednesday started blocking the online storage service Dropbox.

Censorship watchdog group GreatFire.org reported the blocking on Thursday, stating that access had been cut to dropbox.com and to the company's apps.

China had previously tried blocking Dropbox as far back as 2010, GreatFire.org said in an email. But in early 2014, Dropbox updated its app to use the HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) communications protocol, helping it bypass the country's censorship.

China, however, has begun cutting access to Dropbox's HTTPS address, banning the company's services completely in what GreatFire.org said was the "strictest method of blocking."

Dropbox did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Dropbox site was inaccessible from Beijing, and the company's apps failed to synch data between devices.

China has been stepping up its censorship lately, targeting Google on May 31 with a block that's disrupted access to nearly all the company's services. The government has given no explanation for the move, but it took place just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that were brutally quashed on June 4, 1989.

The historical event is among the many censored topics in the country; before it was blocked, Google was one source of unfiltered search results about it.

Prior to the Google block, terrorists in China's western Xinjiang region also killed dozens in a bombing attack. The country's state-run media later reported that Chinese police had arrested several terrorist groups that had been using messaging apps and online videos to organize.

In the case of Dropbox, the service's blocking will probably affect few users. China's own Internet giants including Baidu are offering similar cloud storage services and Dropbox has yet to actively market its services to the country.

In recent weeks, Chinese Internet users have been complaining about the country's Google blocking, and have urged the government to end it. Government censors, however, are deleting social-networking posts about the topic, according to GreatFire.org. The group is cataloging the deleted posts on one of its sites.

See the article here:
China cuts access to Dropbox