Category Archives: Censorship

After a video of four women being brutally attacked in a restaurant in Tangshan, China last week went viral and sparked public outrage online, the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) Cyberspace Administration issued a new regulations to increase control of comments about videos on social media threads. This measure has attracted wide criticism.

The security footage shows that on June 10, when a woman, who was dining with three female friends in a barbecue restaurant in Tangshan, rejected a male customers advances, he and several companions started beating the women first inside and then outside the restaurant. The incident resulted in all of the women being seriously injured and taken to the hospital, and triggered public outcry both within China and internationally.

Under public pressure, the regime arrested nine men involved in the attack, and the authorities announced that two of the women were in ICU while the other two, who suffered lesser injuries, had been discharged from hospital.

However, due to the level of brutality and violence that the women suffered in the graphic video and many questions about the incident remaining unanswered, the public has continued to use social media to express doubts about the official statements.

The Tangshan incident has remained one of the most talked about topics on Chinese platform Weibo, with netizens posting hundreds of thousands of comments asking for confirmation of the whereabouts of the four women, the extent of their injuries, and whether they are still alive. Many posts and comments also revealed and talked about the connection between the attacking gang and the local officials who appeared to cover up for them.

In order to quell the public outrage, Tangshan authorities launched an anti-gang campaign on June 12. However, since then at least three public security chiefs have been reported for collusion with the local gangs by citizens who used their real names.

Besides deleting a large number of posts about the incident every day, on June 17, the Cyberspace Administration of the regime issued the Management of Internet Thread Commenting Services (Revised Draft), which requires online commenting and posting service providers to authenticate the identity of registered users, and not allow users who have not authenticated their identities to comment under a post. It will also establish a user classification management system, and conduct credit assessment on users online comments. Those who are classified as seriously dishonest will be blacklisted and prohibited from re-registering accounts to post comments.

The regulation also requires service providers to set up real-time inspections, and implement inspection before posting to control the content of online comments and posts.

News of this change has drawn wide criticism. One netizen posted: Im against the inspection before posting, [because] the impact of online discussions will be greatly reduced.

Another post read, They are using the real-name requirement to control netizens across the country. Nobody will dare to mention things like the Tangshan incident in the future!

A netizen said in a post, Not only are the media the Partys mouthpiece, in the future, the internet and social media will become its mouthpiece as well!

Another one said, In the future, Chinas online environment will be the same as that of North Korea!

Regarding the regimes new control measure, current affairs commentator Wang He told The Epoch Times, In Chinas cyberspace where theres limited freedom, ordinary people could still occasionally put public pressure on the authorities regarding some major social incidents, such as the chained woman incident and the Tangshan attack. Now the regime wants to eliminate this last limited space as well.

Wang pointed out that under the CCPs control using violence and lies, ordinary people have no place to voice their grievances. The CCP ignores the truth, instead, it goes all out to suppress the people and to silence them. The final result of this can only be for the common people to stand up and collapse the CCPs rule, he said.

Li Yun contributed to the report.

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Alex Wu is a U.S.-based writer for The Epoch Times focusing on Chinese society, Chinese culture, human rights, and international relations.

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CCP Issues New Regulation to Censor Social Media Threads After Video of Attack on 4 Women Drew Outrage - The Epoch Times

India's tech-related policies continue to create controversy, with fresh objections raised to a pair of proposed regulation packages.

One of those regulations is the infosec reporting and logging requirements introduced by India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in late April. That package requires VPN, cloud, and numerous other IT services providers to collect customers' personal information and log their activity, then surrender that info to Indian authorities on demand. One VPN provider, ExpressVPN, last week quit India on grounds that its local servers are designed not to record any logs so compliance would be impossible. ExpressVPN will soon route customers' traffic outside India.

On Tuesday, another VPN Surfshark announced it would do likewise.

The company announced its decision in a post that labelled CERT-In's rules "radical action that highly impacts the privacy of millions of people living in India."

India's government decide what millions of Indians can or cannot say online.

CERT-In's rules have also been criticized by The Internet Society, the nonprofit that advocates for an open internet.

In an Impact Brief [PDF] that assesses the impact of CERT-In's rules, the Society rates the requirement to sync with India-controlled network time protocol servers as creating a dangerous single point of failure. The Brief also takes issue with the rules' requirement to collect user data, as India lacks data privacy and data protection laws. The Society also suggests that CERT-In is not the appropriate body to collect data, as it is not a law enforcement agency.

Those criticisms come on top of similar suggestions from BSA The Software Alliance and ten other tech-related lobby groups, all of whom suggest the rules make India a less attractive destination for foreign investment.

India's government has so far shrugged off that criticism, but has earned itself more of the same at home by revising the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules that it introduced in 2021. Those rules saw social media companies push back on grounds that the regulations required them to identify users and could restrict free speech.

On Monday India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) published proposed amendments [PDF] to the Rules that, among other things, propose the creation of a government-run committee that would consider citizens' grievances about content posted to social media. That committee would have the power to override social networks' content moderation decisions.

That's scary, given that Indian police last year visited Twitter's local office to inquire why the microblogging service chose to label posts by a government spokesperson as "manipulated media."

India's Internet Freedom Foundation characterised the proposed committee's powers as follows:

Complicating perceptions of the proposed amendments is that MeitY published them last week, but then took down the file. An identical proposal re-appeared on Monday.

India's IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said the amended Rules add "more effective grievance addressal ensuring constitutional rights of citizens are respected" and will have "no impact on Indian Startups."

Many nations have laws that give local authorities the power to compel social media to remove content under specific circumstances.

India's proposed amendments allow citizens to seek takedown orders whenever they feel aggrieved.

The Register will be surprised if the proposed amendments don't generate another wave of letters from international lobby groups protesting India's plans.

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Another VPN quits India, as government proposes social media censorship powers - The Register

Congressional Democrats from New Jersey on Friday urged educational publishers to resist rewriting their textbooks in response to demands from Republican-led states, saying we will not stand for lowering our educational standards and learning opportunities for our students, based on the divisive politics of censorship.

Both of the states senators and five House members signed the letter, a response to GOP officials railing against what they call critical race theory and objecting to content that mentions gay and lesbian-led families and incidents of racism in American history.

If you comply with such demands to alter textbooks based on the Florida law or similar legislation in other states, we ask that you continue to make available the original, uncensored textbooks to schools in New Jersey and other states, the lawmakers wrote.

We are proud of having some of the highest rated public schools in the country in our state, and we will not stand for lowering our educational standards and learning opportunities for our students, based on the divisive politics of censorship from politicians in Florida, Texas or anywhere else.

The letter to four textbook publishers was led by Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. Malinowski has been hammered on the issue by Republican groups backing former state Senate GOP Leader Tom Kean Jr., who is trying to win the congressional seat he barely lost in 2020.

Democratic lawmakers said in their letter that Republican efforts to limit what can be taught in schools appears to be nothing more than a bigoted censorship campaign designed to frighten parents, stoke racial grievance, and bully textbook publishers into submission.

Florida rejected more than 40% of textbooks while Texas limited how teachers could discuss slavery and racism.

The lawmakers said they were worried that any changes made to appease their demands will affect the quality of public education in New Jersey and other states.

Republicans successfully made school curricula a wedge issue last fall as they came close to defeating Gov. Phil Murphy and won the governorship in Virginia for the first time in more than a decade.

I dont believe that we should be teaching that America is a racist nation, New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli said at a town hall meeting in August 2021.

Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway called the debate over critical race theory dog whistle politics.

Political conservatives have used this with incredible effectiveness to cause anxiety, to get people angry, and then get them to the polls, Holloway told The Star-Ledger editorial board shortly after the 2021 gubernatorial election.

The issue exploded anew this spring over New Jerseys 2-year-old health and physical education standards, which outline when students should be taught about such topics as sexual orientation, gender identity, and anatomy. Republicans insisted that the guidelines be repealed while Democrats said the concerns were blown out of proportion and were at odds with the facts.

The narrative that our New Jersey public schools are teaching young children inappropriate content flat out is not true, Malinowski tweeted in April. Republicans are using rhetoric that plays on parents fears to drum up votes.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has sought to make an issue out of Malinowskis comments.

Tom Malinowskis anti-parent tirade started a culture war in NJ-07 and hes just upset that New Jersey parents heard what he really thinks about them, spokeswoman Samantha Bullock said.

And the Tea Party Express cited the issue in endorsing Kean on Thursday.

While Governor Phil Murphy and his big-government pals are determined to force a radical liberal curriculum onto children and indoctrinate them with leftist propaganda, Tom Kean has been one of New Jerseys strongest advocates for parental rights and has used his position to fight on behalf of all New Jersey parents and their children, said Sal Russo, the groups co-founder and chief strategist.

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant.

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Textbook publishers must ignore GOPs divisive politics of censorship, N.J. Democrats say - NJ.com

T

he subtitle to the controversial film The Lady of Heaven is the untold story and it looks as though its going to remain untold, at least in Britain, now that Cineworld has pulled the film out of concern for the safety of its staff. The latest outbreak of censorship is in Stratford, where a crowd is protesting outside the Vue cinema, demanding to speak to the manager.

So here we go again. Shades of Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses, which I still havent got round to reading, and the French cartoons of Muhammad.

Both occasioned deaths on the part of those involved; Rushdie spent years in hiding, translators of the book were murdered. Same with the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who depicted Muhammad offensively.

The stakes arent so high now. The protesters in Bradford the new City of Culture are merely declaring we have a right not to be insulted. And in the case of Stratford, theyre claiming that the film is not just blasphemous but also offensive to the BAME community. But it was fears for the safety of staff that led the cinema chain to pull the film. The thing is, the film, by all accounts, is rubbish.

It featured at Cannes, where they are more robust about these things, and got two stars from The Guardian, whose review notes its suffocating sense of orthodoxy. The New York Times review notes the shoddy script and an overwhelming reliance on clich.

It depicts the daughter of Muhammad veiled, focusing on her husband, Ali. It was written very much from a Muslim perspective. A sane response to the film would be to let it sink without trace.

There are two obvious points here. One is that we should be sensitive to the religious feelings of others. I am a Catholic and I have yet to bring myself to watch that undoubted comic masterpiece The Life of Brian, though I can quote from it with the best.

But where we should be troubled is in the effective censorship of even bad films because of the threat of violence. Its not just bad art that is affected; as the historian Tom Holland makes clear, even rational academic investigation into the origin stories of Islam are circumscribed at every turn.

It is dangerous to make truthful observations about the life of Muhammad. The Lady of Heaven is a bad film but it raises important questions of principle about our ability in a free society to discuss Islam.

The film will probably do terrifically well on streaming. The irony.

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These film protests are worryingly effective censorship - Evening Standard

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Social media sensation Libs of TikTok was locked out of its Twitter account on Wednesday for a tweet about kids at drag shows that was deemed to be "abuse and harassment."

Only after losing an appeal and deleting the offending tweet was Libs of TikTok allowed to tweet again. "Twitter thinks its abuse to document drag shows. I think its abuse for drag shows to be taking place in front of kids," Libs of TikTok wrote in an update on their Substack about the ordeal, which included the news that the tweet was banned in Germany.

On Wednesday night Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon reported, "BREAKING: Twitter just locked out @libsoftiktok for posting a thread about several recent drag shows for kids. The thread allegedly violates Twitter's rules against abuse and harassment. You know what's actually abusive? Drag shows for kids."

According to screenshots, the specific tweet flagged by Twitter read, "~MEGA DRAG THREAD~ They say its innocent. They say its just about inclusion and acceptance. They say no one is trying to confuse, corrupt, or sexualize kids. They lie." It was originally posted on May 30.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST: GUNS HARM CHILDREN MORE THAN CHILD PORNAGRAPHY, SO LETS RESTRICT THEM

The Libs of TikTok account, which shares videos of left-wing individuals openly expressing their social and political views, was locked out of Twitter. (Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"You can promote drag shows for kids on Twitter. That's fine. You can even share videos of yourself performing in them. The only thing you can't do is criticize them," Dillon tweeted. "Somehow the feelings of a few drag queens matter more to Twitter than the corruption of a generation of children."

In an update on Thursday morning, Dillon also announced that Twitter denied Libs of TikToks appeal to overturn the violation.

"Twitter has denied Libs of TikTok's appeal," Dillon tweeted with an image reading that Twitter determined "a violation did take place" of their "rules against abusive behavior" with the tweet.

Libs of TikTok tweeted later on Thursday afternoon, confirming that the account was reopened. The offending tweet has been replaced with the message "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules. Learn more."

"Im back! Apparently posting videos and flyers of drag events is abusive but the actual events are just innocent family friendly entertainment," the accounted tweeted.

Dillon previously reported shortly after Libs of TikToks original tweet in May that the account was banned from participating in Twitter ads, though the notification did not specify the reason.

Twitter app displayed on an iPhone screen in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

SCHOOLS, ORGANIZATIONS CELEBRATE PRIDE MONTH WITH DRAG SHOWS FOR MINORS

"Libs of TikTok has been banned from running ads on Twitter. A notification of ineligibility was sent out that failed to offer a specific reason," Dillon tweeted at the time.

In May, Libs of TikTok was also suspended from Instagram over the claim that the account violated the platforms Community Guidelines but it was not specified how. Instagram later restored the account over twelve hours later claiming that Libs of TikTok was "disabled by mistake."

The Libs of TikTok account usually shares videos of left-wing individuals openly expressing their social and political views on social media. It has been suspended from Twitter twice so far, once only hours it had been reinstated.

The TikTok logo is seen on an iPhone. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Both Twitter and Dillon did not immediately respond to Fox News requests for comments.

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The recent moves by Twitter follow years of conservative users complaining that social media is attempting to censor their views. Dillons own company Babylon Bee was locked out its Twitter account back in March.

Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.

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Twitter censors Libs of TikTok, labels their tweets showing kids at drag shows 'abuse and harassment' - Fox News

Margaret Atwood tried burning the new, fireproof version of her novelThe Handmaid's Talewith a flamethrower. Courtesy Rethink / Penguin Random House

First released in 1985, Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid's Tale is a longtime bestseller and a longtime object of censorship. The futuristic, dystopian novel about patriarchy run wild has long been one of the United States most-banned booksfodder for those who would censor or even burn its searing words.

Now, Atwood has partnered up with her publisher, Penguin Random House, to create a version of the book thats impossible to ignite anything other than heated debate. Its fireproof.

On Thursday, auction house Sothebys sold the unburnable book for $130,000. Proceeds will go to PEN America to support its advocacy for free expression and fight against book banning.

According to the group, The Handmaids Tale is a favorite scapegoat for those who would forbid books, and is often targeted for its sexual and health-related content.

The Handmaid's Tale has been banned many timessometimes by whole countries, such as Portugal and Spain in the days of Salazar and the Francoists, sometimes by school boards, sometimes by libraries, the Canadian author said in a statement.

In its recent report Banned in the USA, PEN documents 1,586 cases of a variety of reported book bans in the United States in 2021, spanning 26 states and 86 school districts. According to the report, a disproportionate number of bans target stories about people of color or LGBTQ+ people.

Out of all the bans listed, 98 percent deviated from reconsideration guidelines recommended by the American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship, per PEN.

It is not just the number of books removed that is disturbing, but the processesor lack thereofthrough which such removals are being carried out that is cause for alarm, the group writes. The state with the greatest amount of book bans last year was Texas, with 713 prohibited books per the report, followed by Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma. In 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott requested school boards to discard books he referred to as "pornography," Sharif Paget and Nicole Chavez report for CNN.

Though Atwoods novel has often faced bans itself, the group says its symbolic of an entire modern-day movement to stifle literary expression.

In the face of a determined effort to censor and silence, this unburnable book is an emblem of our collective resolve to protect books, stories and ideas from those who fear and revile them, PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel said in a statement.

The Handmaids Tale debuted to mixed reviews. But over the years, it has become a classic, touted by some as a frighteningly prescient prediction about the trajectory of American society. It depicts life in the Republic of Gilead, the repressive, totalitarian religious state that replaced the U.S. in a fictitious future, putting men in charge and relegating women to lives of subservience as sexually subjugated handmaids.

The books main character, wrote author Mary McCarthy in a 1986 review in the New York Times, has an unwillingness to stick her neck out, and perhaps we are meant to conclude that such unwillingness, multiplied, may be fatal to a free society. Since its publication, the book has been translated into over 40 languages, per a 2017 essay by Atwood in the Times.

Although it might look like an ordinary 384-page book, the fireproof edition is mostly made from Cinefoil, a specially treated aluminum foil, and contains other products such as fire-resistant inks and nickel wire. The technologywhich protects the book even when heated to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheitwas designed by the creative agency Rethink and the graphic arts studio The Gas Company, Inc.

The 82-year-old author has published her works in more than 45 countries and has written over 50 books. Now, The Handmaids Tale is an award-winning TV series that can be streamed on Hulu.

In her 2017 essay in the Times, Atwood wrote that she is often asked if her bleak book is a prediction about where American society is headed. Lets say its an antiprediction: If this future can be described in detail, maybe it wont happen, she wrote. But such wishful thinking cannot be depended on either.

I stopped writing [the novel] several times, because I considered it too far-fetched," she wrote for theAtlanticlast month.Silly me. Theocratic dictatorships do not lie only in the distant past: There are a number of them on the planet today. What is to prevent the United States from becoming one of them?

In a launch video presenting the fireproof book, Atwood tries and fails to burn a prototype with a flamethrower. And she is just as evasive about the future of literary censorship.

Let's hope we don't reach the stage of wholesale book burnings, as in Fahrenheit 451, Atwood said in a statement referencing the classic Ray Bradbury novel. But if we do, let's hope some books will prove unburnablethat they will travel underground, as prohibited books did in the Soviet Union.

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Margaret Atwood Triedand Failedto Burn a Copy of 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Here's Why - Smithsonian Magazine

A record number of books have been banned or challenged in the U.S. in the last year, part of a push by conservatives torein in discussionof issues that some find distasteful. Now, author Margaret Atwood is responding to the rise in censorship by auctioning a fireproof edition of her novel "The Handmaid's Tale," which ranks among the most frequently banned books in the U.S.

In a video posted onSotheby's sitefor "The Unburnable Book," Atwood is shown with a flamethrower as she takes aim at the edition, which is printed on pages made from heat-resistantCinefoil, sewn together with nickel wire. The flames lick at the book, but the pages remain intact.

"I never thought I'd be trying to burn one of my own books ... and failing," Atwood said in a statement.

The edition is "designed to protect this vital story and stand as a powerful symbol against censorship," the auction site notes.

The auction, which places the expected sale range at $50,000 $100,000, will direct all proceeds to PEN America, a group that advocates for free expression and that plans to use the money to support those efforts. "The Handmaid's Tale," first published in 1985, is a dystopian vision of a future America where women are stripped of their rights and live under a theocracy that prizes them strictly for their reproductive abilities.

Interest in "The Handmaid's Tale" has increased amid a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that, if finalized, would pave the way for states to severely curtail abortion rights in the U.S. The prospect Roe v. Wade being overturned has sparked observations about the book's prescience and relevance to modern events.

"The Handmaid's Tale" has been among the most challenged publications in America, with the American Library Association (ALA) noting that it has been targeted for "vulgarity and sexual overtones."

Efforts to ban books have surged in the past year, with the ALA finding there were a record 729 challenges to more than almost 1,600 titles in 2021, double the number in 2020.

Atwood said in the statement that her book has been banned "by whole countries, as Portugal and Spain in the days of Salazar and the Francoists, sometimes by school boards, sometimes by libraries." She also expressed hope that society doesn't get to the point of "wholesale book burnings, as in 'Fahrenheit 451'," referring to the Ray Bradbury classic.

More recently, Barnes & Noble has faced pressure from a Virginia lawmaker and a congressional candidate to restrict sales of two books deemed "obscene" to minors without parental consent. The candidate, Tommy Altman, said he is running for Congress to protect freedom, including the right to free speech. One of the books the pair is aiming to restrict is the most challenged book of 2021, the memoir "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe.

"To see [Atwood's] classic novel about the dangers of oppression reborn in this innovative, unburnable edition is a timely reminder of what's at stake in the battle against censorship," Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement.

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Fireproof "Handmaid's Tale" edition is up for auction: A "symbol against censorship" - CBS News

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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative nonprofit is launching a new ad campaign targeting Big Tech over online censorship.

Common Sense Leadership Fund (CSLF), a conservative nonprofit, launched the new seven-figure ad buy on Monday, railing against two pieces of legislation making their way through Congress.

CSLF president Kevin McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the "last thing we need is the federal government codifying into law Big Techs ability to silence anyone they happen to disagree with politically."

NEW CONSERVATIVE GROUP TARGETS HASSAN, KELLY OVER DEMOCRATS $3.5 TRILLION SPENDING PUSH

Two bills targeted in the ad campaign are the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act. (istock)

The ad, first obtained by Fox News Digital and titled "Big Brother," focuses on the loopholes in two bills, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act and Open App Markets Act, that loosely uses the word "safety."

One provision in the American Innovation and Choice Online Act creates a legal defense for tech companies potential censorship if the measure they implement is to "protect safety, user privacy, the security of non-public data, or the security of the covered platform."

A similar "digital safety" provision also exists in the Open App Markets Act.

"Dont have the right opinion? Censored!" the ad says. "Are your facts an inconvenient truth? Banned!"

"No, its not big brother. Its Twitter. Facebook. YouTube. Apple," the voice-over continues. "They do it behind closed doors and answer to no one."

CSLFs ad warns that the two bills "would enshrine their censorship power in federal law" and that "Big Tech needs tough regulation not more rules that allow them to control your online speech."

"Tell Congress to reject Senate Bill 2922 and 2710 or you might be next," the ad concludes.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to the media after a Democratic policy luncheon, Oct. 19, 2021, on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Conservative commentators warn that the bills would harm U.S. businesses by radically altering antitrust laws and changing ecommerce itself.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he wants to bring the American Innovation and Choice Online Act up by early summer.

Schumers move to bring the measure up for a vote comes the week after President Bidens disinformation board bit the dust.

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Conservative nonprofit launches ad campaign targeting bills over Big Tech censorship - Fox News

People like the murderer in the Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store will always find justification to be evil losers. He would have found some excuse even if no one had ever suspected that government is trying, for political purposes, to dilute the culture with those who dont share it.

The way to fight such ideas is to openly discuss them, not censorship. If you choose to censor ideas, Ill think you have no argument against them.

They will also always find something to use as a weapon, even if the anti-gun bigots ever manage to ban the type of weapon this one chose.

The effective way to defend from evil losers isnt with lone armed guards or with an armed class of enforcers, but with a universally armed population ready to stop any such attack in its tracks. An armed guard is too easy to notice and target, but when nearly everyone around you is ready to stop any attack, the cost of committing one is raised back to where it belongs.

Even so, the armed guard at the store gave his life to delay the evil loser and give more people the chance to escape. He saved lives.

There will always be evil people, and some percentage of those will decide to try to kill people who arent harming them in any way -- even if they must hallucinate that they are being harmed. You wont stop them by making everyone else helpless or by forbidding ideas that could inspire them to attack.

It might also help if government would stop actively radicalizing them with its actions and policies.

While government is constitutionally prohibited from regulating immigration, it is also not permitted to import people from other countries. Not that government stays within what it is allowed to do. Theres a difference between something happening naturally and government forcing something to happen. The latter is more intrusive.

Maybe government hopes more of these attacks will occur. They always seem to happen right before some anti-gun legislation is under consideration -- Im sure its only a coincidence. This attack -- apparently spurred by ideas a weak mind encountered online -- also happened, coincidentally, in the midst of a fight over censorship. Its all rather convenient, is it not?

Either way, I will not accept blame and be legislatively punished for things other people -- people I dont support in any way -- do. Will you?

Farwells Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

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Censorship not the answer to evil - Quay County Sun

In yet another ill-planned publicity stunt by a democratic elected official, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot who did not step in to help Chicago Public Library workers during the pandemic posted a photo of herself reading a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird in Houstons Brazos Bookstore.

Behind her are several other books that have seen book challenges or outright bans in the last year, including Melissa (formerly George), Lets Talk About Love, Go With the Flow, and more. Right-wing media seized this opportunity to call hypocrisy, much as they did when Californias Governor Newsom posed with a pile of banned books. Though he held Beloved, the media focused again on the carefully-placed copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, noting that Lees classic has been banned in several blue states.

Both publicity stunts did a good job once again confusing the public about the difference between a book ban and a curriculum update. While To Kill a Mockingbird has indeed been challenged and banned, the qualifier that its been banned in blue states is a conscious effort by right-wing banners to suggest that a book by a white woman about racism being replaced by books by Black authors who experience the true effects of racism is revoking free speech and freedom to read. As much as there is to dig into this willful misrepresentation, the real issue worth addressing here is how many public figures in speaking out against book bans refuse to engage with the issues of sex and gender (and indeed, race as well).

Among the most banned books in the past year are those which highlight sex, sexuality, and gender. PEN Americas report on book bans in US schools shows that queer characters and topics of sexuality are two of the biggest reasons a book is banned, falling right after books with protagonists of color. These categories, of course, overlap significantly, as seen through the books the American Library Association identified as the most challenged in 2021.

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It is far too easy and clean to highlight the importance of classics like To Kill a Mockingbird in your advocacy, whether youre a public official or not. Its hard for the average person, who likely read the book in their own school years, to not be outraged about a beloved book being pulled, whether or not Lees book is actually the target of book bans.

Moreover, by focusing on a classic like Lees, were avoiding having vital and life-saving conversations about sex and sexuality. In an era where entire states seek to erase the human experience through legislation like Dont Say Gay in Florida and where educators and students are told that their rights dont exist and their jobs are on the line for simply being who they are, ignoring sex, sexuality, and gender is a major oversight.

Because its not just Critical Race Theory and Social Emotional Learning that the right sees as the enemy. Comprehensive Sex Education (CSL) is the third in their triangle of targets. By pushing for the continued removal of comprehensive sex education in schools which has led to the uptick of books like Its Perfectly Normal being splashed across censorship groups with images of an individual with a mirror looking at her vulva and anus as she seeks to understand all of the parts of her biological body the thought is there will be no discussions of sex, gender, or sexuality anywhere but in the home. This means an education that not only may have an agenda but may be factually incorrect, damaging, and create life-long harm and fear around pleasure.

CSL is the scientifically-backed alternative to combating issues that emerge with abstinence-only education. CSL has been linked to reductions in sexual activity, risky sexual activities, sexually transmitted infections, and adolescent pregnancy (this information is from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, an authority on sexual behavior and health, among other things). Three decades of research, when analyzed by professionals in the Journal of Adolescent Health, show CSL and its focus on a broad range of sexual and gender related education had major benefits for adolescents and that it should be broadly adapted in educational systems.

Grooming has been the word du jour from the right. Groups like Moms For Liberty find passages in titles like Gender Queer and pull them out of context in order to prove their ill-founded theories that public education is indoctrinating children. In the top 10 books challenged in 2021, Gender Queer was named because of a couple of brief moments where there is a dream sequence by a legal adult wherein Maia fantasizes about their first experience having queer sex. It is developmentally appropriate and it is representative of what queer individuals can experience the first time they dare allow themselves to think with desire something that is chemically created and controlled in our bodies and brains.

In Out of Darkness, there is an anal sex scene. This scene isnt about pleasure. Its about how the main character, a Mexican American, is reduced to objectification. It is embedded in the storys setting, its time frame, and its understanding of how brown bodies are seen as tools to be used by an oppressor. This happened. This happens.

Beloved? A depiction of brutal rape.

Both Out of Darkness and Beloved describe sexual crimes, both of which go uncharged in the text because they happen to marginalized bodies. Crimes that, were they to happen to white bodies, would be seen differently by these right-wing groups (debatably, of course if these crimes were done by Nice White Boys With Futures On The Line, theyd likely still be challenged).

Beyond Magenta and This Book Is Gay celebrate queer identities and allow queer voices to be seen and heard. They speak to the fact gender and sexuality are complex and are life-long processes of understanding and breaking apart socially-created norms and structures. The self-same structures, of course, that right-wing censors seek to uphold through legislation based on selective reading of the Bible.

Lawn Boy? Sex happens in the book between two kids and it happens to a young boy who grows up thinking about what that experience meant for his sense of self through adolescence and early adulthood. The main character is working class and this sexual encounter at age 10 impacts the way he looks at and approaches the world, much as it would any individual with similar life stories.

All Boys Arent Blue? Sex, gender, and sexuality. Johnsons memoir his true, lived experiences includes discussion of sexual assault, explored further in the authors followup memoir..which, interestingly, has not seen the same assault by censors.

Lees book about a white savior offers none of the above. Theres no author of color, and theres certainly not sex, sexuality, or gender to discuss. While the trail in the book is about rape, there is zero depiction of the realities of rape in the book. It is easier to accept rape conceptually as bad, but books that put it on the page and explore the long-lasting impact of an unwanted sex act, particularly as it relates to dehumanizing a non-cis, straight, white body, show why its bad.

We need to be talking about the sex parts and the gender parts of the books being challenged. Those with the platforms to do good work against book bannings need to be versed not just in the easy-to-reach-for classics but the harder books. The books that hold up a mirror and a window to readers in todays society. The books that, for young readers, offer insight into who they are and what the world around them really looks like. You can ban discussions of LGBTQ people in the classroom but that doesnt stop LGBTQ individuals from being inside those same rooms. It simply puts yet another barrier into their lives.

American culture is a prude culture. Were afraid to talk about the messy and complex stuff. We refuse to engage with accurate terminology for human anatomy and human chemistry. It is much easier to accept violence on a mass scale as just the cost of being a person in the US than it is to accept that a child might be queer and deserves to read about people like them. That indeed, they may see a picture of sex between two individuals with the same body parts depicted in a book meant to be for sexual education yet somehow, its perceived as okay to lie to children about the stork bringing a baby, rather than explain that a baby is created when an egg and a sperm meet.

Until more people are willing to talk about the sex stuff, were not going to be moving this conversation forward. Well continue to cling to puritanical ideals and fail to put an end to book bans and intellectual freedom.

Especially if when a leader does highlight a book with sex in it, theyre suddenly disappeared from their job for weeks.

For more ways to take action against censorship, use this toolkit forhow to fight book bans and challenges, as well as this guide toidentifying fake news. Then learn how and why you may want touse FOIA to uncover book challenges.

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You Need To Talk About The Sex Parts in Banned Books: Book Censorship News, May 20, 2022 - Book Riot