Category Archives: Transhuman News

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a bill on Tuesday that sought to limit perceived censorship by social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Senate Bill 228, which narrowly passed during this years legislative general session, would have required social media companies to provide clear information about the social corporations moderation practices and created an opportunity for a Utah account holder to appeal certain moderation practices that the social media corporation employs on a Utah account holders account or post, according to a summary of the bill.

What this does is it deals with free speech. I think our free speech rights have been infringed by some large tech folks and I think thats a problem, Republican Spanish Fork Sen. Mike McKell, the bills sponsor, told lawmakers on March 1. And I think what weve got is a good bill to create a process to create transparency; thats what this bill does.

In a press release, the governors office said Cox had vetoed the bill, his first veto since taking office in January, due to technical issues with the legislation and after speaking with legislative leadership.

The press release noted that censorship by tech companies is a serious concern and that the veto will not hinder nor prevent Utah from finding the right policy solution.

The sponsors of this bill have raised valid questions about the impact social media platforms can have on public discourse and debate, Cox said. Our country continues to grapple with very real and novel issues around freedom of speech, the rights of private companies and the toxic divisiveness caused by these new forms of connection, information and communication. While I have serious concerns about the bill, I appreciate the willingness of the bills sponsors to continue to seek a better solution.

Lawmakers considered the bill following cries at the national level of liberal bias among social media company executives and censorship of conservative posts and accounts.

Not very many things infuriate me more than to see blatant censorship, especially when its one-sided, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, told his colleagues on Feb. 26 while speaking in support of the bill. And I can cite 10 examples from the last six months.

But other state lawmakers said the bill raised questions of constitutionality, including Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, who said he had real concerns and believed social media platforms should be able to make the same editorial judgments as newspapers, TV stations and other forms of media.

They make that decision, Davis said. And these (social) media companies are no different, I dont believe, than our general media is.

Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the bill is completely unenforceable and has no parameters.

I dont understand how this is actually going to work, said Riebe. So unless we can enforce something, I really dont think we should be passing laws.

S.B. 228 passed 21-6 in the Senate on March 1 and 39-35 in the House on March 4.

In the press release, McKell said he intends to open a new bill on May 5 to address the censorship issues.

Censorship practices are un-American and likely unconstitutional, he said. In Utah, we defend the right to freely express opinions and views, regardless of political or religious affiliation.

The Spanish Fork senator continued, The outcome of S.B. 228 is not ideal; however, the issue of free speech and online censorship remains a priority and policy will continue to be refined throughout the interim.

Connor Richards covers government, the environment and south Utah County for the Daily Herald. He can be reached at crichards@heraldextra.com and 801-344-2599.

Read more:
Utah governor vetoes bill limiting perceived social media censorship - Daily Herald

Three recently censored artworks again raise questions over COVID-fuelled racism, and the flipside, social media bullying and the lack of civil conversations where needed.

Luke Cornish (aka e.l.k.) is no stranger to censorship and public backlash to his art practice.

You might recall in September 2019, Cornishs high profile mural located along Bondi Beachs boardwalk was vandalised. It took a hardline against Australias Border Force policies and the resulting suicides in detention facilities a topic Cornish felt need greater community conversation.

Read: Luke Cornish on censorship, commercialism and street art

Cornish has again faced attacks this past week, and has became the centre of yet another national media storm. This time is over touted claims of #covidracism.

Three artworks from Cornishs exhibition of near 30 pieces, currently showing at a Canberra gallery, have been removed as a response to hundreds of angered social media posts and emails claiming the works were racist.

It would seem the title of the exhibition Dont shoot the messenger had become prophesy.

Cornish told ArtsHub: The whole crux of this exhibition is to call out the abuse of power; it targets all governments and all religions.

I think I inadvertently offended a group of young organised [Chinese] students I can understand why, I have to say I was nave to racism that COVID has bought with it, that is why I agreed that piece had to be taken down, he explained.

The piece called out was made on RMB Chinese currency depicting China's founding Communist leader Mao Zedong as Batman.

However, a further two pieces were also removed by the gallery RMB with Mao as Winnie the Pooh, and the third taking a stab at a facial recognition scan.

The gallery was getting hammered on social media, Cornish said. They did what they thought was right. They have been very supportive of my work over the past ten years, so I am really sad for any damage that has been done there.

Cornish said the Batman work was an attempt to point out the stupidity of conspiracy theories around coronavirus origins, but I can [now] see why the Asian community might have read it within the hate movement that has happened since the pandemic, he told ArtsHub.

The exhibition titled Dont shoot the messenger also uses riot shields, throwing knives and cutthroat razors as well as the paper currency from dozens of different countries as canvases for igniting conversations about violence, citizen protests en masse and media cycles.

The overall theme of the exhibition is injustice and protest, and people rising up against injustice globally, Cornish says on the gallerys website.

He continued to ArtsHub: The global climate in general is all about protest and war but I am not politically motivated. Cornish was clear in describing himself as an activist.

My whole arts practice is about the freedom of speech As I said to you in our earlier conversation, I need the freedom to make mistakes in my work.

Read: On Art, Activism and Empathy: George Gittoes and Luke Cornish

A coordinated attack

Cornish believes the social media campaign was a coordinated attack.

It felt like a targeted attack the hate mail all came in within a few hours it was definitely organised, said Cornish. They didnt try to speak to me [first]; they just wanted to shut down the conversation.

He described the attack as form of mental bullying, adding that the artwork has been completely taken out of context.

Cornish said the last couple of weeks have been a blur, but says the wave has started to die down.

Im starting to see trends it reminds me of what happened with Bondi first comes the hate, then comes the support ,and then comes the media knocking on the door.

The first week was just hate mail and social media, and then it turned around and come back as support and went viral in Hong Kong, and I just heard it is now in Brazil.

The exhibition includes activist artworks around the Hong Kong and Venezuela mass protests, and marches held for the Black Lives Matter movement around the world as well as issues closer to home like the Religious Discrimination Bill proposed by the Morrison government, and the greed and influence of the mining industry.

While located within the Australian National University (ANU) precinct, the gallery is independent.

Dont shoot the messenger at aMBUSH gallery, 12 March 11 April.

See the rest here:
Luke Cornish on the recent censorship of his work and COVID racism - ArtsHub

Given all we know about the way culture moves in this century, it should have surprised no one that the various stock characters of the Looney Tunes universe were ever going to make it 2021 without some complaints and some changes.

Well note that The Federalist was a year early to the idea of subjecting Looney Tunes to the cancel culture microscope. And now mainstream culture has justified their paranoia. With HBO Max running a new series of cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the rest, and a Space Jam sequel on deck, the inevitable grumbling about comedy that hasnt aged well turned into a full-blown shouting match after a New York Times Op-Ed piece by Charles Blow (which is mostly about the Dr. Seuss book discontinuation issue) mentioned problems with Speedy Gonzales and PepLe Pew.

The Internet, as it does, took that outrage ball and ran with it. Now, these two characters are under fire for cultural stereotyping. One of them will not be appearing in the upcoming Space Jam sequel: PepLe Pew, the one who is very rapey.

Furthermore, people have called out Le Pew as an obvious French Lothario stereotype, which turns out to be even more complicated: in France, they changed Le Pews ethnicity to Italian, as Tim Soret points out on Twitter. Because portraying Italian lovers as gropey and horny is better, somehow? Not surprisingly, because its Twitter, the skunk has his defenders who are presumably all right with persistent sexual harassment as long is its between non-human cartoon characters.

On the matter of Pepeand Speedy, I decided to try to remember on my own, without 2021 hindsight, what I thought of these characters growing up.

With absolute certainty I can tell you that Pepe Le Pew always seemed skeevy to me, a sexually depraved Wile E. Coyote who needed chemical castration. Did I know what chemical castration was as a six- or seven-year-old in front of the TV? No. Had someone explained it to me in great detail, would I have supported doing that to the cartoon skunk? Im confident my child-self would have.

Im proud to say I didnt need nearly 40 more years to figure that one out. In the #MeToo era, Le Pew has no business in any new animated properties unless they are underground, unsanctioned, and X-Rated, something like, Pepe Le Pubis in Pussy Purgatory. Something classy like that.

Speedy Gonzales presents a whole other set of issues, which start with the fact that in the Looney Tunes cartoons, hes not a lecherous villain/pursuer like Le Pew, hes a wily and smart hero, more along the lines of Bugs Bunny. Hes tiny and fast and clever even as hes throwing around extremely outdated Spanglish phrases that seem cringey now.

But to Latino/Hispanic/Mexican kids like me growing up, Speedy was one of the only representations we had on television at the time, let alone in an animated world we actually wanted to watch.

I know Im not the only Latino kid who grew up crying, Arriba,arriba! ndale, ndale! as I tore around the house in my Underoos, waving an imaginary sombrero. We loved the character because he was a hero, an undermouse. His brown mouse skin and diminutive stature spoke to us little kids who either had Mexican accents, or who had many family members with accents. Im not alone. He was the only Mexican in Hollywood I knew who never lostwell, him and Cheech and Chong, wrote Gustavo Arellano in the Los Angeles Times. A lot of us still revere the mouse

Yes, Speedy is a running, hopping stereotype, but so are Yosemite Sam (angry white NRA member), Elmer Fudd (impotent white NRA member), Foghorn Leghorn (southern lawyer?), Tasmanian Devil (Australian rugby player?), Porky Pig (long-suffering stutterer), Marvin the Martian (stereotypical space alien).

It gave me great hope when Gabriel Iglesias, who is voicing Speedy in the new Space Jam, didnt just tuck his mouse tail between his legs and apologize.

Like many Latinos, Iglesias feels strongly for Speedy. Iglesias, who has made a great career as a stand-up comic and TV sitcom star, has always smartly walked the line between using Latino stereotypes for comic hay, and smartly subverting those stereotypes by being smarter, harder-working, and more prolific than nearly anyone in comedy. Im more than happy to let Iglesias, who has a much closer connection to Speedy than any of us, speak for me: U cant catch me cancel culture. Im the fastest mouse in all of Mexico.

Visit link:
Looney Tunes Escapes the Censor's Axe...So Far - Book and Film Globe