Category Archives: Transhuman News

In the early 80s, a loophole in film classification laws allowed a series of so-called video nasties think low-budget horror and exploitation offerings like Blood Feast and The Burning to hit the market without any sort of regulation. The response to these films was swift and expected: public panic, supposed moral outrage, and eventually heightened censorship and regulation. Such is the world of Censor, a gory and clever horror feature about, well, horror films. Sort of.

Per the films official synopsis: Film censor Enid takes pride in her meticulous work, guarding unsuspecting audiences from the deleterious effects of watching the gore-filled decapitations and eye gougings she pores over. Her sense of duty to protect is amplified by guilt over her inability to recall details of the long-ago disappearance of her sister, recently declared dead in absentia. When Enid is assigned to review a disturbing film from the archive that echoes her hazy childhood memories, she begins to unravel how this eerie work might be tied to her past.

Censor stars Niamh Algar as the censor of the title, Enid, and was directed by Prano Bailey-Bond in her feature debut (she also wrote the film alongside Anthony Fletcher). The film debuted at this years Sundance Film Festival, where IndieWires Eric Kohn called it a disturbing debut steeped in 80s horror.

In his review, Kohn wrote:The movie unfolds with elegant atmospheric dread, as Enid contends with a brutal, male-dominated work environment in which her opinions rarely hold weight. When a lunatic murders his family in a manner based off one of the movies she was forced with cutting down, the world turns against her. Thats when she sees a particularly unnerving exploitation movie called Dont Go in the Church, with an opening slasher bit featuring an actress that bears an unmistakable resemblance to Enids missing sibling. At least, thats what Enid thinks, as she journeys down a rabbit hole of theories and detective work that may or may not hold together.

Magnet Releasing will release Censor in theaters on June 11, with a VOD rollout to follow on June 18. Check out the first U.S. trailer and poster for the film, available exclusively on IndieWire, below.

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Read more from the original source:
Censor Trailer: Video Nasties and Real-Life Horror Meld Together in Disturbing Sundance Chiller - IndieWire

For a lot of the songs across this album, it explores love from many different angles. Did making the album teach you anything about love, how you love, how you approach love?

I think it definitely made me sort of Im a lot more aware of my own role in a relationship now. And that might just be a result of growing up and kind of not thinking that everything bad that happens to you is, its someone else and putting the blame on others which is not something I do and not something I want to do. But sometimes people have the tendency to not look within before they start judging others. Im really looking at myself on a few of these songs and kind of thats also what Ive just been doing so much this past year. Is just looking in at myself and just being, Wait, what? What did I do here? And what could I have said differently here and how can I make it up to this person? Or how can I let this person know what I feel? And kind of just being like Thinking a lot more about communication which is so key in all of our relationships, really. So I feel like thats something Ive sort of been thinking about this past year when it comes to love and just

Are you a person who communicates better through their art than in conversation?

I would say so, because I dont know. Its definitely easier writing a song. Writing a song is like talking to yourself really. As long as youre okay with saying it to yourself, its not that hard to put it out on paper either or into your notes. Its definitely easier for me to write songs instead of communicating in real life. Im aware of that and thats something I want to get better at. I want to be like, Hey, you know what? What you said there that actually made me feel really shitty, instead of going home and being left with a weird feeling and then writing about it three months later.

And sort of on that tip, has keeping a diary helped you as a musician?

Yes. I would say so. It wasnt necessarily about a feeling, but I read a diary entry from 2014 the other day and I kind of go back to it sometimes where Im like, I want to be I was 15, 16, whatever. I want to make music. I havent been making any music recently. I feel like Ive lost my ability. And I was like, Oh my God. This is 15 year old, 16 year old Marie saying the shit Im feeling right now. And I was like So even though it wasnt anything related to a love entry or anything that, but it was just really great to see that I was struggling with feeling like Im never going to write a good song again at that age. And then Ive written several albums worth of music after that and that its going to be okay and that I just got to keep making stuff. So in a way I would say a diary entry has actually helped me as a musician.

When you look back at the music that youve released under your birth name, what is some of the key differences that you hear in it, between that work and your work as girl in red?

I would say the key difference is that this music really sounds like what I want it to sound like. And this music is straight out from my head and not someone elses. The music that was under my real name, I didnt know what producing was at that point. Even when I was in the studio with the studio guy, I didnt know that his role was a producer. And I didnt know that word. And I was just like, You glued the song together. I was so beyond a rabbit hole of not knowing anything. I would just say that the biggest difference is that this is truly how I want my music to sound and its coming from me because Im a producer now and I have abilities that I didnt have. I feel like thats the biggest difference other than the fact that its Norwegian and really bad.

So have you listened to some of your older girl in red songs recently? And if so, how do you feel about them now that youre going to release your first album?

I have. I actually checked out a few ones very briefly. But I still love them, but Im also like, Whoa, this sounds different. Ive gotten so much better. And that really so Im actually I get this really cool boost when I listen to them because Im like, Ive just been working so hard to get better and Im getting better and thats really inspiring. Even though sometimes I kind of lose track of that, Im actually progressing. Im actually getting better. And I listen to my old stuff and I was like, This sounds like mud. This sounds like I love this, but it also sounds like the mix is so off. The bass tone is literally Its the wrong key. Its dissonance. But its so raw and its so straight from my heart. So you can still feel how much I met everything and I just think thats really cool.

I also read that you really like film scores and of course the final track on your album is this beautiful instrumental piece. I was wondering if you had any favorite film scores and what kinds of movies you would like to score.

Thank you by the way. I also kind of look at that as a film score. And I think it sounds really peaceful. I dont Trying to I dont really have a favorite film score that comes to mind, but I always know when I really I always really appreciate it, but Im not a film score geek. But I want to score a movie maybe at some point in my life. Maybe not all by myself, but with someone. I feel like that would be great. To be in a studio with someone and kind of compose something together for a movie would be so cool. I dont even know what movie, but probably some indie movie thats shot on film, that just feels really A movie that would be really important to me as a teenager, I want to score one of those movies so that I can have something to say in a young persons adolescence and make the soundtrack to a movie that changed their life. That would be really cool.

So have you started thinking at all about how you want your next record to sound?

Yes, actually I have. And Im kind of in the middle of making that right now and figuring that out. Yes. I got to be productive. I have the weird opportunity now to not go on tour, but then to make more music. I kind of want to make the most out of that opportunity. I want to get cracking. Im going to the studio very soon. In three weeks, Im going back to the studio and Im going to be working on an idea that Ive been producing and writing on. So Im definitely trying to figure out what I want my second album to sound like.

Was writing an album something that you always wanted to do from when you started playing music? Because for a while, at least as girl in red it seemed like you were content to just put out singles and EPs.

That is something Ive always wanted. I saw this TikTok the other day that showed you how you could read your old Instagram bios. So I went to one of my first Instagrams. And I was in my bio, it was 16 and then music emoji. And then, Im making an album, music emoji. So when I was 16 years old, thats six years ago. So that was 16. And I was already, then, I was like, Im making an album. Obviously I wasnt because I did not know what it took at that point. I was just like, Im making many songs that is equals making album, which is not the same. But I think in some ways that is something Ive always wanted to do. I just think that the reason I was putting out so many songs was because I was kind of I had figured out that I could make songs and produce songs.

And that was such a big wow moment for me. So I wanted to sort of explore that a little bit before I wanted And sort of learn what it meant for me as a musician and kind of who am I as a musician and what role do I have? So I wanted to really take that time to figure it out. And I feel like if I wouldve made an album earlier, it wouldnt be If I Can Make It Go Quiet, it would, it would be something completely different and it would be rushed. And I also dont want to rush music.

I think thats a good point to talk a little about the album title, If I Could Make It Go Quiet. What does that album title mean to you in the context of the record?

In the context of the record, it means that theres so much shit going on in my head and I want to make it all go away, kind of. Its all about the mental noise thats so loud and it takes up all your mind space and it sort of sits in your chest and its everywhere. And its that loud feeling of wanting to make it all sort of go away and wanting to make it go quiet and wanting to just be happy and in a quiet place, kind of. Its a metaphor. So the quiet, the noise is everything thats not okay, kind of. And the world is a lot. So I just wanted to lower that shit.

And does making music help you do that?

Ironically, yes. Making music makes me really happy and it allows me to have a lot of other noise in my head instead of my thoughts that are incredibly annoying sometimes. So I would definitely say that making music makes other stuff go quiet.

Ive also read in a couple of interviews from you that world domination is the end goal. So in your mind, how is the world changed after girl in red has dominated it?

Thats a good question. Oh my God. I honestly dont even know. I should know this. I would just say that a lot of people are happy. People are being filled with great music. That is world domination. People are listening to music and they are connecting through music. I feel like that would be awesome.

Okay, great. I think well leave it there. Thanks for joining us, girl in red.

Thank you for talking to me. I hope you have a good day.

See more here:
girl in red on writers block, self-censorship, and going cinematic - The FADER

Editor,

Judging from the May 18 letters to the editor in this publication, I must have gored a sacred cow. That all but one letter and the cartoon referenced The Big Lie as the truth and anyone who questions the official findings is a radical insurrectionist says more about their ideology than mine.

First, let me commend the editors of the News-Times for being true to their header. If more of your readers would read it, they might understand the power of honest discussion to find truth than bowing to some preconceived script.

I have always been a skeptic of mail-in voting and extended voting times. If I trusted that all people were honest, there would be no question that we had honest results, but having lived on this planet for over 70 years, I know that a few of my fellow humans cant be trusted. Lyndon Johnson was noted for delivering enough late votes in Texas to give his partys candidate a win.

This state has a history of holding recounts on close elections until the results are what the power brokers want. Dishonest? Perhaps. Provable? Probably not. But it does point to problems in trust.

That Democrats oppose in- person voting, valid IDs, and want ballot harvesting makes me cringe. And if studies are correct, mail-in voting actually decreases participation. Strange way to instill trust in the electorate.

This is, of course, my opinion and if that upsets you, I suggest you look to the bottom of the published letter and if it is from me, dont read it.

I promise I wont be offended, and I wont tell the editors not to publish yours.

Fred Wilferth

Coupeville

See the original post here:
Letter: You don't have to agree, but don't call for censorship - Whidbey News-Times

CensorScreenshot: Magnolia Pictures

Between the Satanic panic and the rise of video nasties, the 1980s were a boon for anti-horror movie sentiments. As a result, horror movies seemingly became even more depraved, sadistic, and violent. Unsurprisingly, this period, when many of todays most prominent horror directors came of age, has become the setting du jour for science fiction and horror movies inspired by David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, and John Carpenter. And thats precisely the kind of vibe that the trailer for Censor is going for.

Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, in her first feature, Censor follows a meticulous film censor named Enid (Niamh Algar) whos grip on reality loosens when her missing sister is declared dead. Unable to discern her childhood memories from a new film shes watching for work, Enid breaks down in what appears to be a frenzy of violence and gore.

The trailer recalls many of the aforementioned directors work, particularly Cronenbergs Videodrome and the red-tinged Giallo photography of Argentos Suspiria (the music in the trailer even sounds like Goblin). Theres a lot of this type of thing going around right now, from the work of Panos Cosmatos to the more family-friendly world of Stranger Things. Though, this falls squarely in the latter. Obviously, if thats your thing, youre going to want to soak up every ounce of blood this trailer has to offer. If not, you might want to cover your eyes because this thing is creepy.

Censor tears its way into theaters on June 11 and video-on-demand on June 18.

Continued here:
The Censor trailer is here to remind us that horror movies are bad for our mental health - The A.V. Club

Almost as fast as social media posts about Israel and Gaza began multiplying, so too did complaints of censorship from both sides. Posts were identified as hate speech and taken down; influencers insisted that they had been shadow-banned a term for when a users posts are left up but the algorithm does not show them to users noting lower than usual views on posts about Israel, East Jerusalem or Gaza. There have been allegations of censorship on both sides of the political spectrum, but the issue appears to be more systemic and well-documented among those posting pro-Palestinian content.

This is not just a conspiracy theory.

Last week, Instagram posted an apology to Twitter explaining that a glitch had led to Instagram stories not posting or archived stories disappearing, resulting in reports of silencing from those advocating around events in both East Jerusalem and Colombia, where anti-government protests have resulted in bloody clashes with the police.

This is a widespread global technical issue not related to any particular topic, Instagrams communications team said in a statement on Twitter. Another, longer statement posted the next day specifically named East Jerusalem in its apology, reasserting that Instagram had no intention of suppressing voices reporting from there.

Meanwhile, Instagram was also automatically hiding or removing posts tagged with al-Aqsa, in both English and Arabic. The tag refers to the Aqsa mosque compound, Islams third-holiest site, in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and was the site of intense conflict between the Israeli police and Muslim worshippers at the onset of the current escalation.

Instagram had flagged alaqsa as associated with violence or a terrorist association. The tag was being used during the end of Ramadan as violence erupted between Israeli police and Palestinians at the holy site, and many trying to draw attention to the violence found their posts blocked right as Israeli police stormed the grounds with rubber bullets and stun grenades, injuring 220 Palestinians.

By iStock

The tagging issue has since been resolved, thanks to employees flagging it internally, and Facebook has apologized; an internal post obtained by Buzzfeed News said that the posts were flagged because al-Aqsa is also the name of an organization sanctioned by the United States government. Both issues disproportionately impacted Palestinian posts, blocking posts in the tens of thousands.

Israeli voices have also complained of censorship, though to date there are no reports of a systemic rule with as broad an impact as the al-Aqsa issue. The writer Hen Mazzig had an infographic defending Israel removed, though it was later reinstated; Mazzigs post had been in response to a viral anti-Israel infographic that was not censored.

Another account, @the.israel.files has also posted complaints about censorship and removed posts, while several lifestyle influencers who posted pro-Israel content saw a dropoff in views, suggesting that they had been shadowbanned for posting pro-Israel content.

This week, the Israeli Defense Forces complained that one of its tweets warning of a rocket alert was not allowed to post. But as its own screenshot suggested, the tweet was likely blocked because Twitter does not allow identical posts within a short period of time.

Users across other social media platforms, including Twitter and TikTok, voiced similar complaints. Rest of World, a global nonprofit news outlet, reported that Venmo was flagging and delaying payments listed to Palestinian emergency relief fund, but payments listed with similar pro-Palestinian phrases such as Free Palestine or Palestinian Fund were processed without delay.

A Venmo spokesperson said the issues were OFAC related, referring to regulations from the U.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control, which has a list of groups and organizations under U.S. sanctions, including any groups suspected of being controlled by Hamas.

Moderation during rapidly unfolding events is a nightmare for tech platforms, which find themselves the arbiters of complex questions about what counts as misinformation, hate speech or incitement during a situation in which the truth is often unclear and events are quickly changing.

News outlets across the world reported that Israeli troops had invaded Gaza late Thursday, for example, based on an inaccurate statement an IDF spokesman made to international journalists. Some analysts believe the mistake, which took more than two hours for the IDF to correct, was intentional, part of a ploy to lure Hamas fighters into underground tunnels that Israel was targeting with airstrikes and artillery.

Posts showing violence are limited, unless they are deemed to be educational or to raise awareness about a world event. Yet Palestinians report that their posts have been taken down for being too violent, and further they havecomplained of Western standards being applied to other regions and language norms where they do not make sense.

Also tricky is the question of what counts as hate speech.

Whether anti-Zionism is equivalent to antisemitism has been hotly debated throughout the Jewish community; those who believe anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic have demanded that anti-Zionist posts be removed for hate speech, while those who believe criticism of the state of Israel is not inherently antisemitic criticize platforms discrimination if anti-Zionist posts are removed. The fact that anti-Zionism is sometimes, though not always, paired with overt antisemitism, such as using the terms Zionists and Jews interchangeably, does not help clarify the situation.

Facebooks definition of hate speech states: We define hate speech as a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease. We define attacks as violent or dehumanising speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation.

The definition also includes some protections for characteristics such as occupation, when theyre referenced along with a protected characteristic such as ethnicity or religion.

By iStock

While the definition goes into detailed examples, it is nearly impossible to identify and list every potential form of hate.

In a global event in which many protected characteristics, such as ethnicity, national origin and religion, are all the subject of discourse, it is difficult to fairly moderate conversation from users, many of whom are deeply upset and prone to vitriolic statements.

Other forbidden statements include voicing a desire to segregate or exclude a group, which also crops up in discussions about the situation in Israel and the West Bank, which often includes opinions on where borders should be drawn that would limit the movements of Palestinians or Israeli Jews.

In all of these cases, the line between controversial opinion and misinformation or hate speech is hard to determine. In a situation as loaded as that in Israel, Gaza and Jerusalem, many feel the other sides opinion is objectively misleading or hateful, flagging posts and accounts they disagree with an issue the Forwards own comments section struggles with.

Most platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, increasingly use technology and algorithms to moderate hate speech and incitement.

Facebook, which shares a moderation team with Instagram, updated their technology to help identify new forms of inflammatory speech, according to a report from May 2020. The company told the Forward that improving and increasing the use of algorithms in the moderation process helps ensure that reviewers will spend more of their time reviewing truly borderline cases.

Facebook also partners with local experts and organizations to help contextualize issues, and told the Forward that the company has over 35,000 people working on safety and security, including 15,000 content reviewers.

The company said that the team consists of native language speakers who understand local cultural context and nuances; they also said their policies are extremely prescriptive to help ensure objectivity.

When breaking news events change a situation, content is often escalated to a Risk and Response team that is better qualified to make tough calls, according to a report from Vice. In this case, Facebook said it has established a Special Operations Center, staffed by experts from across the company, including native Arabic and Hebrew speakers.

Yet any reliance on algorithms to flag and remove posts means human nuance can get lost. Even human moderators reviewing individual posts often need to be deeply embedded in a particular communitys language and discourse to have a hope of effectively understanding the weight of different terms or accusations.

These questions are relevant for any outlet platforming or taking part in any public discussion of world events, including news outlets. But while such outlets have journalists focused on the details of a breaking story, social media content moderators are often from third party firms sitting in call centers trying to follow bullet-point guidelines issued to them. While experts may make the guidelines, it is an army of individuals adjudicating individual instances. They are seeing revenge porn and animal cruelty alongside posts about Israel or Gaza, and they often lack cultural or political context to apply during the 30 seconds they spend on each post, according to an investigation by The Verge.

Given the volume of posts on social media each day, it is hard to imagine a better system for moderation. But its just as clear that this one is flawed.

Read the original post:
Have social media giants been censoring posts about Israel and Gaza? - Forward

The National Coalition Against Censorship and six co-signors have sent a letter to the Broward County Public Schools Board of Education objecting to the pause in teaching Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes after a complaint was lodged by local law enforcement.

Ghost Boystells the story of a bullied, 12-year-old Black boy who is killed by a police officer while playing with a toy gun and watches from beyond the grave as his family and community unravel. The story blends historical characters, including Emmett Till, with current events.

According to reports, the book was being taught by a veteran teacher when a parent who is affiliated with law enforcement complained to the local police union about the political views ostensibly expressed by the book. The police union then complained to the Board, and the teacher who was teaching the book was ordered to pause teaching it until parents were informed about the nature of the book and were given the opportunity to have their children opt out of reading it.

As the letter explains, this raises serious First Amendment concerns. The District does not appear to require parental notification for all books. By singling out Ghost Boys for special scrutiny because of its supposed position on police practice, the District has engaged in viewpoint discrimination, which almost always violates the First Amendment. Moreover, singling out a certain type of content necessarily gives a biased perspective, casts a negative light on the book regardless of its literary worth, and needlessly stokes alarm among parents.

Literature is not social science; it is not taught as objective truth. Rather, the purpose of literature is to evoke empathy with a variety of human experiences. Characters in a book can often espouse points of view that some, or even most, people disagree with. Whether or not a parent, teacher or student agrees with views expressed in a book should not determine whether all students are able to learn from that book.

In addition to returning the book to the classroom, NCAC is urging Broward County Public Schools to adopt an instructional materials challenge policy, as many other school districts have in place. Such a policy would, ideally, create a process for managing book challenges that avoids viewpoint discrimination.

Read the full letter to the school district below. Click here for a full screen view:

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NCAC Objects to Removal of Ghost Boys from Broward County School in Florida - Blogging Censorship

S. Kyle Johnson, Guest Columnist Published 11:23 a.m. CT May 19, 2021 | Updated 2:51 p.m. CT May 19, 2021

It is both hilarious and disturbing that the language of Tennessee's critical race theory ban bill would effectively bar the discussion of many Christian ideas from classrooms.

I am writing to express my shock and horror at the reprehensible attacks on Christianity in my home state of Tennessee.

I feel compelled as a scholar of Christian theology, and a native of Chattanooga, to condemn this terrifying threat to religious freedom.

I am, of course, writing about House Bill 580, which pertains to so-called critical race theory.

This education bill identifies and bans the teaching of several ideas that legislators have referred to as critical race theory.

The bill does not mention or define critical race theory. Since I am sure that the wise leaders of Tennessee would not legislate about something which they did not understand, I am forced to reach a conclusion from the descriptions that they give: Critical race theory must be an antagonistic code word for Christianity.

I am, of course, being somewhat tongue-in-cheek. But it is both hilarious, and disturbing, that the language of House Bill 580 would effectively ban the discussion of many Christian ideas from classrooms.

Among the notions that the bill identifies and condemns is the following: An individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex."

S. Kyle Johnson(Photo: Submitted)

For most of Christian history, most Western Christians have maintained that all humans are guilty of the sin of Adam. Popular contemporary Protestant preacher, John Piper, puts it this way: The problem with the human race is Adam whose sin became our sin and whose judgment became our judgment.

The language of Bill 580 undercuts the Christian doctrine of original sin, which is the idea that thehumanrace is responsible for actions committed in the past by others of its own "race."

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Obviously, House Bill 580 means race in the sense more common in American discourse, that of a particular group of humans. But, of course, the law must be precise. This bill could theoretically be used to ban the teaching of this Christian doctrine.

Perhaps the leaders of Tennessee have somehow secretly joined the ranks of the liberal anti-religious forces, about which they often fear-monger? Or, perhaps, they are simply ignorant?

The religious right often insists loudly on so-called "traditional family values" and the freedom to practice and promote such ideas. It is ironic, then, that the bill's language would also restrict and condemns these views.

Conservative Christians have often taught that the notion of original sin has particular connotations for the sexes, based upon certain Biblical passages. Along these lines is also the idea that men and women have unique, particular "character traits."

Genesis 3, for example, places distinct curses upon Adam and Eve and all of their descendants: Arduous labor for men, painful childbirth for women.

In I Timothy 2:12 (according to conservative interpretations), the Apostle Paul rejects the idea that women can preach in church, claiming that women are uniquely prone to temptation and are responsible for Eve's sin. This suggests that people are responsible for the sins of their same-sex ancestors, and prone to certain behaviors on account of their sex. Discussion of these ideas is clearly rejected by the bill's language about the immutable "character traits" of those of the same group (i.e., sex), or the idea of corporate responsibility.

Do the conservative legislators of Tennessee really hope to ban discussion of the Bible and the traditional Christian perspectives they and their constituents so loudly trumpet?

This is, of course, unlikely. The only other conclusion is that they clearly have no idea what they are doing.

I compel my home state of Tennessee to squash House Bill 580and to reject these leaders and their foolish and humorously self-defeating attempts to regulate education.

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S. Kyle Johnson is a Ph.D. candidate in and scholar of systematic theology at Boston College. He is a native of Chattanooga.

Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2021/05/19/how-critical-race-theory-ban-could-lead-censoring-christianity-too/5165403001/

See original here:
Critical race theory ban in Tennessee could lead to censoring Christianity too | Opinion - The Tennessean

The next time someone tells you campus censorship is a myth, made up by right-wing tabloids and leapt upon by a Tory government keen to wage a culture war against the left, tell them to Google Lisa Keogh.

Keogh is a 29-year-old law student at Abertay University in Dundee. She is currently being investigated by the university for the crime of saying that women have vaginas and men are stronger than women. For all the naysaying on the left, campus censorship is now apparently so extensive that stating widely accepted facts is a risky business.

As the Times reports, Keogh is facing disciplinary action over offensive and discriminatory comments that she made during lectures and seminars. These include saying that women are born with female genitalia and that the difference in physical strength of men versus women is a fact. Such heresies upset her younger classmates, who complained to the university.

Keogh also claims she was muted during a seminar for suggesting that trans women, given their physical advantages, shouldnt be able to compete against women in mixed martial arts. I made the point that this woman had testosterone in her body for 32 years and, as such, would be genetically stronger than your average woman, she said. I wasnt being mean, transphobic or offensive. I was stating a basic biological fact. She also objected to other students suggesting that all men are rapists.

When Keogh was informed that she was under investigation, she thought it was a joke: I thought there was no way that the university would pursue me for utilising my legal right to freedom of speech. But that is precisely what is happening. Abertays definition of misconduct includes using offensive language, and the ultimate punishment is expulsion. Students have been expelled at other universities for the crime of expressing their opinions. Felix Ngole, a Christian social-work student at Sheffield, was thrown off his course in 2016 for saying on Facebook that homosexuality is a sin.

There are no bigger pariahs on campus today than women who dare to believe in biological sex. Selina Todd, a trans-sceptical academic at Oxford, had to be given a security detail last year. Rosa Freedman, a professor at the university of Reading, found her office door covered in urine after she criticised proposed changes to gender-identification laws. And Jo Phoenix, a professor of criminology at the Open University, was no-platformed at Essex university in 2019. She was due to give a talk about the issues around putting trans women in womens prisons.

We can only hope that common sense will prevail in Lisa Keoghs case. Joanna Cherry, SNP MP for Edinburgh South West and deputy chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, has written to Abertay demanding to know what steps are being taken to protect students rights. Surely, expelling a young women for the crime of saying that biological sex is real is a PR blunder beyond even the wokest of university administrators. But, then again, common sense went out of fashion on campus a long time ago.

Read more from the original source:
Lisa Keogh and the myth of campus censorship - Spectator.co.uk

Social media users who have reported shadow banning and AI restrictions of Palestinian content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram have found an ingenious way to elude these censorial algorithms. In recent days, an increasing number of Arabic-speaking users online have been reverting to at least a thousand-year-old version of the language, which eliminates all dots (diacritics) from the modern alphabet.

As recently revealed by BuzzFeed News, Instagram has removed posts and blocked hashtags related to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islams holiest sites, because it was deemed as a terrorist organization by the companys moderation system. When trying to share footage of the Israeli raid on the mosque earlier this month, Instagram users said that their posts were restricted from view or removed entirely. Facebook, which owns Instagram, called the removals enforcement errors in response to complaints by dismayed employees. However, Israeli officials haveannouncedthat the country works closely with Facebook to monitor and remove inflammatory content (from Israels perspective) on the platform.

Diacritical points (dots above or below letters) were introduced to the Arabic script between the 8th-11th century, as the Islamic Empire grew in size. The practice is believed to have been borrowed from the Syriac script for clarity and more accurate pronunciation of consonants.

In an article on the independent Egyptian news website Mada Masr, written in the dotless Arabic script, activist Muhammad Hamameh describes how he came up with the idea, saying that he had previously considered using Morse code or replacing some letters with symbols.

Its not a new idea, Hamameh wrote. The original Arabic script did not know pointing and Diacritics until decades after the passing of the prophet Mohammad.

Its an easy technique, even for handwriting, Hamameh continued. We draw our letters, so we can simply ignore adding the points. But its much more challenging to the AI machine, which has a [binary] code for each letter.

Those who are interested in converting Arabic text to the dotless script can do so on the website http://www.dotless.app. But how long will it take before Facebooks programmers develop an algorithm to identify the ancient script?

Of course, it is only a matter of time before the automated systems also understand dotless Arabic script, an article on the website Arabic for Nerds says. But there are many other possibilities, the article suggests. Dialects in non-uniform transcription, for example, are still difficult for computers.

Fun fact: the word Algorithm itself originates from Arabic, named after the 9th-century mathematician Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa, who was more commonly known as al-Khwarizmi.

More:
People Are Using an Ancient Method of Writing Arabic to Combat AI Censors - Hyperallergic

Herman Mashaba's party, Action SA, has released a billboard with names and faces of various political party leaders with labels such as criminal, crook and fraud next to their names. He said that the refusal by media houses to flight the billboard amounted to censorship.

A screenshot of Action SA's election billboard.

JOHANNESBURG - The election season has not reached fever pitch yet, but the new kid on the block, Action SA, is already crying foul.

Herman Mashabas political project accused media houses on Tuesday of refusing to flight an election campaignbillboard in which leaders of various parties were labelled as anarchists, criminal and divisive among others.

Mashaba said through a statement that the refusal to flight their campaign amounted to censorship.

The aim of the billboard was not to target the individuals featured on our billboard, but rather to expose a political system that results in the selection of compromised candidates by political parties to serve in some of the highest public offices in the land.

"This system serves political parties instead of serving the people of South Africa. Despite the right to the freedom of speech entrenched in our Constitution, no less than six media owners refused to flight the billboard for fear of political reprisal, vandalism or defamation, Mashaba said in a statement.

The controversial billboard features Democratic Alliance (DA) chairperson Helen Zille and Solly Msimanga, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema, and from the African National Congress (ANC), Mashabas party targeted suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, Zandile Gumede, Geoff Makhubo and Bathabile Dlamini.

Meanwhile, political parties representing the named leaders in the Action SA billboard were contacted for comment. Eyewitness News received only one, saying that "commenting would give it traction."

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Continued here:
Action SA's Mashaba slams media houses over 'censorship' of election billboard - Eyewitness News