Censorship

Canadian musician says broadcast rules forced redaction of lyrics on dissent and policing

Changes to Canadian broadcasting rules have raised concerns among musicians and free-expression advocates, as artists report being unable to advertise their work unless certain lyrics are altered or removed.

On a recent episode of Liberty Talk with Odessa Orlewicz, Canadian musician Jayme Knyx said he was told that his songs could not be promoted with original lyrics that referenced political dissent and social issues. One example came from his track Freedom’s Call, which originally included the line “The chains of power silence our voice.”

(Incognito)

Unrelated

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Criminalizing Dissent", Censorship, Censorship in Canada

Five things we can’t post about thanks to the Online Safety Act

From grooming gangs to men’s fashion, literally any topic of discussion can now be censored.

A week has passed since the Online Safety Act’s age-verification rules came into effect, turning vast swathes of the internet dark for users based in the UK. Although the bill was sold as a necessary measure to protect children from pornography, it is not just ‘adult’ content that has suddenly been restricted.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Censorship, UK

The EU wants to censor the global internet

Brussels and Washington are once again at odds over Europe’s sweeping social-media restrictions, contained within the 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA). In a letter sent earlier this month, the EU’s vice-president for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, rejected claims made by Donald Trump’s team that the DSA is a tool for censorship. She insisted that the law ‘does not regulate speech’ and that the EU remains ‘deeply committed to protecting and promoting free speech’.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCensorship, European Union, WTF?

Free speech group challenges teacher’s list of banned words: ‘Ohio,’ ‘sigma,’ ‘chat,’ ‘meow’

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has contacted officials at an Iowa school to inform them that a social studies teacher’s list of “banned words” doesn’t pass constitutional muster.

The list, created by a seventh grade teacher at Fremont-Mills Middle and Senior HS, includes terms such as “pimp,” “womp womp,” “Ohio,” “sigma,” “chat,” and “meow.”

Violation of the word ban “automatically results in a thirty-minute detention” for which the teacher already has disciplined “at least ten students,” FIRE notes.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inBatshit Crazy Teachers, Censorship

Canadian Doctor Fights for Free Speech at Supreme Court Over Covid Censorship

A Canadian doctor who was censored for discussing Covid topics during the pandemic is taking her legal battle to the country’s Supreme Court, in a bid to have free speech restrictions imposed on her finally removed.

Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill made the decision after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled to uphold three “cautions” she received for tweets opposing what she considered to be harmful Covid lockdowns, published in August 2020.

These cautions were issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) in February 2021. The state’s medical regulator in 2020 warned medical professionals that the opinions they express should be in line with whatever the government or public health institutions decide is the correct information.

That included lockdowns, which Gill openly criticized early on, and continues to believe were ineffective in dealing with the pandemic. Besides her opinion, Gill also offered what her legal counsel says is “ample evidence” to CPSO to support her stance on the ineffectiveness of lockdowns.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inCanada, Censorship

Microsoft Promotes Media Literacy as ‘Inoculation’ Against ‘Disinformation’

Microsoft has staked a claim in the growing field of “media literacy” and “digital literacy,” which aims to instruct members of the public – especially schoolchildren – in what types of digital media they ought to trust and distrust. As FFO has previously reported, media and digital literacy is the latest in a long string of pretexts by the ideologically biased censorship industry to prevent the public from accessing disfavored information sources.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inBig Tech, Censorship, Child Abuse, Indoctrination

Ottawa’s pointless and confusing ‘definition’ of antisemitism

The NDP is facing serious criticism for disavowing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The occasion was the release, by the Department of Canadian Heritage, of a 40-page “Canadian Handbook” laying out how the definition should be applied (could be applied? Must be? It’s unclear) in this country.

The major issue is an evergreen one: whether and in what circumstances criticism of Israel or of Zionism should be considered antisemitic. That relates most specifically to the following example of antisemitism included in the IHRA definition: “Applying double standards by requiring of (Israel) a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

Canada has been down this road before with Section 13. Speech restrictions quickly become weaponized. We do not need to repeat that miserable experience.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCensorship

Australia’s ‘eSafety’ chief wants to censor the whole world

‘Is it time to cut “Big Tech” down to size?’, asked the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship-current affairs programme, Q&A, earlier this week. The focus, as you probably will have guessed, was Elon Musk’s X, known for its more laissez-faire attitude to content moderation than the other tech giants. The answer, from the predictably unbalanced panel, was a clear and resounding ‘yes’.

I believe BCF remains banned in Oz to this day.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Censorship

Can Elon Musk beat the EU censors?

Brussels’ war on ‘disinformation’ and ‘hate speech’ is an affront to free speech and democracy.

Elon Musk, the eccentric billionaire and owner of X, has lifted the lid on the EU’s war on free speech.

Musk has accused the European Commission – the unelected body that rules over the European Union – of offering X an ‘illegal secret deal’. According to Musk, if he agreed to censor content – and keep quiet about it – regulators in Brussels would turn a blind eye to all of X’s alleged breaches of EU rules and regulations.

He claims that all the other Big Tech firms have agreed to these terms. The likes of Facebook and Google, Musk alleges, have become willing tools of censorship.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCensorship, Censorship on Social Media

Elon Musk Prepares for Legal Battle Against EU After ‘Secret’ Censorship Deal

The European Commission and Twitter/X billionaire Elon Musk look like they are once again on a collision course this week, after the billionaire CEO took to the platform to condemn an “illegal secret deal”—where social media companies were allegedly pressured to censor political opinions online.

This is not the first time the tech mogul has gone to war with Brussels bigwigs. His online outburst came after the European Commission charged Twitter with empowering the spread of so-called misinformation under the terms of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which fines companies 6% of their annual income for non-compliance.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCensorship

Controversial Online Streaming Act delayed to late 2025

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has delayed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s controversial move to amend the Broadcasting Act until late 2025.

Bill C-11: The Online Streaming Act, initially scheduled for implementation in 2024, would require media giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify to promote Canadian content and contribute financially to its production.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Censorship

Peter Menzies: New Online Harms Act Gives Appointed Commissioners Too Much Power

Canada has launched legislation reining in social media and reducing its citizens’ freedom to express themselves online.

And while supporters of the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) believe tighter control of speech and images by government is necessary to make platforms such as X and Facebook “safer,” it’s unclear if that will be the case.

This is totalitarian.

h/t CZ

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Censorship