Russian Internet users, apparently manipulated by the Kremlin, began conspicuously surfacing online after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. These paid “trolls” work all day to flood online articles and social media with praises towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and condemnation of the West.
As Malaysia moves closer to becoming a strict Islamic country, young Muslims escape their suffocating reality with the help of “pulp fiction” from pop-up bookstores in Kuala Lumpur.
Heroes of the Storm, developed by Blizzard Entertainment, is a multiplayer online battle arena game that is set to be released June 2, 2015, but questions have been raised as to why the developer is censoring one of the characters in the game.
Carmageddon: Reincarnation, developed by Stainless Games, was released on Thursday, May 21. Reincarnation is the fourth iteration in a series that has been banned internationally. It can be purchased on Steam for $29.99.
The Ukrainian government is under fire after President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill that bans all Communism and Nazi symbols. He also signed a law that honors and recognizes militias that worked with the Germans in World War II. The United States Holocaust Museum lashed out at the decision.
The Kremlin will stop at nothing to fully control all forms of media in Russia. The latest step included threats to Google, Facebook, and Twitter from Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor.
A New York City theatre event intended to address censorship of arts and culture has been reinstated, after critically acclaimed screenwriter and filmmaker Neil LaBute agreed to scrap a performance that was deemed potentially offensive to Muslims.
Kanye West’s Sunday night Billboard Music Awards performance left many viewers wondering if their TVs were broken, but that was not the case.
While a national debate regarding religious satire and the First Amendment remains ongoing, a group of free speech advocates and artists hoped to become a part of the discussion next month.
A new poll from the Levada Center think tank shows that 59% of Russians believe America is a real threat to the sovereignty of Russia. The results come after a friendly meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) released a statement to encourage Somali authorities to do more to protect journalists, who face extraordinary danger in practicing their craft. They claim freedom of expression is under fire in the country due to numerous attacks on journalists.
Twitter has come under fire from its users after installing mandatory content filters that cannot be switched off. The new system censors the newsfeeds of users without their consent, causing messages from followers and strangers alike to be automatically hidden
Queen’s University in Belfast has cancelled a symposium on Charlie Hebdo and free speech because of the security risk and concern for the university’s reputation. One of the main topics of discussion, which was titled “Understanding Charlie: New perspectives on
FIFA President Sepp Blatter told the world via Twitter that he just met with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He claims the tournament will “build bridges.”
Syndicated columnist George Will told the inaugural “Disinvitation Dinner” of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale that “93 members of the California legislature have never had sex.” Will was referring to the fact that 93 legislators in the California Senate and Assembly voted to pass last year’s SB 967, the so-called “yes means yes” or affirmative consent law, which requires students at state-funded colleges to obtain permission from each other for every stage of sexual contact.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media watchdog group, has updated a “personal data” law to allow for the government to regulate and ban memes using the likenesses of public personalities, including President Vladimir Putin.
China Central Television (CCTV) suspended popular host Bi Fujian after a video surfaced that showed him insulting Mao Zedong. The station announced they will investigate the incident and Fujian recently apologized.
Turkish officials resumed the crackdowns on free speech after a court fined the country’s opposition leader for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Students who are currently at the University of Michigan will have to deal with the fallout (in every sense of the word) from Barack Obama’s train-wreck Middle East policy. The future does not belong to those who turn to Paddington Bear instead of Chris Kyle.
Last week, terrorists from a Marxist gang in Turkey called the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party–Front took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Istanbul courthouse and shot him dead. In response to a widely-circulated photograph of Kiraz shortly before his death, the Turkish government banned social media giants Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
A full quarter of Russian respondents to a poll by state-run pollster VTsIOM answered that jokes about President Vladimir Putin should be off-limits to comedians. 79 percent said religious jokes are inappropriate, with more than half answering the same for war and terrorism.
(Reuters) – The news websites of Reuters, including those in English and Chinese, were inaccessible in China on Friday, after users first experienced difficulties accessing them late on Thursday.
That bit about suppressing content based on complaints from various governments is where the business of content restriction gets stuck, especially when it comes to “hate speech.”
The Russian propaganda machine is desperate to discredit Ukraine and will use anyone to achieve its goal. The latest victim is ex-porn star Sasha Grey, whose obituary was posted on Russian social media sites. The Ukrainian army, the post claimed, kidnapped, raped, and butchered her in revenge for her work nursing wounded pro-Russian soldiers.
Not one day after we announced the First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest, an event featuring Muhammad cartoonist Lars Vilks in Copenhagen, Denmark was attacked in the continuing war on our most basic freedoms. And that was just the first of two assaults on freedom in Copenhagen on Saturday.
