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Quietube Provides a Portal for Censored Vids in the Middle East

by Matthew Zuras (RSS feed) — Nov 8th 2009 at 11:30AM


Back in March, James Bridle designed a bookmarklet called Quietube, a script that allows users to "watch web videos without the comments and crap." As a minimalist reversal of the hyper-glut that is YouTube, Quietube is a welcome departure from all the typical sidebar claptrap that we've grown to accept.

But Bridle has recently observed that Quietube, as an external proxy for viewing video, has an unexpected function: the ability to play material that may be otherwise censored on the host site by restrictive governments. Bridle wrote on his blog, "So it turns out, I think I accidentally created a YouTube proxy being used by tens of thousands of people in the Middle East." He noted that nearly 65-percent of his traffic in one week originated from Saudi Arabia, with Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt following in the top ten. The top videos were both religious and secular in nature, but the inbound links originated from private emails, suggesting that the videos were being shared by individuals.

After this summer's tumultuous Iranian presidential election, we saw the necessity of spreading information online, as images and accounts of the bloody protests in Tehran were transmitted via Twitter -- one of the few sites not blocked by the incumbent regime. We're not suggesting that Quietube will necessarily be the epicenter of the next Middle Eastern (attempted) revolution, but the point is that such a basic script allows thousands, if not millions, of people to join in information sharing. Bridle, who says that his script is easy enough for others to reproduce, remarks on his blog, "Information does indeed want to be free." [From: Book Two, via Clusterflock]

Tags: bookmarklet, censorship, middle east, MiddleEast, quietube, top, youtube

Cell Phones, Editor's Picks, iPhone, Mobile Software, Mobile Phones

9 Banned Apps You'll Never See on the iPhone

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Nov 6th 2009 at 12:45PM

There's no denying the runaway success of Apple's App Store: to date, iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded some 2 billion applications from its ever-expanding library of 100,000. But there's also no escaping the rumblings of discontent from many consumers and developers who feel that Apple is unfairly acting as judge, jury, and executioner by censoring apps and exiling them from the App Store.

Much of the consternation stems from the fact that Apple has never published hard and fast guidelines for what determines whether an app will be allowed through Apple's gatekeepers. To make matters worse for frustrated developers, Apple frequently contradicts itself in its judgments. So, say, while porn stars are free to peddle T and A to consenting adults, e-book packages that include the "Kama Sutra" are apparently too risqué for Apple. In the hopes of discovering a method to this maddening process, we've looked at nine high-profile iPhone apps that were found guilty of transgressing Apple's (unwritten) approval terms, and weigh in on the fairness of Apple's judgment and the likelihood an app will have it overturned on appeal in the future.

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Tags: apple, appstore, banned, bans, censorship, features, top

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Web, Social Networking

Facebook Porn Police Clean Up 'Butt, Crack, Nipple' Content

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — May 5th 2009 at 6:38PM

With Facebook's meteoric rise in membership and popularity, the site has been forced to not only tinker with its Terms of Service, but to also address salacious, insulting and otherwise inappropriate messages and pictures. People over the age of 30 have been flocking to the site, and, in order to appeal to this contingent as well as the original audience of college students, administrators are trying to maintain the fun spirit of the site while keeping content inoffensive. To help achieve this goal, Facebook employs 150 "cleaners" whose primary responsibilities involve removing flagged, offensive material.

Newsweek recently spoke with David Axten, one such "porn cop" who enforces "the Fully Exposed Butt Rule, the Crack Rule and the Nipple Rule," as he judged 75 flagged pictures out of the 438,848 waiting to be inspected. David Kirkpatrick, author of the upcoming book 'The Facebook Effect' believes such enforcers play a vital role in Facebook's success because similar networking sites, like MySpace, were "essentially shanghaied by pornography and sexual displays."

While we agree that such steps may be necessary for Facebook to appeal to more sponsors and to a wider audience, the crackdown will likely result in a significant drop in the shady photo-related arrests and firings we do so love to cover. Oh well, it was a fun ride. [From: Newsweek]

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Tags: censorship, facebook, facebook face loss, facebook terms of service, FacebookFaceLoss, FacebookTermsOfService, porn, sex, social networking, SocialNetworking, top

Web, Social Networking

Facebook Rejects Lesbian Film Ad

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Apr 27th 2009 at 9:18PM

Facebook Rejects Lesbian Film Ad
We're not gonna deny that the advertisement to the right would certainly be described as "sexy," but it's hardly lewd or inappropriate. So why exactly did Facebook reject this ad for 'And Then Came Lola,' a film targeted at a lesbian audience?

Filmmaker Ellen Seidler told SheWired.com that Facebook sent her a rejection notice saying the image was "either irrelevant or inappropriate." The letter went on to spell out that, "Images that are overly explicit, provocative, or that reveal too much skin are not allowed. Images that may either degrade or idealize any health condition or body type are also not allowed."

Do you think this ad is too racy for Facebook?



However, a quick perusal of ads on Facebook (which users can mark as inappropriate themselves if they are offended) show plenty of images of women and men in far less clothing, covered in blood, or in a (straight) lover's embrace. It would appear that, while certainly playful and suggestive, what really has the Facebook ad approvers worried is that the image is of three lesbians.

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Tags: ad, ads, advertisement, advertising, and then came lola, AndThenCameLola, censorship, controversey, facebook, gay, lesbian, top

Cell Phones, Video Games, iPod, iPhone, Mobile Software

No More Boobs or Booty on Apple's App Store

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Jan 28th 2009 at 6:02PM


Apple's App Store was meant to appease would-be iPhone developers who were angry about the company's restrictive lock-down of the handset. Through the App Store, developers can get their applications running, but many are still frustrated by the company's draconian censorship rules, rules that forced developer John Atherton not to change his app, but to change his advertising.

We've covered App Store censorship before, asin the case of David Carnoy's book that had to be edited before going live. Similarly, Atherton was required to edit the advertising for his 'Wobble' application. The app allows users to make any section of a photo jiggle when the iPhone itself is shaken. You can imagine for yourself the intended application, but the advertising video included above, as well as the text advertising the app, left no doubt. Apple required Atherton to remove any reference to "boobs" or "booty" in the advertisement. That's unfortunate as far as free speech goes, but a small price for Atherton to pay in order to keep his app in the Japanese App Store's top spot. [From: TechCrunch]

Related Links:

Tags: app store, apple app store, AppleAppStore, AppStore, censorship, iphone, wobble

Computers

Facebook Lactivists Take Protests to the Street Over Breastfeeding Pictures

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Dec 30th 2008 at 9:30AM

Facebook Lactivists Take Protests to the Street
Last year we wrote about some online discontent about Facebook's content policies. The site was deleting some pictures of women breastfeeding, labeling them as obscene and, in the process, making many so-called lactivists rather irritated. A Facebook protest group was created but, after another recent round of photo deletions, the offended users took their protests to the street, gathering outside of the Facebook offices over this past weekend.

Should breastfeeding pictures be allowed on Facebook?



The photos range from rather tame to some that might make some viewers uncomfortable, largely thanks to the exposure of nipples, but many of the supposedly deleted photos (collected here if you care to see) show virtually nothing at all -- just mothers holding their children. So, is Facebook over-reacting when it removes these pictures, or is it doing the right thing in trying to keep its site clean? [From: The Washington Post]

Tags: breast feeding, BreastFeeding, censorship, facebook, lactivism, lactivist, lactivists, social networking, SocialNetworking, top

Computers

British Lawmaker Proposes Movie-Style Ratings for All Web Sites

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Dec 30th 2008 at 7:30AM

U.K. Cultural Secretary to Push for Internet Ratings and Censorship
The cultural secretary of the U.K., Andy Burnham, has proposed a series of measures to make the Internet "child-safe." Of course, Burnham's proposals amount to little more than censorship and unrealistic suggestions that involve establishing a rating system, like that used for video games and movies, for all Web sites.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph Burnham said he planed to present his proposals to the Obama administration that would establish international standards for English-language Websites. Burnham suggests forcing ISPs to offer services with restricted access to kid-safe content and establishing an industry wide "take-down-time" for sites to remove offensive or dangerous content from their pages.

The cultural secretary is quoted as saying:
"There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it."
Which sounds a lot like censorship-happy U.S. politicians like Joe Lieberman and John Ashcroft (former attorney general who covered the bare breast of the Spirit of Justice at the Justice Department). The Internet is one of the last bastions of free, uncensored exchanges and information, and if Obama's stated positions and transition team are any indication, these proposals will never make it off the pages of the Telegraph. [From: The Daily Telegraph, Via: Techtree]

Tags: andy burnham, AndyBurnham, censorship, internet, politics, ratings

Computers

Release Iranian "Blogfather," Says Nobel Peace Prize Winner

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Dec 17th 2008 at 8:45AM

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Calls for the Release of Iranian Last month, the so called "blogfather" of Iran, Hossein Derakhshan was arrested during a visit to Tehran and accused of spying for Israel. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi is now calling for his release. She told a news conference in London, "I very much hope that he will be released soon, because prison is not the place for journalists and for bloggers."

Derakhshan made a name for himself after moving to Canada in 2000 where he started up a blog, in Persian, that taught Iranians how to set up their own blogs and was critical of the government.

Sadly, arrests like this are far from uncommon. Oppressive regimes like those in Iran, Egypt, Malaysia, and China have arrested journalists and bloggers in higher numbers with each passing year. There isn't much that we can do except repeat Ebadi's call for his release and add our voice to the cascade of those opposing censorship and the suppression of dissidents. [From: Reuters]

Tags: arrest, blog, blogfather, blogger, censorship, hossein derakhshan, HosseinDerakhshan, iran, shirin ebadi, ShirinEbadi

Computers

iTunes Mistakenly Censors Dirty-Sounding (but Clean) Song Titles

by Lee Bains (RSS feed) — Oct 27th 2008 at 5:37PM



Visitors to the iTunes music store this past weekend were surprised to find that certain words in the titles of innocuous songs were blanked out, the Daily Mail reports.

Although the folks at iTunes give the full spellings of artist names like Nashville P***y and Holy F**k, they do censor song titles that they deem to be offensive. As the result of a bug in the iTunes database, however, perfectly polite songs were treated as vulgar; Dick Van Dyke's autobiographical hit from the film 'Mary Poppins' wound up as "The D**k van D**e Song." Other family-friendly, yet X-rated hits of the weekend included Danny Kaye's "I Thought I Saw A P***y Cat" and various tunes by "J****y Mathis."

While iTunes higher-ups claim that this was all merely a misstep, we think they might be on to something. That mischievous chimney sweep Dick Van Dyke always did strike us as having a less-than-gentlemanly interest in Mary Poppins. [From: Daily Mail]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, censorship, funny, itunes, music

Cell Phones, Computers

China Caught Snooping and Censoring Skype Messages

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Oct 2nd 2008 at 12:14PM

China Caught Snooping and Censoring Skype Messages
By now, you've surely heard of China's so-called Great Firewall, the country's continued efforts to restrict access to material that the government deems questionable. We've also covered how Skype is becoming a bit of a haven for those with questionable intents because of the difficulty of monitoring conversations there. China, however, has found a way to track at least some traffic, filtering and censoring text messages sent via Skype.

A service in China called Tom-Skype enables users to exchange text messages directly with Skype users from their phones. Privacy rights advocates at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto have discovered that eight Chinese servers intersect every message and process it against a list of censored words and topics, relating to things like the banned religious group Falun Gong and even references to the current controversy relating to tainted milk powder. Messages that match are often blocked and archived, along with the identity of the individual sending them.

Those servers were apparently not adequately protected, enabling the Citizen Lab members to access them and download millions of messages, as well as information about the senders. Scary? Yes, very much so, as it reveals more signs that Big Brother is most certainly watching in China. [From: The New York Times]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, censorship, china, great firewall, GreatFirewall, skype, tom-skype

Computers

Suicide Websites Made Illegal in U.K.

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Sep 18th 2008 at 2:12PM

Suicide Websites Made Illegal in U.K.
In the wake of a still-growing suicide-pact crisis in the U.K., largely fueled by Web sites that either heap praise on those who've killed themselves or give encouragement for those who are thinking about it, the British government has expanded a 1961 suicide promotion law, explicitly banning the promotion of suicide on Web sites.

The 47-year-old Suicide Act already covered suicide-related sites, but as of now, none had actually been prosecuted or shut down because of it. The change in language makes it blatantly clear that these sites are indeed illegal, but as we've seen before, shutting down illegal sites in just one nation is a tricky thing. Earlier this year, Wikileaks was ruled illegal in a California court, which took steps to block it. However, multiple other versions popped up around the world offering access to exactly the same information through different URLs. Two weeks later, the court relented and up went the main site again.

Will the British government find more success than ours did? That remains to be seen. [From: BBC News]

Tags: censorship, suicide, suicide act, suicide pact, SuicideAct, SuicidePact, uk

TV

Saudi Judge Wants TV Station Owners Put to Death

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Sep 15th 2008 at 11:30AM

Saudi Judge Wants TV Station Owners Put to DeathWe're no strangers to religious nuts condemning "morally offensive" television in America, but we usually manage to keep the real loons out of positions of power. Apparently, no such luck in Saudi Arabia, where a judge has issued a decree saying that owners of satellite television stations that air immoral content could and should face prosecution and possibly the death penalty.

Though no specific shows or stations were named in the decree, it is widely understood that Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan was targeting Western-influenced soap operas and comedy shows.

Sure, death penalties are a bit severe, but perhaps punishment isn't that bad of an idea -- we know of a few stations that could be greatly improved by wiping clean their schedules of nonstop reruns and bad reality television at all hours of the day. [From: Daily Times]

Tags: censorship, death, politics, religion, saudi arabia, SaudiArabia

Computers, Google

F-Word Town's Name Gets Censored By Internet Filter

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Aug 1st 2008 at 4:31PM


The town of Whakatane, New Zealand found to its surprise recently that its name was censored in cyberspace. The embarrassing mix up was discovered by a tourist who tried to access the town's local wireless service (called Freenet). All of the visitor's searches for Whakatane came up blank with the explanation that, "the content is filtered so this service is for legitimate use."

It turns out the filtering service used is provided by an American company whose filter works on phonetic pronunciations. The filter is triggered because the 'wh' in Whakatane is pronounced like an 'f' -- the town's name sounds like a certain swear word that begins with 'f' and ends with a 'k.' The town has since added its name to the list of words that can bypass the filter.

Plenty of towns around the world there have even more questionable names. We wonder if these would get through the filter:
  • Bohner's Lake, Wisconsin
  • Cockplay, Scotland
  • Anus, France
  • Three Cocks, Wales
  • Weener, Germany
  • Fort Dick, Pennsylvania
  • Dikshit, India
  • Gofuku, Japan
[Source: News.com.au]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, censorship, filter, search, whakatane

Computers, Summer Fun

Chinese Censorship Partially Lifted For Olympics

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Aug 1st 2008 at 12:30PM

Chinese Censorship Partially Lifted For OlympicsThe pre-Olympics censorship debacle continues, and, unfortunately, it's still not completely resolved. Earlier this week, it was discovered that despite earlier pledges of Internet freedom for journalists during the games, many sites (like Amnesty International) were still blocked.

There was, naturally, a global uproar, especially against the International Olympics Committee (IOC), the Olympics governing body, for allowing such censorship to take place. In the face of all that noise, the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, has lifted some restrictions, but not all of them.

Though some previously blocked sites, such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, are now available, many others are still blocked. Sites for the banned religious group Falun Gong and for the exiled Tibetan government are still banned (even for journalists), making this recent gesture from the Chinese President a bit... weak, really. [Source: Reuters, and Yahoo! News]

Tags: 2008 olympics, 2008Olympics, censorship, china, ioc, olympics

Computers

International Olympic Committee Allows China to Censor Web

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Jul 30th 2008 at 7:06AM

International Olympic Committee Allows China to Censor WebDuring the build-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics earlier this summer, it was revealed that China had plans to maintain its censorship of the Internet during the games, stepping away from earlier pledges of "complete freedom" of surfing for journalists. Now, with the Opening Ceremonies just over a week away, the full implications of censorship are becoming apparent as media arrive on the scene and begin discovering the sites that they can, and more importantly can't, access.

Media are being blocked from accessing the site of Amnesty International, the international human rights organization that recently published a report reminding everyone of China's less than stellar record when it comes to human rights. Media are also prevented from accessing the site of Falun Gong, which according to a Chinese spokesperson is "an evil, fake religion which has been banned by the Chinese government."

Any way you look at it, it's going to be an interesting Games -- we just hope between the reports on censorship, human rights and pollution, people don't forget to report on the athletes from time to time! [Source: Yahoo! News]

Tags: 2008 olympics, 2008Olympics, amnesty international, AmnestyInternational, beijing, censorship, china

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