#language-censorship

#language-censorship

Belarus' parliament has approved a bill making 'propaganda of homosexual relations, gender change, refusal to have children, and pedophilia' crimes, with penalties including fines and detention.

"This 'AI slop' harms children's development by distorting their sense of reality, overwhelming their learning processes and hijacking their attention, thereby extending time online and displacing offline activities necessary for their healthy development."

The new amendments empower police to require a person under investigation suspected of endangering national security to provide any password or decryption method for electronic devices and to provide the police any reasonable and necessary information or assistance.

Because the ad implied that viewers could use an app to remove a woman's clothing, we considered it condoned digitally altering and exposing women's bodies without their consent. It added that the ad was irresponsible, included a harmful gender stereotype and was likely to cause serious offence.

Iran's media landscape is divided between outlets closely affiliated with the state and those considered reformist. State-aligned outlets include organizations such as Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Tasnim, Fars News, and Mehr News. These conservative outlets often promote narratives that support Iran's ruling clerical establishment.

Recent revelations from news agency Reuters that the US is "developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including hate speech and terrorist propaganda," as a method to counter what it sees as excessive censorship in other parts of the world is troubling to the EU. Even if the plans appear to have been delayed and detail is thin, the US position is clear.

Around 2013 in Taiwan's context, when Facebook started to take over the digital ecosystem in Taiwan, many local independent bulletin boards that had been formed for sexual minorities were shut down because they had no income from advertisements, and people were pushed into mainstream platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Meta, whatever, Twitter now X where sexual expression was usually reported or flagged.

Every society recognises that words and images, in certain contexts, do harm and that incitement to commit crime can be a criminal act. There is a spectrum of tolerance and enforcement. Repression of free speech is a symptom of tyranny, but all governments regulate it to some degree. The threshold for intervention is lower when children are involved. That is why the idea of banning under-16s from social media, already operational in Australia, is catching on elsewhere.

Ofcom says it is conducting an urgent assessment of X in response, with the backing of Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. But the chairwomen of Parliament's technology and media committees have both said they are concerned that "gaps" in the Online Safety Act might hinder the media regulator's ability to deal with the matter. X has now limited the use of AI image function to those who pay a monthly fee, a change dubbed by Downing Street as "insulting" to victims of sexual violence.

Authorities have responded with severe measures, including a nationwide telecoms blackout and jamming satellite services like Starlink, aimed at preventing coordination among demonstrators. Iranians are embracing freedom tech tools; Bitchat, Noghteha, and Delta Chat for offline communication. Two of these apps trace their origins directly to Bitcoin, highlighting how technologies from this community provide practical solutions in high-stakes environments. Bitchat, built by Bitcoin pioneers Jack Dorsey and open-source developer Calle, operates over Bluetooth mesh networks and the Nostr protocol without needing an internet connection.

"Today the Russian government has attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive users to a state-owned surveillance app," Meta told the FT in a statement. "Trying to isolate over 100 million people from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia."

Many TikTok users across the US say they're rethinking their relationship with the platform since its ownership and terms and conditions have recently changed, with some citing censorship and lack of trust as reasons why they're removing themselves from the app. Keara Sullivan, a 26-year-old comedian, says TikTok jumpstarted her career and provided a pathway to getting a manager and a literary agent.

Two independent journalists were detained by Chinese officials after they published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, condemning the incident. Police in Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu on suspicion of making "false accusations" and conducting "illegal business operations." Authorities said they were placed under "criminal coercive measures," a term typically referring to detention.

When WIRED attempted to post a link on Facebook, we received a message that read: "Posts that look like spam according to our Community Guidelines are blocked on Facebook and can't be edited." Hours later, however, that message was updated to read: "Your content couldn't be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards." The message linked to Meta's Community Standards homepage rather than a specific part of those rules.