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Meta, the company owning Facebook and Instagram, refuses to answer questions on its policy regarding the Israel-Hamas war censorship, despite the pressure from senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, reported TheIntercept on Tuesday.

Meta insists that theres been no discrimination against Palestinian-related content on their platforms, but at the same time, is refusing to provide us with any evidence or data to support that claim, Warren told The Intercept. If its ad-hoc changes and removal of millions of posts didnt discriminate against Palestinian-related content, then whats Meta hiding?

In a letter to Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent earlier in December, Warren posed dozens of specific questions about the companys Gaza-related content moderation efforts, said The Intercept. Warren asked about the "exact numbers of posts about the war, broken down by Hebrew or Arabic, that have been deleted or otherwise suppressed."

Meta's reply provided little detail, with no breakdown on languages or markets presented in the answer: "In the nine days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 2,200,000 pieces of content in Hebrew and Arabic for violating our policies.

Now, Warren is joined by Sanders who again appeal to Meta. Metas response, dated January 29, 2024, did not provide any of the requested information necessary to understand Metas treatment of Arabic language or Palestine-related content versus other forms of content, the senators wrote.

They refer the the human rights groups that report "systemic moderation bias against Palestinians," said The Intercept.According to a February report by AccessNow,Meta suspended or restricted the accounts of Palestinian journalists and activists both in and outside of Gaza, and arbitrarily deleted a considerable amount of content, including documentation of atrocities and human rights abuses.

Zuckerberg already finds himself under intense scrutiny from senators. In February, Senate held a hearing focusing on safeguarding children and adolescents on social media, leaders from major platforms, including Meta, where its CEO was openly criticized the platforms' approach to child safety.

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Meta Refuses To Provide Details On Its Gaza War Censorship - Report - I24NEWS - i24NEWS

InNebraska,a bill that would criminalize librarians did not get enough votes.Meanwhile,inGeorgia, educators worry about legislation aimed at ALA funding;and in one Texas county, a citizen review board will now decide what stayson public library shelves.

Obscenity Bill that Could Criminalize Nebraska Librarians, Teachers Fails to Advance | KOLN Three days of tense debate ended with lawmakers falling three votes short of advancing a bill that received national attention after a senator read an explicit rape scene on the legislative floor.

Georgia Teachers Raise Concerns over Legislation Aimed at American Library Association Funding | 11 Alive The bill bars state and local governments from giving money to the American Library Association.

Texas County Directs Citizen Board to Review, and Potentially Remove, Library Books | KHOU Montgomery County, TX, officials adopted a new policy empowering a citizen committee to review, and potentially remove, library materials at the request of the public. County Judge Mark Keough, the policys author, said the process will prevent children from accessing inappropriate books. Critics argued the new guidelines strip librarians from the reconsideration process and will target books featuring LGBTQIA+ characters.

Amid Book Bans, DEI Cuts and 'Don't Say Gay' Laws, Seven States Will Mandate LGBTQ-Inclusive Curricula | NBC News Washington is the seventh state to enact legislation mandating that public schools incorporate LGBTQIA+-inclusive curricula in some capacity. The other six areCalifornia, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, and Illinois.

Ali Velshi Banned Book ClubBlack Stories in Philadelphia | The Philadelphia Citizen Philly is not only the birthplace of American libraries, it's also an epicenter for resisting book bans through the use of "Little Free(dom) Libraries."

Teen Social Network Launched by Austin Public Library to Save Banned Books| KVUE The Save The Books Social Network unites teens who want to defend their freedom to read.

The Post-2020 Surge in Calls for Banning Books, Visualized | The Washington Post Data provided to The Washington Post by the ALA shows that this increase is part of a surge in such efforts in recent yearsones that are centered more heavily in Republican-voting states.

Texas District Votes to Remove The HatersFrom School Libraries | KVUE A discussion over two Jesse Andrews books, The Haters and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,endedwith Lake Travis (TX) ISD leaders voting4-2 to remove The Haters from the Lake Travis High School library. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl will remain in circulation.

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Nebraska Obscenity Bill to Criminalize Librarians Fails to Advance | Censorship News - School Library Journal

The justices of the Supreme Court never focused on the First Amendments words when hearing arguments in Murthy v. Missouri last week.

The case challenges the federal governments orchestration of social media censorship, so one might have expected the justices to pay some attention to the First Amendment itself. Instead, the court relied on its own weak doctrines that invited the censorship in the first place.

The First Amendment makes a crucial distinction between abridging and prohibiting. But theres a danger the court, in this case, will ignore this and instead reinforce its erroneous coercion standard. If thats what the court does, it will give the executive branch the green light to persist in the most far-reaching censorship in the nations history.

The coercion doctrine, established in Blum v. Yaretksy, suggests that when the government uses private entities to censor Americans, a complaining party must show that the government coercively converted the private censorship into government censorship. This doctrine has invited the government to think it may use social media platforms to suppress the public, as long as it isnt too obviously coercive against the platforms. Government coercion thus gets elevated as the archetypical measure of censorship (its not), and less than coercive privatized censorship gets legitimized (it shouldnt).

Nonetheless, the court seemed to take the Blum framework for granted. The justices spent much time asking when the government could persuade newspapers to drop their news stories, even though this case had nothing to do with that. The government never asked the suppressed scientists and doctors whether they would be willing to forbear from publishing. Instead, the government used the social media platforms to shut down the speech of the individuals, who were never consulted. Still, most of the justices seemed to assume, in line with Blum, that as long as the government didnt coerce the platforms, no censorship occurred.

The First Amendment, however, rejects the coercion test. It bars the government from abridging, or reducing, the freedom of speech. That standard stands in sharp contrast to the amendments bar against prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The amendment thus clearly rejects a coercing or prohibiting measure of government censorship in favor of a more sensitive inquiry as to whether the government abridged that is, diminished the freedom of speech.

This point about abridging was part of the plaintiffs argument. The brief of Missouri, Louisiana, and the individual plaintiffs urged the court to revisit Blum and other such cases, on the ground that their artificially narrow conception of state action . weakens the freedom of speech. In contrast, the First Amendment capaciously protects the freedom of speech from any abridging (i.e., diminishing) of that freedom.

This, the Constitutions measure of freedom of speech, clearly bars the government from working with social media to set parameters on public debate. Yet under the Blum coercion standard, thats exactly what the government has been doing orchestrating social media to bar evidence and opinion that dissents from the official narrative and questions official policy.

Even cursory attention to the First Amendment would have offered a profound corrective to this coercion doctrine the doctrine that invites the censorship. The justices, however, appeared to leave the First Amendment aside.

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This failure even to quote the First Amendment is especially troublesome because of the judicial barriers that tend to leave the public without an effective remedy for censorship. The courts qualified immunity doctrine leaves people with little chance of getting damages for past censorship, and its standards for obtaining an injunction leave them with difficulty securing a remedy against future censorship, as the government can simply declare that theres little reason to think the censorship against the plaintiffs will recur.

So, the government can censor one American after another, seriatim, without consequence.

Philip Hamburger teaches at Columbia Law School and is CEO of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represents four individual plaintiffs in Murthy v. Missouri. He is the author of Courting Censorship.

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Supreme Court must rely on the First Amendment, not its own precedent, when deciding government censorship case - Washington Examiner

Yes, leadership counts. Why state the obvious? Because there are still moderate, reasonable liberals out there that I know will vote for Biden. No matter how much they suffer, no matter the number of wars, the environmental pollution from the wars, high prices, and more, these people will still support Biden. I can only imagine how bad it really has to get before they vote for someone else.

Ronna McDaniel Wow. That was fast. I got whiplash watching that trainwreck. Once again, the leftists on NBC simply cannot tolerate anyone, not even one, dissenting voice or person of reason that might disagree with them. And it clearly shows the inmates are running the asylum.

Dane County Board And much like NBC and McDaniel, the liberals that control 36 seats out of 37 (yes, its one of the largest boards in the nation, and no, they shouldnt be proud of that) cant stand the idea of even a single voice of dissent on the board, so they are trying hard to get rid of the only conservative voice, Jeff Weigand, District 20. Think about that. Theyre so obsessed with promoting their leftist agenda that they cant let anyone disagree with their false facts and fake news. For anyone who lived when the Soviet Union and East Germany existed, you know what I mean, but our younger generation must be told stories about those times for them to learn.

I visited East Germany within months of the Berlin Wall coming down; we slept overnight in a hotel (if you can call it that) in East Berlin. What an experience. The left on our county board reminds me so much of East Germany and the Stasi. You werent allowed to say even a single word that disagreed with the states stated position, or you would be disappeared. We drove through (for 30 miles) a Soviet military base in East Germany. (The base was so big that they provided a road through the middle (fenced in) to allow drives to cut through. Soviet soldiers were standing around, not sure what to do because they hadnt been ordered home yet.

The rule for leftists is always to eliminate any dissenting voice because one lone voice can rally the people to rise and overthrow their dictator rulers. There was no free speech, in fact, no speech of any kind, period. No free assembly, no free press, no freedom at all. You did what the state told you to do, or you were gone.

Same with the Dane County board, they simply cannot allow Weigand to call out their false claims, to lie to the public, to manipulate, etc. How ironic for those who claim to want diversity to not allow any diversity of thought or speech. Sorry Jeff, theres no DEI to step in and protect you as a conservative minority on the board.

But were here to support that lone voice. Stand up and be heard. Scream it out from the balconies. Dont give any ground. TikTok Some people argue that threatening to ban TikTok or forcing the Communist party to sell it (divest) is an infringement on TikToks right to free speech. While corporations are recognized as people under the Constitution, TikTok, and its Chinese Communist Party owners are not entitled to protection under our Constitution.

They are not citizens of the U.S., and the company is not headquartered here (regardless of what they say, decision-making is made in China by the communist party owners.) To give TikTok the same rights as U.S. citizens would be to allow the company and the CCP to also issue open records requests of our government and make all kinds of demands on our government and life in the U.S. that they themselves would never allow in China.

Dont be fooled, the CCP is not entitled to rights that they themselves dont give others nor do they believe in such rights. Were at war with these people, not just over our culture, but for the freedom and liberty of the world. Dont play by their rules.

Gun Control Have you ever noticed that the highest crime areas are where the most restricted gun control exists? (Likewise, with the denial of your second amendment rights.) Illinois, New York, Mexico, and other locations allow gangs and cartels (in cahoots with government officials) to carry guns and terrorize residents, but residents are not allowed to carry a gun to defend themselves.

Government Censorship The Supreme Court case involving Crazy Uncle Joes administration conspiring with the tech oligarchs to censor Bidens opposition, raised the question of when does government pressure on social media companies amount to free speech or coercion. If I heard this right, one lefty Supreme Court justice argued that restraining the government from having tech companies do its censoring for the government would be infringing on the governments right to free speech.

Excuse me? Now, shes no dummy, so that means shes deliberately trying to deceive the American public. The First Amendment was created to restrain exactly this kind of government action; it was written to protect the public from the heavy hand of government. The liberals are trying to turn that upside down by twisting the Constitution to try to protect the governments heavy hand at the cost of censoring us.

When the government suggests that a company do something, its always coercion because its the government. Its no different than the mob asking your store to make weekly payments for your security and well-being; we all know what will happen if we dont and the payments arent voluntary just because they ask nice.

Haiti Well, I never anticipated another war this time right out our back door in Haiti. What else can go wrong under Bidens leadership? Its a small island, err, excuse me, half an island, not far off our coastline. But you know Biden, Mr. Do Nothing Until Its Too Late and then make excuses. Hell wait until it really gets bad, and then Blinkidy-blank will write another stern letter to the criminal gang leader. Ooo, scary. Im sure the guy is shaken in his boots.

If Biden waits long enough, which I am sure is his plan, he can count on millions of Haitian refugees flooding our shores. (I hope DeSantis has a backup plan.) Next stop, Taiwan or Korea.

State Senate & LobbyistsHuntsman, the former governor of Utah, said, You dont have to agree on everything to work together on something.

RealtorsRealtors are forgetting about the recent run-up in home prices, pushing pricing 30%50% or even 70% higher in many cases. That means that if the same percent commission is applied, Realtors will receive a much larger dollar commission amount on those higher prices. The good news for home consumers is that commissions should start to come down.

UW System President Rothman is closing campuses that are not operationally feasible any longer due to declining enrollment. Good. Campuses that cant attract customers should be closed. Why should taxpayers keep funding universities that are failing? Its like any government program; once the money starts flowing, its almost impossible to cut it off when the need is no longer there. In contrast, Greg Lampe and Steven Wildeck, both former vice-chancellors, argue against the closings. Seriously? The brainwashing at the university system has become so outrageous that the university elites have become a cancer on our children.

The good news is that fewer young adults will be suckered into taking on massive debt to be able to attend overpriced, sub-tier universities, and instead will make the wise choice to attend a tech school or start their careers without a higher degree.

Watergate The Biden family crime syndicate and its receipt of foreign money and failure to pay taxes on it and the conflicts of interest it creates, and oh yea, the attempted cover ups (and actual cover ups for years interfering with the justice department investigations) is far, far worse than Watergate. Watergate was a simple, straightforward but botched break-in of the Democratic Party headquarters with a superficial coverup. Bidengate is far more extensive, more complicated, involving foreign government payments, foreign corporation payments, Bidens own bragging that he got a Ukraine prosecutor fired to stop the guy from pursuing charges against his son, Hunter Biden, is proof enough. The constant, years-long cover-up, not to mention the faux Russian hoax put out by the Democrat Party, are all part of it. Shall I go on?

BoeingHow bad does this have to get? Remember when Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago, away from its manufacturing base? Now I hear theyre moving the headquarters again. When they announced their move to Chicago (who on earth would move to Chicago?), I speculated that they would lose track of their manufacturing and suffer the consequences.

Now that has come true. When the leaders move away from the base of the real operations and they wont spend time walking the plant floor, theyre bound to lose oversight. Im sure some bean counter thought it would yield big savings by moving a lot of their manufacturing overseas too. Of course, prior management got rewarded by boosting the stock price by reducing costs (temporarily), but now everyone is suffering as a result of that shortsighted decision.

COVID Well, the real data is finally out. Kids got hurt badly during the COVID / government mandated shut-downs. Well, dah.

Housing & Biden Attacks Now Biden is attacking landlords, a/k/a, you know, those evil guys and gals that actually provide housing for the rest of us. He claims they are conspiring to charge more. First, theres no conspiring going on, because that would be anti-trust. Every landlord knows they cant talk about rents to another competing landlord. Second, you, Mr. Biden, caused the higher rents. Stop blaming others for your screw-ups.

DEI In Business magazine had an interesting article on 40 Under 40 and one of them, Dr. William T.L. Cox has a consultant company that provides an evidence-based approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hmm, okay, what does that mean? Cox says evidence shows that the $8 billion DEI industry (yes, $8 with a B) has little meaningful impact.

Interestingly, so heres a so-called expert saying that DEI is really a bunch of crap. My words, not his. I give him credit for trying to improve it, but in reality, what this really says is that DEI is not needed, is a waste of taxpayer money, and worse, that there is a massive industry built up around it now that will be difficult to take down. Scary sh*t.

California and Squatters Only in California; squatters (i.e. trespassers and criminals) are pushing homeowners out of their own homes by breaking in and taking over their homes. Supposedly, homeless people and illegal aliens are doing this, which means this problem stems directly from Bidens open border policy. My thought boot them out at gunpoint and dont call the police. Im so sick of criminals being protected while good, honest, hard-working people suffer.

Wisconsin Right Now is a news organization focused on covering the news from a conservative point of view, in particular on politics and policy issues through analysis and opinions, and is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. WRN and the columnist does not make endorsements of candidates or urge a vote for or against any candidate or issue. On October 18 and November 23, 2023 Donald Trump tweeted out on Trumps Truth Social account T. Walls October 6th column on Trumps property valuations. T. Wall holds a degree from the UW in economics and an M.S. in real estate analysis and valuation and is a real estate developer. Disclaimer: The opinions of the writer are not necessarily those of this publication or the left!

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How the Left Censors Dissent, From NBC to the Dane County Board [Up Against the Wall] - Wisconsin Right Now

Censorship can lead to some funny designs, even when there isn't a comedian involved. So when the person being censored is a standup comic, we could only expect an entertaining response.

Posters advertising Ed Gamble's London tour dates fell foul of Transport for London's (TfL) ban on junk food advertising because they featured a hot dog in reference to the title of the show, Hot Digitty Dog. The comedian has found a suitably ridiculous solution to allow the posters to be put up on the underground network, and it's an even better poster design than the original.

In the original poster, which has been used to promote Gamble's tour around the UK, the comedian and The Off Menu podcast host was pictured with mustard and ketchup on his face and T-Shirt with a hot dog on a plate in front of him. However, TfL said that the hot dog would have to be removed or obscured for the poster to be allowed on the London Tube because of an anti-junk food policy.

TfL introduced a ban on junk food advertising in 2019 in a bid to reduce childhood obesity. In this case, the poster is not advertising junk food, but it seems the network's ban covers any imagery of unhealthy snacks regardless of what is being promoted. Gamble's solution was to doctor the design to replace the offending banger with a cucumber, perhaps using Photoshop Generative Fill.

TfL told me I couldnt have a hot dog on my poster to promote my Hackney Empire shows in June.I guess Im dangerous? So Ive replaced it with a cucumber. Eat your greens, kids," Gamble wrote on Instagram.

It resulting scene looks particularly incongruous. Cucumber with the mustard and sauce? One fan pointed out on Instagram that the result is an image where the comedian appears to have finished a meal without eating his greens.

A TfL spokesman said: We welcome all advertising on our network that complies with our published guidance. Following a review of the advert, we advised that elements would need to be removed or obscured to ensure it complied with our policy. A revised advert is now running on the network and we are always happy to work with people to ensure adverts follow our policy.

Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.

However some people argue that the ban is hypocritical when brands such as Greggs and Lola's Cupcakes are allowed to run stores in Tube stations.

For more entertaining censorship, see HBO's censored movie posters and the California police's Lego mugshots. Need to censor your own designs? See today's best Photoshop deals in your region below, or see our guide to how to download Photoshop for more details.

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UK comedian Photoshops poster to hilariously sidestep censors - Creative Bloq