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The World Health Organisation has removed social media filters which were censoring the words Taiwan and China from its Facebook page after an online backlash, but said the blocks were because of an onslaught of cyber attacks.

The about-face comes amid intense criticism over Chinas continued blocking of Taiwan which has gone more than 215 days without a local case of Covid-19 from participation in meetings of the WHOs decision-making body, the World Health Assembly.

This week internet users began reporting the WHOs Facebook page would not allow comments that included the word Taiwan. The Guardians attempts to post comments found it was also blocking the word China. Posters began replacing characters in the word to get past the censors, including , or using the islands former name, Formosa.

Taiwans foreign ministry said the block ran contrary to the neutrality the WHO should be upholding, and expressed its strong regret and dissatisfaction, but a spokesman for the WHO said the moves were a practical measure which didnt reflect a value judgement or policy.

During the World Health Assembly, WHO faces an onslaught of cyberattacks by online activists on a number of controversial issues, using keywords such as Taiwan and China, the spokesman said.

The social media team applied filters as the onslaught hindered its ability to moderate conversations, he said. After the block was lifted the WHOs page was flooded with pro-Taiwan and anti-China messages.

The WHOs history with Taiwan has been controversial, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. China, which considers Taiwan a rogue province and its government to be separatists, has blocked its admission to the WHA despite an increase in international support for their inclusion.

Intense lobbying for Taiwans inclusion preceded a WHA meeting last week but it remained excluded. The WHO maintains any inclusion is a matter for WHA member states to vote on.

Taipei says it has much to share with the global community given its success in preventing a large outbreak. It has reported around 580 cases of Covid-19 in total, mostly imported and contained by the quarantine system, and just seven deaths.

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WHO drops censorship of words 'Taiwan' and 'China' on social media after backlash - The Guardian

On November 11, the government issued an order bringing online news portals and Over The Top (OTT) contentproviders such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar under the regulatory purview of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry. This is a move with far-reaching consequences and could kickstart an era of more frequent and stricter censorship on what online services air.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has found a vast swathe of unregulated content, namely online news and Over the top (OTT) platforms which had escaped any architecture of regulation. While the print media were regulated by the Press Council of India, and television content both news and entertainment was being regulated by the Cable Networks Regulation Act (2005), content published online, the government felt, fell into a black hole that did not permit oversight.

So, what kind of oversight will this be? How will it work? And what is the potential for misuse or overreach?

Guest: Anuradha Raman, Associate Editor, The Hindu.

Find the In Focus podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for In Focus by The Hindu.

Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

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Will regulation of digital media lead to an era of government censorship? | The Hindu In Focus podcast - The Hindu

In an act of online political censorship aimed at silencing left-wing and socialist views, Twitter has suspended the account of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality in the US.

The IYSSE is the youth and student movement of the Socialist Equality Party and is affiliated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS).

The IYSSE is an officially recognized campus group on dozens of university campuses in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Sri Lanka and Australia. At Berlins Humboldt University, the IYSSE holds multiple seats in the student parliament.

At approximately 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, members and supporters of the IYSSE noted that the Twitter account @IYSSE_US had been stripped of its profile and header image and the account timeline of tweets had been replaced by a message that says, Account suspended: Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules. A link to the Twitter Rules page was included as part of the notice.

When the IYSSE contacted Twitter to demand the reinstatement of the account, the company replied, Your account was suspended because it appears you may be managing a number of Twitter accounts.

The IYSSE responded:

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality is a campus political organization officially recognized on dozens of campuses in the United States and internationally. Each different campus chapter manages its own Twitter account. Because these chapters are affiliated with the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), numerous chapters may post the same or similar articles from the WSWS, as is their right.

This type of activity is explicitly condoned in Twitters guidelines of September 2020. The guidance states that organizations with related but separate chapters or branches, such as a business with multiple locations, is not a violation of this policy.

We request (1) a more thorough, detailed showing of any alleged violations, and (2) that the suspension of this group (@IYSSE_US) be lifted immediately.

Twitter gave no additional information about the suspension, and the IYSSEs account remains suspended.

Taking place one week after the 2020 US elections, the shutdown of the IYSSE (US) account has occurred amidst increasing online censorship of left-wing and socialist publications, combined with an aggressive attack on free speech by all of the social media tech giants before, during and after the presidential elections.

Among the final posts on the IYSSE account late Tuesday were a retweet of a link to the WSWS article titled, Why did some working class regions vote for Trump? There was also a retweet of a post by SEP National Secretary and 2020 US presidential candidate Joseph Kishore on the significance of the coronavirus vaccine announcement by Pfizer and the importance of independent political action by the working class against the pandemic and the murderous ruling class response to it.

Twitter is engaging in political censorship to silence a leading voice of socialist politics among young people and students around the world. The IYSSE (US) has beenthrough its publishing activity and engagement on Twitter and other popular social media platformsthe most consistent voice for socialism and against racism, right-wing nationalism, the threat of fascism and for the international unity of the working class across national boundaries in a common struggle against the capitalist system.

Responding to the Twitter suspension, IYSSE National Secretary Genevieve Leigh said, There is no legitimate reason for the suspension of the IYSSE Twitter account. We know that particularly over the past two years there has been a concerted effort on the part of social media companies, at the behest of Washington, to censor left-wing, socialist, antiwar and progressive websites. These efforts have been well documented and opposed by the WSWS.

This political censorship reflects the fear that a genuine socialist perspective, if allowed a fair hearing, will find a mass audience in the US and internationally. There is widespread popular opposition to these efforts to suppress freedom of speech and thought, especially among youth.

The suspension of the IYSSE (US) Twitter account must be seen within the context of the longstanding and ongoing censorship measures by Google and the other social media platforms against the World Socialist Web Site. Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai admitted on the congressional record on October 28 that the search giant had been censoring the WSWS.

There have been several instances of Reddit moderators banning the WSWS from the approved whitelist of domain names and labeling content links from the WSWS as an unacceptable source. Meanwhile, as far back as August 2018, Facebook has removed the accounts of left-wing publishers, including deleting the accounts of World Socialist Web Site reporters on the basis of unsubstantiated claims of inauthentic behavior.

The suspension of the IYSSE (US) account by Twitter is the first time that one of the major social media platforms has moved to shut down a primary account of an organization connected with the ICFI and the WSWS.

We call on all readers of the World Socialist Web Site to demand that Twitter restore the account of the IYSSE (US), @IYSSE_US, by posting statements to @TwitterSupport.

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Stop online censorship: Restore the Twitter account of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (US)! - WSWS

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Letter to the editor: We must address censorship, media, corruption - TribLIVE

As the big tech tyrants tighten their grip, join us for more free speech at Parlerthe anti-censorship social media platform.

The head of transgender-related cases at the ACLU has publicly called for 'stopping the circulation' of a that contains journalism that counters his preferred narrative on transgenderism.

Chase Stranglio is the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice at the ACLU, his latest piece for the organization's News site, "debunked" four "myths about trans athletes."

"FACT: Including trans athletes will benefit everyone. MYTH: The participation of trans athletes hurts cis women," the piece reads.

Stranglio is not a fan of Wall Street Journal journalist Abigail Shrier's new book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters," and has vowed a comitment to 'stopping the circulation' of the book.

"Abigail Shrier's book is a dangerous polemic with a goal of making people not trans," wrote Stranglio. "I think of all the times & ways I was told my transness wasn't real & the daily toll that still takes. We have to fight these ideas which are leading to the criminalization of trans life again.""Also stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on," he added in a since-deleted tweet.

Shrier's book is not anti-tran, but rather a journalistic evaluation of a sudden phenomenon.

"I wrote specifically about the sudden, severe spike in transgender identification among adolescent girls. I fully support medical transition for mature adults. And I have no desire to be a provocateur," Shrier said in a recent op-ed for Quillette.

"Between 2016 and 2017, the number of females seeking gender surgery quadrupled in the United States. Thousands of teen girls across the Western world are not only self-diagnosing with a real dysphoric condition they likely do not have; in many cases, they are obtaining hormones and surgeries following the most cursory diagnostic processes," Shrier explains.

"Schoolteachers, therapists, doctors, surgeons, and medical-accreditation organizations are all rubber-stamping these transitions, often out of fear that doing otherwise will be reported as a sign of transphobiadespite growing evidence that most young people who present as trans will eventually desist, and so these interventions will do more harm than good."

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ACLU lawyer calls for censorship of books that criticize the promotion of transgenderism in children - The Post Millennial