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Two public sessions have been held via Zoom seeking input from the community on the removal of the Potter Hill Dam. The first meeting was on March 18 and the second on June 10. This dam removal effort will affect the residents of both Westerly and Hopkinton. Hopkinton was not made aware of this until March 18. There has been little notice of these public information sessions. These sessions have been online only via Zoom and public comments were limited by the Zoom moderator.

There was a website built after the first meeting to submit questions. These questions and comments are not publicly visible. My questions and others I have spoken with have had no replies after being submitted.

In the most recent public meeting on June 10 there were many people who had their hands raised on the Zoom meeting who were not called upon. For the limited few (including myself) who were called upon, we were not allowed to speak after our question was replied to.

This team has been working on this removal proposal for 10 years and has not fully explained the options reviewed and how decisions were made. There are several unanswered questions that the public should have answered by this team before any work to remove the dam commences in July. There needs to be a public meeting in person that allows the public to comment without censorship.

Jim Duksta

Ashaway

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Letter: Censorship on Potter Hill Dam removal | Letters to Editor | thewesterlysun.com - The Westerly Sun

We all know about the censorship by social media companies, but how this got started has never been explained.

Most people think that the Big Tech companies did this on their own because of their protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Well, I have had in my possession some documents for several months that came from the congressional office of U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, on his congressional stationery and signed by him.

These documents reveal that on April 29, Schiff sent a letter to the presidents on Google, YouTube and Facebook, suggesting that they could use their position to reduce or eliminate information on the internet that was contrary to the reports of the World Health Organization. It is reasonable to conclude that when Big Tech got the green light to censor people about COVID-19 that they saw the opportunity to use the same means to censor the president and so on.

I have provided the documents to various political and legal figures.

Everyone had assumed that social media was immune from prosecution because of Section 230. It is now clear that the Big Tech firms were acting as an agent for the federal government through its agent, Congressman Adam Schiff. As such, that eliminates the protections and makes them subject to a civil lawsuit.

This is the same legal principle as someone borrowing your car. If you loan your car to a third party for the benefit of the borrower, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you give this person the keys to your car so that he can pick up something for you, then he is acting as an agent for you and any negligence he commits is imputable to you, such as in the case of Congressman Schiff.

So when you get angry about the censorship of social media companies, remember who got all this started and vote the Democrats out of office and teach them a lesson.

Editors note: According to several news accounts, including CNBC, Congressman Schiff sent a letter to the CEOs of Google, YouTube and Twitter asking them to be more like Facebook about removing misinformation about COVID-19. Facebook was already directing its users to COVID myths debunked by the World Health Organization.

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Big Tech acting as Schiff's agent in its censorship - The Daily Advance

Niamh Algar in CensorImage: Magnet Releasing

Censor is a 2021 Giallo film written and directed by Prano-Bailey Bond, and co-written with Anthony Fletcher. The story follows Enid Baines (Niamh Algar), a woman who works at the British film censor board. She is part of a team that decides which movies make it into theaters and which films will never see the light of day. While at work shes well-liked and seen as a hard worker, but outside her job, shes haunted by her younger sisters disappearance.

Her parents want to move on, but Enid refuses to let go. Then, one day while looking at a gory slasher snuff film, Enid thinks she sees her sister in the movie. This sets her on a course of self-destruction as she aims to unravel the truth behind her sisters disappearance. Censorwhich io9 got to review out of Sundance earlier this yearcenters around the inner workings of Enids mind instead of focusing on the terrors of the real world. Bailey-Bond and Fletcher want to evoke unease and tension. However, it often gets overshadowed by its hesitancy to tell the audience the truth. Not sure why as early on its easy to predict where the story is going. Further exploring how obsession as a trauma response can lead to disastrous results would have been a better use of the movies time instead of trying to be scary.

Despite the issues, the Giallo influence is palpable and used to great effect. Censor expertly uses color and style to blend atmospheric tension and suspense. The Cinematography by Annika Summerson and Bailey-Pranos direction is Argentoesque and make it very obvious. The pinks, blues, and purples are not the usual colors used to create tension, but it works here. Theres a strong sense of claustrophobia. No matter where Enid is in the film, the super-tight shots leave no room for her to move, so the audience is forced into a state of discomfort watching this womans death spiral. The kill scenes are gory as hell and also tightly filmed, so you see everything up close and personalin all its bloody glory.

Is Censor the future of Giallo cinema? Well, its hard to say as Giallo is one of those timeless sub-genres that doesnt often see drastic changejust bigger budgets. A better question is whether modern directors and storytellers will utilize the style enough to enhance quality content? And that is what Censor does well. Read Germain Lussiers in-depth Sundance 2021 review of Censor here. The film is currently in theaters and will be available on VOD June 18.

For more, make sure youre following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom.

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Is Censor the Future of Giallo Horror? - Gizmodo

Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey on late Friday (local time) was heckled at the Bitcoin 2021 conference held in Miami.

"Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey heckled over censorship during an #Bitcoin event," tweeted Disclose.tv.

At the event, one of the attendees interrupted the discussion at one point, seemingly accusing Dorsey of undue censorship of free speech through Twitter.

According to US-based entertainment news company Meaww, the attendee who interrupted Dorsey was an anti-Muslim activist, Laura Loomer.

She attacked Dorsey at the bitcoin reference for being a "giant hypocrite about censorship and freedom of speech".

Laura registered her protest against the new censorship rules and accused Dorsey of "interfering" with people's rights.

"Censorship is human rights violation, " she said. Following her gimmick, Laura was quickly escorted out, reported Meaww.

Twitter banned Laura back in 2018 after she posted a tweet about Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar. In her tweet, Laura mentioned that Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, was "anti-Jewish" and that her religion pushed homophobia and abuse of women.

Laura had registered her protest against getting banned from the platform by handcuffing herself to the glass doors leading into Twitter's Manhattan headquarters. "It's almost as if Twitter hates Jews and conservatives. When is Jack Dorsey going to stop censoring conservatives? When am I going to get my Twitter back? I'll be here as long as it takes, " she said, reported Meaww.

Twitter raged with reactions over Laura Loomer's heckling of Twitter CEO over censorship issues. While some agreed with Laura's stance, some condemned her act.

One user wrote, "Jack Dorsey, why don't you do the right thing and allow all voices to be heard? Seriously, what are you so afraid of? That people will think for themselves?"

One of the comments slamming Laura Looner read, "Hearing Laura Loomer just lost it on Jack Dorsey at a Bitcoin event in Miami -for censorship Sorry, dopey Laura, wrong platform It's Facebook you're mad at today. But hey, keep it up! Rational America really appreciates the help getting Trump permanently banned from Twitter!"

Another tweet read, "Laura Loomer is a racist islamaphobic loser who feels important because every once and a while she trends on twitter for doing some dumb... like she did today with Jack Dorsey"

At the conference, Dorsey was joined during the discussion by Alex Gladstein the chief strategy officer of Human Rights Foundation and another advocate for the sovereign potential of Bitcoin.

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Twitter's CEO Jack heckled at Bitcoin 2021 conference over censorship issue - Mint

June 2, 2021Social media platforms that have automated moderation policies have been wittingly or unwittingly censoring legitimate speech, according to activists, with those corporate tools coming into focus following last months violence in the Middle East.

Platforms like Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, as well as others, have moderation systems that automatically flag and remove posts that may encourage hate speech or violence.

But those systems has been taking down, blocking and censoring content from Palestinians, made evident as violence erupted between Israelis and Palestinians last month and continues today, according to a panel hosted by the Middle East Institute Wednesday.

Words have been incorrectly misinterpreted as terrorist speech, flagged and removed, the panelists say. Middle East policy analyst Marwa Fatafta used the example of the erroneous association of Islams third-holiest mosque, Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, to a terrorist organization. This error led to blocked hashtags, removed users, and deleted posts, and Facebooks response was that it was just a technical glitch.

Their machines are blind to the vital context, Fatafta said. This is not unique to the Palestinians. This is bad news to all aspects of social justice.

Palestinians have said that their perspective has not been reflected adequately in traditional media, and they have taken to social media as a way to get their message across.

The discussion comes as conversations heat up about possible reforms to Section 230, the legal provision governing platform liability for what users posts.

In a time of such violence, Fatafta explains this is a profound problem from a human rights perspective that needs to be addressed immediately by these large companies. She said the danger of the power being given to these big tech companies is that hey can choose the narrative they want the world to hear, and censor what they deem unacceptable.

Ignacio Delgado Culebras, a journalist covering the Middle East and North Africa, said there needs to be more transparency with these social media platforms. He explained we are still left in the dark about how companies make these decisions and who they consult with, and thousands of requests over the years to adjust the community standards have been denied.

These are ultimately human policy decisions, and they can be addressed or reversed, said Eliza Campbell, an associate director at the Middle East Institute. These are systems that we chose, and we can choose to reconsider them, and hopefully, that will be something we can see going forward.

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Automated Social Media Moderation In Focus Following Allegations Of Censorship - BroadbandBreakfast.com