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"We published a poem to highlight hypocrisy. Then all hell broke loose."

Many years have passed since Wendy Bacon's university days. But when you're taking on a government it's something you don't forget too easily.

"We didn't set out to campaign against censorship, we just really valued an opportunity to put our ideas out there."

This act of defiance publishing a profanity-ridden poem was one of many. It would plunge the now-investigative journalist in the midst of a campaign against Australia's strict censors.

And while 2020 presents a completely different world to that which she originally rallied against, Wendy has a warning: censorship is something we should still be concerned about.

Australia has a long and controversial relationship with censorship.

"By the time Australia federated in 1901," Patrick Mullins writes in his new book, The Trials of Portnoy, "there existed already a thicket of laws to prevent publication and dissemination of the indecent and the obscene."

Within 10 years of Federation, Australia was one of the most censorship-heavy nations in the world.

Customs officials were given speed-reading courses and tasked with weeding out blasphemy, sedition and obscenity from Australia's bookshelves.

"One of the things we do in this country is we forget about our history, Mullins told The Drum.

"We look back on change and regard it as inevitable, we regard it as easy. In this case, overcoming the censorship system was a long battle."

A 1969 Roy Morgan poll showed 60 per cent of the public supported maintaining or increasing censorship in the country.

"This idea of protecting the decency of Australians was a really strong one," Mullins says.

Famous works of fiction like DH Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Ulysses by James Joyce were blacklisted in 1929.

Two decades later, Catcher in the Rye and James Baldwin's Another Country joined them.

Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, against a backdrop of activism and changing attitudes, publishers challenged censorship boundaries.

New South Wales courts were being clogged with cases relating to breaches of obscenity laws, thanks in large part to UNSW student newspaper Tharunka and its editor, Wendy Bacon.

"There'd been an awful lot of self-censorship in Australia leading up to the early '70s and in fact literary journals wouldn't publish anything that was too risky," she told The Drum.

"So we had a view that censorship had to be broken down by direct action. That is, publishing material."

Naked bodies and coarse language featured prominently and often in Tharunka's pages.

Ms Bacon's campaigning continued into the courtroom, and on two occasions even landed her in prison.

In one instance, she and others turned up in nuns' habits emblazoned with sexually explicit poetry. They were accompanied by a man in a gorilla costume, handing out copies of the poem that was the subject of the court case.

"We really believed that the court had no place at all in limiting what we were publishing, so we sort of turned the court into a theatre," she says.

In the courtroom directly next door, another censorship battle was taking place, albeit in a different form. It would go on to change the Australian censorship landscape forever.

Publisher Penguin Books was facing off against the authorities, after illegally publishing Philip Roth's 1969 novel, Portnoy's Complaint.

The book, which chronicles the therapy sessions of a compulsive masturbator, is salacious even by today's standards.

It was an instant bestseller in the United States, selling 200,000 copies within two months of its release.

But in Australia, "the censors looked for sex and four-letter words," writes Mullins, "and they found them in abundance".

Portnoy's Complaint was added to Australia's list of prohibited imports. Penguin decided to publish it anyway, printing and distributing the books in secret, and coordinating their release on one day in August 1970.

Mullins describes it as the boldest act of censorship defiance in Australian publishing history.

"This was a moment where the cream of Australia's literary elite, where journalists, writers, academics and publishers stood up and said 'enough is enough'."

Ultimately the Publications Classification Board took control of censorship in Australia, and its attention pivoted from literature to imagery.

Following the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972, restrictions were loosened further.

Half a century on, Bacon says the publishing landscape has changed, but the issue of censorship persists.

"There are really serious issues that we certainly wouldn't have been concerned about in the 1970s. Secret trials, raids on the ABC a huge array of national security laws that really do limit the capacity of journalists to investigate," she says.

She cites a recent incident, in which a mural depicting a police van in flames was painted over by police almost immediately after it went up on a wall in a Redfern alleyway.

"When we look at the Black Lives Matter movement and the issue of deaths in custody, I was shocked it would be painted over," Bacon says.

"Political censorship is alive and well in Sydney today."

The chair of Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good, Samara Jose, told The Drum First Nations People continue to have much of their history written out of school curriculums.

"We've been censored for such a long time," she says.

"In our schools, our histories aren't being taught Young people still struggle with understanding First Nations histories, and they're fresh out of high school.

"This is why the Uluru Statement from the Heart asks for a Makarata Commission to specifically talk about truth-telling."

Bacon says she still believes the best way to tackle censorship is through direct action.

"You have to do it," she says.

"It involves risks, but where possible, you should just publish."

The Drum airs weeknights on ABC and News Channel.

See the original post:
The little book, Portnoy's Complaint, that changed censorship and the pioneer activist who says we should still be concerned - ABC News

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 24: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a joint news conference with Polish ... [+] President Andrzej Duda in the Rose Garden of the White House on June 24, 2020 in Washington, DC. Duda, who faces a tight re-election contest in four days, is Trump's first world-leader visit from overseas since the coronavirus pandemic began. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

I have a few fringe beliefs.

One is that aliens really do exist. How could they not, in a galaxy this big? I also happen to think Elon Musk is a once-in-a-century genius who will probably become President one day (all we have to do is change the rules about birthplace restrictions).

Now, those views are not that uncommon. They wont get me kicked out of the local country club. If I posted them on Twitter right now, no one would blink an eye.

The problem is that its extremely difficult to define a fringe belief.

Recently, President Trump has posted a few callous remarks on Twitter and an offensive symbol on Facebook.You could easily call them mean-spirited. He mentioned how he will show force to protestors in Washington. Twitter and Facebook have marked these posts, hid them, or flagged them in some other way as an alert to social media users. It all seems pretty legit and purposeful. I like that social media companies are doing something to address misinformation and online abuse.

Heres an example of a tweet that was flagged:

I never make political comments, and Im not about to step up on a soapbox about free speech, censorship, and the rights of users to share false information. Its a thorny issue and one that wont be resolved anytime soon. My main issue with the flags and blocks is that it might be a sign of things to come.

Thats not a political statement. Its a lesson from a college course.

Way back when, I took a philosophy course about logic and persuasion and it really stuck in my synapses. I remember specific sections of the textbook and the lectures, but the one that really took hold is called the slippery slope fallacy. Its illogical because small adjustments dont always lead to major changes. In the logic class, the professor said its a false conclusion. Taking tiny sips of beer as a teenager wont automatically make you an alcoholic in a month. Increasing the speed limit a little doesnt mean were all going to start driving like crazy animals.

Except for one minor problem. Time and time again, the slippery slope is far from a fallacy. Sometimes, small slips do lead to major slides. (Studies show that teens really should avoid sipping any alcoholic drinks. Also, we do drive like crazy animals.)

Twitter and Facebook are making tiny steps. Hold on for the ride.

My question on this topic is not political in nature: How fringe does it need to be? Also, how do we define misinformation? When is it a nastygram and when is it abuse? My issue is not with the current flags and warnings. Its that social media companies might not be the best arbiters of what should be flagged. They are supported by advertising. They dont really make anything or sell anything. Also, social media is a breeding ground for fringe ideas they are the ones that get the most attention.

Where is this all heading? Will we see more and more flags?

The answer appears to be yes, according to some experts.

You will continue to see them make adjustments as we get closer and closer to a volatile election, says digital marketer Matt Ray from ChatterBlast Media, a digital marketing company. Facebook and Twitter are not subject to the same rules and regulations as our radio or television airwaves.

Ray argues that its an important step and required as we head into the election cycle, but stopped short of agreeing with me that its a dangerous pattern.

Social media platforms are becoming more aggressive with the material they are allowing to populate their sites, he says. And much more aggressive in their review of that material. They have to. People are angry with them. Facebook and Twitter are owned by publicly-traded companies, and a majority of Americans are concerned with social media's ability to manage divisive speech, fake news, and propaganda.

Another expert told me the problem is not going to go away.

Getting people to trust the Internet is becoming more difficult because there is no arbiter of truth and everyone can find their own echo chamber, adds Kevin Lee, the Trust and Safety Architect at digital trust company Sift. Were witnessing the exact same controversies on misinformation, hate speech and free speech that we saw in the 2016 presidential election.

Will flagging content like this work? Im not sure. Flagging outright abuse is far easier than judging whether something is just a fringe belief.

Im watching how this unfolds and theres no question were going to see more of these flags in the future with Trump other candidates this election season.

You might like what you see so far, depending on your political views, but its just a matter of time before social media companies start flagging more and more content and start politicizing the ads and posts from the candidates (and for everyone else).

Looking further ahead it might end when we cant say anything.

Continue reading here:
Facebook And Twitter Keep Censoring President Trump As A Way To Prepare For The Upcoming Election. Heres Why Im Worried - Forbes

When the University of Waterloo, where I teach and research, issued a statement to the media saying that the university unequivocally believes that there is no place for the use of the N-word in class, on campus or in our community, I felt as we say in Black culture some type of way. By this I mean I was stunned, confused, misunderstood and scared. I immediately stopped teaching. No, I didnt quit my job. I stopped doing my job because I wanted to keep it. Ironic, I know. The statement placed me in a veritable Catch-22.

That very week, I was preparing my lecture on Sharon Bridgforths novel love conjure/blues. This Black cultural performance text features a character named Nigga-Red a queer, masculine, Black woman. Further, the white sheriff in the text uses the N-word once in a derogatory way.

The universitys pronouncement that there is no place for the word in class, chilled me. I froze when I reviewed my assignment: Bridgforth describes her text as a performance literature/a novel that is constructed for breath, which means students must read the book out loud. How could I continue to teach?

My dilemma doesnt end here, as it might for a white professor. After all, I am a Black man, born in the United States, living in Canada. I belong to multiple Black communities, where we use the N-word in six or seven culturally rich ways, as beautifully explained by novelist Gloria Naylor in a 1986 essay published in the New York Times: Whats in a Name? I cant help but bring my Black body, Black voice, Black speech and Black soul to work.

After the university released its statement, however, I struggled with a hurtful and completely preventable question am I even welcome?

Professionally, I am a scholar of speech communication. My research squarely theorizes the N-word. For example, my first book is titled Your Average Nigga. A full half of the books six chapters deal with the N-word. Part of the book is used in my departments public speaking curriculum.

If the university finds no place on campus and community for the N-word, then the statement censors my language, and constructively banishes me, not only as a Black man, but also as a Black studies scholar. I refuse to accept that the problem is my research or me; nor do I believe that if I stop using the word in my personal life, teaching and research that white supremacy and anti-Blackness will end. The problem is just the opposite.

To forbid the N-word actually serves the purposes of white supremacy and resuscitates racism rather than defeat it. I say this because we know our society oppresses Black people. But do you know that we are also culturally suppressed in predominantly white spaces? Barring the N-word functions as a too-easy way to quash the six or seven insightful ways the word functions in Black culture.

The universitys proscription, to be blunt, is a form of cultivated ignorance about Black lingo. The university is a microcosm of society, and neither seems eager to do the interesting and important work to understand Black peoples, Black communities and Black rhetoric. Anthony Stewart calls Canadians out in this regard in his book Visitor: My Life in Canada.

Stewart, a Black Canadian, says he has always felt like a visitor, although he had never lived anywhere else. That is a conversation Canadians have avoided having in public and need to begin having if Canada, he says, is going to live up to its claims of diversity and tolerance.

If society were interested in Black culture then prohibiting the N-word would never be the first thing that comes to mind. I direct this specifically to my university community. If the university were truly interested, it would have consulted scholars of Black language before issuing its uninformed and consequentially harmful statement. Kofi Campbell, a University of Waterloo vice-president and dean who is Black, penned a letter to the university president, calling for such a consultation.

I am one of five or six tenured Black faulty on a campus that employs hundreds of educators. I think I am the only African American. The absence of and lack of conference with what amounts to a mere handful of Black people does not occur by chance. My friend and scholar Joni L. Jones explains more about how this power dynamic works in her speech and essay Six Rules for Allies. This lack of consultation says unequivocally that Black voices and our presence do not matter.

Forbidding the N-word is like trying to squash unequivocal racists, which is unproductive because racism is now a neoliberal problem that we all traffic in daily. Racisms are part of our policies and everyday even liberal seeming behaviour. This is what institutional and systemic racism means. Please, dont get this twisted.

Everyday seemingly innocent policies and procedures that negatively and disproportionately affect Blacks is what the #BlackLivesMatter protests around the globe are about.

I believe we should leave the Black cultural uses of the N-word relatively alone. I personally do not say the word when I teach unless it is a direct quote from a text. I know words can abuse.

From a rhetorical perspective, I refer to the Greek term apophasis, a device wherein the speaker brings up a subject by either denying it, or denying that it should be used. In other words, a white teacher could use the word in a lecture, saying it should not be casually uttered, while fully intending to spread its derogatory shame.

Because of this, and also knowing there are multiple sensitivities, misunderstandings, and intentional illiteracy about the word, I stick to my notes and refer to the word as the N-word. I think that is respectful in mixed company.

When I assign literature that uses the word, I do not censor students reading the word aloud. Many decline. Thats their academic choice. My Black students may use the word in discussion if they, like me, belong to cultures that embrace the multifarious positive cultural meanings of the word. Non-blacks, and whites especially, may not casually use the word. I agree with linguist John McWhorter that whites who ask, Why cant we use it if they do? are simply disingenuous.

I understand that the university thought that it was being an ally when it took its abrupt step to bar a word. But true allies treat Blacks as partners, not patrons. They do not demand that Blacks abandon our culture, and certainly do not suppress our language. Allies consult! They dont just take over.

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Banning the N-word on campus ain't the answer it censors Black professors like me - The Conversation CA

The now infamous sex scene in The Last of Us Part II, which graphically depicts the first few moments of intercourse between newcomers Abby and Owen, has been censored in the Japanese release of the game.

As documented by Censored Gaming, an account run across several social media platforms dedicated to cataloging various instances of censorship across the entirety of video game history, the awkward imitation of sexual relations in The Last of Us Part II was censored in Japan due to the Japanese console rating system (CERO) and its rules forbidding certain explicit content.

Related: The Last Of Us Part IIs Sex Scene Featuring Abby, Promoted as Tasteful, Leaks Ahead of Official Release

To abide by these regulations, the game fades to black not long after the characters begin kissing, cutting out the nudity and other explicit content that follows.

When the existence of the in-game sex scene was first revealed, Naughty Dog VP and The Last of Us Part II director Neil Druckmann promoted the scene as tasteful.

Related: Sony Confirms Existence of Strict Content Censorship Policy Regarding PlayStation 4 Releases

This particular instance of censorship is, sadly, quite ironic, considering Sony has made a company policy of censoring even the slightest of risqu content in Japanese games, only to have a pretentiously lauded scene of their own production censored upon its release in Japan.

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censorshipNaughty DogNeil DruckmannSonyThe Last of Us Part II

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Japanese Release of The Last of Us Part II Censors Abby Sex Scene - Bounding Into Comics

David Frenchs recent commentary on the conservative response to social medias, in particular Twitters, escalating suppression of political speech challenged me to fully understand my own position. A few years ago, when Milo Yiannopoulos was banned from the platform, and various purges began to occur, I argued firmly that Twitter was a private company and we were using it freely. If they wanted to remove certain commentary that offended other users, it was their right to do so. I no longer hold this view.

French wrote, in six tweets: "When you hear increasing right-wing... calls for government oversight of social media speech policies, it's vitally important to understand some of the career/economic context. Many of the people most alarmed made a gamble.

"They invested enormous time, energy, and effort into a platform they didn't create, don't control, and use for free. They've built impressive followings here, sometimes through edge-lord behavior, skating at the outer margins of Twitter's policies.

"As progressive speech values shift (after all, this is a site created by progressives and run by progressives) some of that on-the-line tweeting is going to cross newly-created lines, thus jeopardizing all that effort and risking extinguishing their primary public presence.

"That's why the debate often takes on a slightly-crazed tone. It's not merely an abstract debate over constitutional principles and corporate values. Lots of folks went all-in on creating an edgy presence on arguably the most progressive social media site.

"They don't want to start over on Facebook. They don't want to flee to Gab. Nor do they want to start from scratch on TikTok... or Snapchat or YouTube or Reddit. And they're certainly not content to 'only' write on the platforms they own.

"So here we are, in the grips of an incredibly self-interested effort to pull more and more of the government into social media regulation, even to the point of potentially overriding long-cherished First Amendment freedoms. It's important to understand one reason why."

Over time, my position changed as I saw the power and influence that Twitter, in particular, held in the political conversation. While the focus was on the more extreme styles of political commentary coming from the right, Milo was, after all a strong proponent of free expression, similar in nature to leftwing heroes like Madonna and Lady Gaga, a larger picture came into focus. Just like the removal of Confederate-era statues today, the left was not simply going to stop once the more abrasive elements were removed.

In 2015 and prior, President Obamas official account tweeted, certainly. But it was the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump that demonstrated the power of this platform for political speech. Ever since then, the primary outlet for direct speech from elected leaders, across the spectrum, is via Twitter. We have watched establishment leaders to brand new voices all shake the political ground from coast to coast with mere tweets, 280 characters. The honest and directness of this communication is unlike anything we have seen before.

The news in its form from just a few years ago has dramatically shifted to this platform. Journalists live-tweet and share video of current events directly rather than through the filter of a news broadcast. The method of communicating political ideas in long form such as this essay are shared across many platforms, but it is Twitter where they receive direct and immediate commentary. An article on Facebook may receive thousands of comments, but the author of a tweet sees every response directly.

While French is correct that Twitter is a progressive platform created by progressives, he does not yet recognize that the medium has grown exponentially beyond being just another platform to express ideas. All major social media platforms are progressive platforms. It is an ideological monopoly, and despite dismissal from many who grew up without such concepts, represents not only a record of modern life, but access to it as well.

Frenchs argument is based largely on an older idea of social media stating, evidenced by his statement that They invested enormous time, energy, and effort into a platform they didn't create, don't control, and use for free. They've built impressive followings here, sometimes through edge-lord behavior, skating at the outer margins of Twitter's policies.

While he is accurate in his assessment of many voices in politics, he does not recognize that Twitter is made up of all of our voices and it functions as a live conversation of the human experience.

Many who agree with Frenchs assessment of Twitter, and social media in general, see only the origin and the purpose, but do not understand the impact. Twitter is powerful because the media came to it and chose to use it as a primary method of communication. Politicians did the same. World leaders, national and world organizations, public health officials, the police and so on have come to rely on the platform for widespread, instantaneous mass communication. The world chose Twitter for its technological ability, just as the world chose radio, television and telephones in prior eras, not its ideological purpose.

Twitter is a method of communication, not just a private company offering a free service. It is how the nation and the world engages in political speech and participation in this conversation is vital for said speech. While alternatives like Parler offer a space to express ideas much more freely, they simply cannot duplicate what Twitter is, functionally. Twitter is not just a platform to express personal ideas, it is very literally access to the public square and political conversation.

Twitter only works because of its universal usage by all media, advocacy and political voices. Segregating ourselves away from it will be like creating our own shortwave radio station. Sure we can speak without concern of suppression, but who will hear us? The point of political speech is to be able to hold our politicians accountable and increasingly, hold our media accountable. Today that requires the ability to respond directly to the media and to politicians. Not simply commenting on them in our own space.

What French and others on the right who mock or dismiss or even denounce the argument in favor of some form of regulation or government oversight into social media do not recognize is that the ability to participate in the political conversation is moving exclusively to this medium.

Whereas in the past a conservative could publish a scathing opinion, expose a political lie or correct a media story in a weekly column or monthly magazine, or in a book a year later, today relevance in the political world requires instantaneous and direct response. If we leave or are forced off of Twitter, we lose the ability to participate at all.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary not only because powerful political authorities denied black Americans access to their civil rights at the local and state level, but because they were also prevented from participating in common life necessary for individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many on the right argued the private property aspects were outside of the Federal governments authority, and they were correct. But the nation required unique action to address a reality created by a small population of bigots that held the power to prevent Americans from participating in common life based solely on who they were.

I believe we are in a similar scenario today. It is not only the fact we are actively marginalized as individuals based on who we are, but the very nature of our speech and our worldview has been labeled unacceptable to be heard at all. In this national and global conversation, a small, powerful group has decided that not only should we not be allowed to participate in what has become the common public conversation, but our very ideas must be erased from it.

And for me, that is the breaking point of this issue. We talk about Twitter in the same way we do Walmart or Amazon. But in reality Twitter is much more like the highway system, national phone lines, television or the electric and water company. We could survive without them, but we would simply not be participating in common life if we did.

More to the point, we deserve a voice in the political conversation and we should be strong enough to demand it. What Frenchs commentary assumes is a life beyond the internet and social media. What he simply does not yet recognize is that era has passed. If conservatives want to have a voice in politics today and certainly in the future, our only option is to fight for our right to participate in it equally, even if we must go against our normal instincts to do so once again.

Continued here:
Conservatives must fight Twitter censorship or risk losing their voice - The Post Millennial