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Irans hardline authorities on Wednesday prepared for another round of protests by shutting down mobile Internet access to overseas sites in several restive provinces, an Iranian news agency reported.

Relatives of people killed last month during unrest over gasoline price hikes have called for renewed protests and commemoration ceremonies for the dead on Thursday.

The semi-official news agency ILNA quoted a source at the Communications and Information Technology Ministry as saying the shutdown was ordered by security authorities and covered the Alborz, Kurdestan and Zanjan provinces in central and western Iran and Fars in the south.

According to this source, it is possible that more provinces will be affected by the shutdown of mobile international connectivity, ILNA said.

In November, Iran shut down the Internet for about a week to help stifle the fuel protests which turned political, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.

The Internet censorship made it difficult for protesters to post videos on social media to generate support and also to obtain reliable reports on the extent of the unrest and government violence.

With Post wires

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Iran censors internet on the eve of new protests - New York Post

This week, there was a whole bunch of hubbub over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation airing an edit of the seminal 1992 holiday film Home Alone 2: Lost In New York in which Donald Trump's cameo was cut for time. Trump himself even claimed that this was somehow the nefarious doings of one Justin Trudeau as some kind of NATO-based revenge. On Thursday's edition of Fox and Friends, co-host Katie Pavlich claimed that this was obviously "censorship" and all the other co-hosts agreed that it was exemplary of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and that the scene was cut because Canada itself was terrified to show that before Donald Trump was the New Hitler, he was a beloved cultural figure.

And sure, that was a thing. For a while. Right up until he started hollering at Rosie O'Donnell, and accusing President Obama of faking his birthplace and generally turning himself into a national joke. Lots of people have been beloved cultural icons prior to everyone figuring out they are actually horrible.

Anyway, the big problem with this very prescient take is that this particular edit happened not this year, but in 2014, back when "President Donald Trump" was still a bad Simpson's joke. So unless these editors had psychic powers of some kind and just knew that Donald Trump was going to run for president two years later on a platform of pussy-grabbing and racism, it really was just a not-very-important-scene being cut for time to make room for commercials.

On Friday's edition of The Five, on which Pavlich also appeared, she actually shockingly enough acknowledged this and admitted that she was wrong about it being "censorship."

Via The Daily Beast (where you can also watch the clip):

"I have to issue a correction," the conservative Fox host stated. "Because apparently this edit happened in 2014.""I was saying it would have been censorship if they did it now," she added. "Because it would have been political. But it happened before he was president. So I apologize for that. However, it is still stupid."

And that is probably the best anyone is getting out of her. Why it's stupid, we don't know. Maybe she feels as though this was a very important plot point in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York? I wouldn't know! As much as I do love Tim Curry and Catherine O'Hara, I don't think I've actually seen that movie since I was a child.

Just to be clear though, there's a reason they are doing this and as absolutely stupid and petty as it sounds, it's actually quite smart. In a way. It makes these people identify even more fiercely with Trump, it makes them feel like they have to step up and defend him from the mean liberals who won't even let him have his Home Alone cameo, and that creates loyalty like you can't believe. Are Trump, his supporters, or Fox viewers in general actually being "censored?" Of course not. But "I've been censored" is a lot easier on the ego than "No one wants to hear my shit." So the more Trump and Fox play up the "censorship!" and "freeze peach" angles on things, the more validated their target audience feels. They know they've got a winner with this particular line of bullshit, and they're not wrong.

The way this particular incident ended was perfect. It wasn't that Trump was being "censored," it was that the movie was edited well before he was ever president, and instead of looking like victims, they all looked like fools. All they needed was enough rope.

[The Daily Beast]

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Fox News Lady Sorry She Insisted That Home Alone 2 Edit Was A Candian Plot To 'Censor' Trump - Wonkette

Many investors recognize Tencent (OTC:TCEHY) as the largest video game publisher in the world; the owner of WeChat, China's top messaging app; and a market leader in the digital-payment, advertising, and media-streaming markets.

When reviewing Tencent's financials, they'll likely focus on its core growth engines -- its gaming, digital advertising, fintech, and cloud businesses. However, those headline numbers only give us a surface-level understanding of the 21-year-old company. Today, we'll examine nine lesser-known facts about the Chinese tech giant.

Image source: Getty Images.

WeChat isn't just a messaging app that serves 1.15 billion usersmonthly. It's an all-in-one "super app" that lets users pay bills, order food, book tickets, hail rides, and more.

However, any messages and images sent on WeChat areautomatically scanned for taboo topics by AI algorithms. Offending messages are deleted, often instantly, to prevent China's cyberspace regulators from cracking down on the platform. This isn't surprising, but it's a controversial tactic that often frustrates the app's foreign users.

Tencent's first product was a clone of the messaging app ICQ called OICQ (Open ICQ).ICQ's owner, AOL, threatened tosue Tencent over trademark violations, and OICQ was rebranded as QQ, which expanded into a broader messaging ecosystem. Roughly 731 million people still use QQ on a monthly basis.

Last year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) honored 100 individuals fortheir contributions to the country. That list included Tencent CEO Pony Ma, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) CEO Robin Li, and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) founder Jack Ma. Jack Ma is notably a member of the CPC, but Pony Ma and Robin Li are not affiliated with any political parties.

Chinese regulators crack down on tech companies for myriad reasons, so companies often go to great lengths to stay in the government's good graces. Tencent even launched a game two years ago to coincide with President Xi's speech during the 19th Congress of the CPC. That game, Clapping Hands for Xi Jinping, played a short video of Xi's speech, and players tried to clapas many times as possible within 19 seconds.

However, that fawning gesture didn't prevent China's regulators from suspending all new gaming approvals for nine months the following year and crippling one of Tencent's core businesses.

Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu are clearly subservient to China's government, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Three years ago, the Wall Street Journal claimed that the Chinese government wanted to buy1% stakes in Tencent and other domestic tech giants, gainspecial "management shares," and claim seats on the companies' boards. It's unclear if those plans are still in motion, but they indicate that the Chinese government wants to tighten its grip on its top tech companies.

Image source: Getty Images.

Two years ago, China's Ministry of Science and Technology recruited the BAT triumvirate and iFlytek to lead the development of new AI technologies.

The Ministry assigned Baidu to self-driving cars, Alibaba to smart cities, iFlytek to voice technologies, and Tencent to computer vision applications in healthcare. This complements WeChat's integration into China's hospitals, many of which accept WeChat Pay payments, and the expansion of its cloud business into the healthcare sector.

Tencent is the second-largest cloud platform provider in China after Alibaba, but it still trails far behind market leaders like Amazon and Microsoft in overseas markets. But that could change soon.

Tencent already operates data centers in the U.S., Canada, Singapore, India, and Germany, and it believes that it canmore than quadruple its overseas cloud revenue this year. It faces an uphill battle, but it could be an appealing choice for overseas companies that want to tether themselves to Tencent's ecosystem of social, advertising, and gaming services in China.

Tencent has invested in a long list of companies overseas, including Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Tesla Motors, Snap, and nearly 50 unicorn start-ups. That massive investment portfolio now generates over a quarter of Tencent's profits -- and results in big gaps between its GAAP and non-GAAP earnings.

Lastly, Tencent's largest stakeholder is South African internet group Naspers (OTC:NPSNY), which invested $32 million in the company in 2001. It sold someofits shares since then, but it stillowns a 31% stake -- which is worth about $150 billion today. Pony Ma ranks second in ownership with a 9% stake.

Link:
AI Censors and 8 Other Things You Didn't Know About Tencent - Motley Fool

Dear 2020,

The Censorship Vs Creative freedom debate is possibly one of the longest running ones and it will not end any time. But I absolutely dont agree to the view that creative freedom should be absolute. Censorship is important because without that anyone will be putting out anything in the public domain under the garb of creative content. Without censorship, it will become a jungle raj, a free-for-all! In fact, I am already seeing something similar happening in the web series space. Things are increasingly taking a bizarre turn. There are web series that are misusing the lack of censorship and putting out random nudity, sex scenes, and extreme violence in the name of hard-hitting content. But often these are only used to grab eyeballs and serve no other purpose in the story. In fact, there is one such web series that I have sang the title song for, I had no idea that it will turn out to be a compilation of rural sex stories.

There are countries like Sweden that have no censorship. But our ground realities are very different from them. Censorship and its mandate should be based on the norms and values of the country and updated as the society progresses. Advocating the total abolishment of censorship is no less dangerous than the smothering censorship during Emergency period. The world does not work in extremes, there needs to be a middle path. The censor board needs to be formed with the right kind of people and should represent a cross section of the society.

Also, I dont think there is some serious attack on creative freedom in India today. A film like Udta Punjab (2016) was eventually passed with just one cut. This would be unthinkable 10 years back. I think we are far more liberal today. Also, there are ways to say the same thing in a different manner. Look at the cinema of Raj Kumar Hirani, apart from PK (2014), which got into trouble with the censor board for nudity, none of his five films got the snip and yet all were bold commentaries on the society. The problem is that today most people want to create controversial content just to get some easy publicity. Also, you dont need to be derogatory to prove a point. If you simply want to be blatant and offensive then you are on a very wrong track to begin with.

Having said that, political content can land you in some trouble but that is nothing new, it has been the same under every regime.

So, in 2020 I want artists to become more responsible and not use their creative freedom to peddle soft-porn, especially on the OTT platforms, and I also hope for a well-represented, accountable and standardised censor board.

(As told to Ananya Ghosh)

Naseeruddin Shahs open letter to 2020. Read here

Makarand Deshpandes open letter to 2020. Read here

Faezeh Jalalis poem for 2020. Read here

HT Brunch cover story: By the people, for the people, of the people Four thespians write down their wishlist for 2020. Read the entire article here

From HT Brunch, December 29, 2019

Follow us on twitter.com/HTBrunch

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Dear 2020: Piyush Mishras open letter to the coming year - Hindustan Times

As over one lakh Mumbaikars converged to peacefully protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act as well as the National Register of Citizens at the August Kranti Maidan on 19 December, a group of young theatre practitioners unfolded the history of Kashmir toa packed house, 24 kilometres away.Aksariyat Akliyat, a grippingplatform theatrical from the Delhi-based Alternative Space Project, traces the mythological and contemporary narratives around the formation of Jammu and Kashmir which continue to shape perspectives on the Valley and its people.

We are introduced to the legend of Jalodbhava, the demon who would terrorise the neighbouring mountain folk of ancient Kashmir until Lord Vishnu intervened and put an end to his life. Civilisation flourishes and soon, Kashmir is shownnavigating the 1940s, marked by fear and violence. Certain exchanges between Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the events leading up to the execution of the Instrument of Accession, signed 1947, are revisited. Before culminating in present-day Kashmir, Aksariyat Akliyat charts the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989. After a rousing 40-minutes, the writer, director and team of actors take a curtain call.

The team of actors from Alternative Space Project present Aksariyat Akliyat at Mumbai's Prithvi Theatre.

After making his way of out of the black-box theatre minutes after the performance has ended, director Vivek Tyagi mulls over the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution, which fortuitously was announced a fortnight after the first draft of the play had been finalised.It was then that Tyagi and his writer, Karan Chaudhary, decided to make a few changes to their script to factor inthe geopolitical implications of the repeal. "We were in talks with certain artists from Kashmir whom we were consulting to understand Article 370 better. However, on 5 August, we were suddenly cut off from them due to the communication blockade. Therefore, we had to do our own research and tweak the play given the political environment of the nation," recounts Tyagi.

Being performed by an independent theatre collective with young actors lends Aksariyat Akliyat an unusualfervour, almost identical to the unbothered air of a student-led nukkad natak, which remains wildly popular in Indian varsity campuses. However, Tyagi and Chaudhary bring a certain gravity to their treatment of Kashmir's past. Perhaps it is their brush with censorship two in the post-Article 370 India that has brought on this sobriety to their craft. But what threat could a year-old performing arts collectivepose? The question may have baffled those associated with the play, including the six actors. However, certain organisers of two theatre festivals in Gujarat and Lucknow were convinced theplay's rhetoric was incendiary."They asked us for the poster and script of our play.When we sent them the documents, they told us our play was too 'heated', and could be stopped if the script contained anything too contentious. The talks fizzled out soon even though they had imitated contact with us," says Tyagi.

Despite the hiccups, the Alternative Space Projecthas been able to bring the play to three Indian cities Mumbai, Jaipur and Udaipur. However, they acknowledgethe clampdown oncreative expression, which became prominent earlier this weekas organisers of Pune's prestigiousFirodiya Karandak competition, set in motion a new rule barring plays on 'sensitive' political issues for this year's edition. "This 'wave' is restraining the writers and directors of our country. Many are now afraid of speaking against the government; we were too. When we created Aksariyat Akliyat, we were almost apprehensive about showing it publicly, which is why we have not held any outdoor performances," points out Chaudhary.

What bringsmembers of the collective some solace is taking a second look at their purpose as young theatre artists: to speak up. "Dissent is the backbone of theatre. We cannot muzzle artistic voices," warns Tyagi. For Chaudhary, nothing whets an artist's appetite like the present times. "It's a breeding ground for ideas and that serves the purpose of my theatre well," he says.

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Amid censorship fears, Delhi-based theatre group puts Kashmir's history into perspective, post Article 370 - Firstpost