Posted on 03/20/2019 1:48:35 PM PDT by Red Badger
After Blocking Zero Hedge And Others, NZ Telcos Demand Big-Tech Censorship Surge To “Protect Consumers”
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In the wake of last week’s terror attacks at two New Zealand mosques which left 50 dead, several websites which either reported on the incident, hosted footage of the attacks, or have simply allowed people to engage in uncensored discussion such as Dissenter or Zero Hedge, have been partially or completely blocked in both New Zealand and Australia for the sake of “protecting consumers,” according to the CEOs of three New Zealand telcos.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting – which was broadcast over Facebook Live by accused gunman Brenton Tarrant to an initial audience of just 200 viewers (none of whom reported it) and had 4,000 overall views before it was taken down – Facebook deleted 1.5 million videos of the attack, of which 1.2 million were blocked at the time of upload.
A video of the attacks is still freely available to anyone who wishes to download it from bittorrent.
Twitter has also been aggressively censoring content related to the Christchurch shooting – perhaps most egregiously forcing journalist Nick Monroe to delete a large number of tweets as he covered the incident in real time, just one of which had links to footage of the shooting. Document hosting website Scribd, meanwhile, has been deleting copies of Tarrant’s 74-page manifesto.
In addition to documenting the incident, Monroe has been noting the mass censorship surrounding the shootings – as well as things such as the New Zealand herald stealth editing a March 15 article to remove mention of a “well known Muslim local” who “chased the shooters and fired two shots at them as they sped off.”
That said, Twitter and Facebook’s suppression hasn’t gone far enough according to New Zealand telecom CEOs, who have penned an open letter to Facebook, Twitter and Google suggesting that they follow European proposals for hyper-vigilant policing of content for the sake of ‘protecting consumers.’
“Consumers have the right to be protected, whether using services funded by money or data. Now is the time for this conversation to be had and we call on all of you to join us at the table and be part of the solution,” reads the letter.
Zero Hedge banned… again.
Less than a week after Facebook ‘mistakenly’ banned us for two days with no explanation following several reports which were critical of the social media giant, we learned that Zero Hedge has now been banned in New Zealand and Australia, despite the fact that we never hosted video footage of the Christchurch attack. We were not contacted prior to the censorship. Instead, we have received a steady flood of people noting that the site is unavailable in the two countries unless a VPN is used.
And while Australia and New Zealand account for a negligible amount of traffic to Zero Hedge, the stunning arrogance of NZ and OZ telcos to arbitrarily impose nanny-state restrictions on content is more than a little disturbing, and should – at least in a so-called democracy – be subject to majority vote.
Also banned down under are the ‘chans’ and video hosting platform LiveLeak, among others.
The letter continues:
“You may be aware that on the afternoon of Friday 15 March, three of New Zealand’s largest broadband providers, Vodafone NZ, Spark and 2degrees, took the unprecedented step to jointly identify and suspend access to web sites that were hosting video footage taken by the gunman related to the horrific terrorism incident in Christchurch,” reads the joint letter from Vodafone’s Jason Paris, and NZ telcos Spark and 2degrees Simon Moutter Stewart Sherriff.
“As key industry players, we believed this extraordinary step was the right thing to do in such extreme and tragic circumstances. Other New Zealand broadband providers have also taken steps to restrict availability of this content, although they may be taking a different approach technically,” the letter continues.
We also accept it is impossible as internet service providers to prevent completely access to this material. But hopefully we have made it more difficult for this content to be viewed and shared – reducing the risk our customers may inadvertently be exposed to it and limiting the publicity the gunman was clearly seeking.”
“Internet service providers are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, with blunt tools involving the blocking of sites after the fact. The greatest challenge is how to prevent this sort of material being uploaded and shared on social media platforms and forums.
“We call on Facebook, Twitter and Google, whose platforms carry so much content, to be a part of an urgent discussion at an industry and New Zealand Government level on an enduring solution to this issue.”
So while the telcos have defended their decision to censor a wide swath of material in order to shield people from dangerous information – and have encouraged social media platforms to commit to European-style information control, Kiwis and Australians will only get to know what the technocracy approves in order to ‘protect consumers.’
Unless they set aside 15 seconds and use a VPN.
protecting consumers from what, some facts, likely truth? sorry NZ that’s not protection even if you call it so.
Bring back the BBS!
suggesting that they follow European proposals for hyper-vigilant policing of content for the sake of ‘protecting consumers.’
.......................................................
How nice, they are concerned about us.
Even Netflix thinks I'm in Florida.
Final? Somehow, with this inexorable push toward Marxism, I think the “progressives” have only just begun. By contrast, those of us who value our freedom have yet to begin...
Elites in all countries look at the ChiCom Great Firewall with extreme envy.
We may have to resort to Samizdat...........again..................
Twitter and Facebook should be shut down due to the mosque shooting.
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter used Gab as a platform to broadcast his lunacy. As a result Gab was immediately shut down.
So why not the same treatment for Facebook and Twitter? Because leftists use double standards, that’s why.
I wonder if they could use that Tor browser. I heard/read it mentioned on FR.
Free Republic is http://209.157.64.200
Adjust your bookmarks. One day your ISP will ban www.FreeRepublic.com
Yet I can still go on youtube and watch that video of some american politician from the 80s taking a gun out of a paper bag like it was a bologna sandwich and blowing the back of his head off.
The way blood comes out is NOTHING like in the movies.
SO MUCH faster.
Censorship is a strange and picky thing.
What’s your reasoning behind FR being banned?
Is it affiliated with FB or Twitter.
Are we in NZ?
Blanket statements without much backup need to stop around here.
Here in Canada, tried to mention the 200 dead in Nigeria, and had my post disabled, on the National Post. So did others.
“Whenever I travel I use a VPN.
Even Netflix thinks I’m in Florida.”
Good idea. However, if it’s a US-based VPN, rumor has it that the NSA has their tentacles in there. They have supposedly pressured the US VPNs for access. I use a foreign owned and based VPN that they don’t have their paws into.
They, the Left, WILL NOT ALLOW a contradictory thought to get to the people...................
Is it affiliated with FB or Twitter.
Are we in NZ?
Blanket statements without much backup need to stop around here
I adjusted my FR bookmark a while back because it *did* happen. It was the result of a DNS blacklisting; subsequently claimed to be an accident or oversight, but regardless it did happen.
Done, thanks........................
Wow. Didn’t know that.
The Autocrat’s New Tool Kit
The next generation of repressive technology will make past efforts to spread propaganda and quash dissent look primitive.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-autocrats-new-tool-kit-11552662637
Chinese authorities are now using the tools of big data to detect departures from “normal” behavior among Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region—and then to identify each supposed deviant for further state attention. The Egyptian government plans to relocate from Cairo later this year to a still-unnamed new capital that will have, as the project’s spokesman put it, “cameras and sensors everywhere,” with “a command center to control the entire city.” Moscow already has some 5,000 cameras installed with facial-recognition technology, and it can match faces of interest to the Russian state to photos from passport databases, police files and even VK, the country’s most popular social media platform.
...Many of these advances will give autocrats new ways to spread propaganda, both internally and externally. One key technology is automated microtargeting. Today’s microtargeting relies on personality assessments to tailor content to segments of a population, based on their psychological, demographic or behavioral characteristics.
...In a widely viewed TED Talk in 2017, techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci described a world where “people in power [use] these algorithms to quietly watch us, to judge us and to nudge us, to predict and identify the troublemakers and the rebels.”
...For years, the Chinese government has employed what’s known as the “50 Cent Army”—thousands of fake, paid commenters—to post online messages favorable to Beijing and to distract online critics. In the future, bots will do the work of the current legions of regime-paid desk workers.
...Facebook now uses similar techniques to examine linguistic nuances in posts that might flag users who are contemplating suicide. Smaller companies are working to score individual social-media posts based on attitude, emotion and intent.
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