Obscenity
ONI Blog: PayPal Backs Off on "Erotica" Policy After Criticism of Censorship
PayPal recently announced that it would allow e-book merchants who sell erotic content to use their payment system. Previously, the company prohibited erotic e-book sellers from using its payment services. On PayPal's corporate blog, spokesperson Anuj Nayar wrote:
Unlike many other...
- Posted on 20/Mar/2012; tagged in United States of America, United States/Canada, Obscenity, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Threats to the Open Net: January 13, 2012
Members of the NetCoalition trade association are considering shutting down in protest of the SOPA bill that's about to be voted on in Congress. Companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been discussing the possibility of conducting a mass Internet...
- Posted on 13/Jan/2012; tagged in India, Iran, United States of America, United States/Canada, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Legislation, Obscenity, Take-down, Surveillance, Threats to the Open Net
ONI Blog: McDonald's Blocks Gay Websites in New Zealand
News sources in New Zealand have reported that McDonald's may be actively censoring gay and lesbian online content in the country. The fast food chain's Wi-Fi network has come under attack from New Zealand's gay community for its apparent blocking...
- Posted on 17/Jan/2011; tagged in New Zealand, Australia/New Zealand, Obscenity, Take-down, Data retention, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Will Britain's Pornography Filtering Lead to Internet Censorship?
Last week, top-level British government official Ed Vaizey announced his plan to consider blocking all pornography on the Internet in the country. Vaizey, an MP and Britain's Communications Minister who cited “solutions to protect children” as the primary reason for...
ONI Blog: ACLU, Internet content providers oppose MA obscenity law on constitutional grounds
Groups opposed to an amending a Massachusetts obscenity law targeting electronic communications argued their case in front of US district judge Rya Zobel this past Tuesday. The internet content providers and free speech advocates filed a request for a preliminary injunction banning...
- Posted on 22/Oct/2010; tagged in United States of America, United States/Canada, Legislation, Obscenity
ONI Blog: Sex-Positive vb.ly Taken Down by Libyan Domain Provider
URL shortening website vb.ly has been disabled by Libyan authorities after domain registry NIC.ly (also known as Lybia Spider) ruled that it had violated its terms and conditions. Headed by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue since August 2009,...
- Posted on 10/Oct/2010; tagged in Libya, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Obscenity, Take-down, Data retention, Internet tools filtering, DNS tampering
ONI Blog: Would Censoring the Internet Prevent Cyber-Bullying?
Playing out in the Internet tabloids this week is the story of Jessi Slaughter, an eleven-year-old girl whose YouTube rants have resulted in death threats and unsavory rumors in a classic case of cyber-bullying.
In Australia, where a proposal to filter the...
- Posted on 20/Jul/2010; tagged in United States of America, Australia, United States/Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Obscenity, Defamation, Hate speech, Cybercrime and security, Social filtering, Filtering tech and software
ONI Blog: Censorship by Venezuela’s largest ISP
Global Voices author Marianne Díaz reported that quelacreo (NSFW), a site that features photographs and video of violent sex crimes, was censored by CANTV, the government-controlled ISP that provides Internet service to over three quarters of the national population.
In...
ONI Blog: South African politician wants to ban online porn
As China unblocks a wave of pornographic sites, South Africa's Deputy Minister of Home Affairs has declared his intent to ban all digital pornography in the country.
The stated goal of the draft bill (PDF), developed in conjunction with...
- Posted on 10/Jun/2010; tagged in South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Legislation, Obscenity, Take-down, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Pakistan Lifts Facebook Ban; Bangladesh Cracks Down
As Pakistan lifted a two-week long ban on Facebook Monday, Bangladesh began blocking the site.
Both bans followed the creation of a Facebook group promoting "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," an event that encourages participants to submit artistic representations of the prophet...
- Posted on 01/Jun/2010; tagged in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arrests and legal action, Obscenity, Hate speech, Social filtering, Overblocking
