Tag Archives: censorship

MARVEL'S Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Banned in Saudi Arabia Due to Gay Content

MARVEL’S Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Banned in Saudi Arabia Due to Gay Content

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Well lesbian content. But lets not quibble.

Via IndieWire:

“The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Sam Raimi’s sequel “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” will not be released in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or Qatar due to a new character being gay. Homosexuality is officially illegal across the Gulf, and films that feature LGBTQ+ themes or characters are often censored.. The “Doctor Strange 2” character in question is America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who is a lesbian in the film and the Marvel comics.“

Marvel’s “Eternals” was previously banned across the Gulf nations in November 2021 after showcasing Marvel’s first gay superhero and including a same-sex couple. Disney’s “West Side Story” was dropped from release in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait in January over the character Anybodys, written as transgender in the film and played by nonbinary actor Iris Menas.

And Marvel/Disney is not alone. Warner Bros.’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” recently underwent editing for it’s distribution in China. The scene included two lines of dialogue between Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) confirming their past relationship and citing when they “fell in love” years prior. But expect calls from the Middle East in the near future for the same.

Warner Bros. Studios Defends Cutting Gay Dialogue from Fantastic Beasts in China

Warner Bros. Studios Defends Cutting Gay Dialogue from Fantastic Beasts in China

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J.K. Rowling aside.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore again looks at the early life of the Harry Potter character, Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law). The lines of dialogue axed from China run for six seconds, according to Variety. They allude to a previous relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald (played by Mads Mikkelsen). (Honestly if you blink you miss it.)

The specific lines are “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love”. The cuts were made at the request of authorities in China. and WB quickly obliged and has defended the edit.

“As a studio, we’re committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release, and that extends to circumstances that necessitate making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of in-market factors. Our hope is to release our features worldwide as released by their creators but historically we have faced small edits made in local markets. In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact. We want audiences everywhere in the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that Chinese audiences have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits.”

The movie will not get a release in Russia because of the war in Ukraine. But expect similar cuts as those made in China to also be wielded for many parts of the Middle East.

So, now this begs the bigger question: If your representation was so paper-thin that all it took was cutting six seconds to make the text back into subtext, is that representation?

The Answer: no, no it is not,

Federal Judge Rules Against LGBT YouTuber Content Creators In 'Censorship' Lawsuit

Federal Judge Rules Against LGBT YouTuber Content Creators In ‘Censorship’ Lawsuit

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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender YouTube content creators who said the company violated their First Amendment rights by “censoring” their clips.

In a decision issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Magistrate Virginia DeMarchi in San Jose ruled that Google and YouTube are “private entities,” as opposed to government officials, and therefore are not bound by the First Amendment’s prohibition against restricting speech. “Plaintiffs do not state a claim … for violation of the First Amendment because defendants are not state actors,” – Judge Virginia DeMarchi

MediaPost

The lawsuit brought by the  Divino Group — which distributes GNews! via YouTube — and other LGBT content creators. claimed that YouTube “censored” them by preventing ads from running in some of their videos, placing age restrictions on clips, and tagging other clips with a “restricted mode” aka “mature” audiences designation.

Judge DeMarchi dismissed the claim that Google violated the users’ free speech rights with prejudice — meaning that Divino and the others can’t redraft their complaint and bring that claim again citing a ruling that a federal appellate court sided with Google last year, in a similar lawsuit brought by the anti-LGBT Prager University.

Amazon Prime Shows Censored Version of "God's Own Country" Gay Sex Scenes Cut

Amazon Prime Shows Censored Version of “God’s Own Country” Gay Sex Scenes Cut

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Recently God’s Own Country a 2017 movie about a relationship between a gay British farmer and a migrant worker has been available on Amazon Prime, but it was discovered that the sex scenes between the main characters, both men had been cut from the version being shown.

On Tuesday, GOC Director Francis Lee tweeted that he had been made aware that Amazon Prime’s streamed version of the film had been “censored.”

“It is not the film I intended or made,” he wrote.

On Wednesday, Lee said that he discovered who was responsible and that it was Samuel Goldwyn Films – the company that distributes independent and foreign films in the U.S. – that cut the gay scenes and “butchered the streaming version without consultation to get more ‘revenue.’”

Via Deadline :

A source at Amazon said that distributors directly upload films for the Prime Video Direct streaming service. The source said that sex scenes would have triggered an age restriction, so the distributor might have cut those scenes so that more people could watch it and so that they would get more revenue from it.

God’s Own Country was the 2017 British Independent Film Award winner for Best British Independent Film and the entire basis of the movie is two men, from different backgrounds falling in love. Had it been a heterosexual sex scene depicting the love between a man and a woman, it would not have been cut.

Samuel Goldwyn Films should be ashamed and apologize not only to director Francis Lee but also to the entire LGBT community.

American Family Association Petitions PBS to Cancel LGBT PRIDE Programming Calls It An "Attack On Christianity"

American Family Association Petitions PBS to Cancel LGBT PRIDE Programming Calls It An “Attack On Christianity”

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From the anti-LGBT American Family Association hate group:

PBS is going all out in the month of June to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month by launching a six-episode series of short videos on a dedicated YouTube Channel created by its Digital Studios.

Each Tuesday, beginning May 26, PBS will release a Prideland vignette focusing on an LGBTQ+ person and how that person deals with the ever-changing attitudes of Southern communities toward homosexual lifestyles.

On June 12, PBS will offer its member television stations the opportunity to air a one-hour companion special featuring series host and homosexual activist Dyllón Burnside. PBS’s decision to partner with Burnside to push the homosexual agenda is an unjust attack on Christianity and a mockery of the Bible and God’s design for human sexuality.

Sadly, PBS is proudly promoting a lifestyle that is unhealthy to both the individual who participates in the unnatural sexual behavior and to society as a whole.

In 2020, PBS received $445 million in taxpayer funding. This means you and I are directly paying for PBS to insult our faith and scoff at our God. I hope you will take a moment to let PBS know you oppose its support and promotion of this series.

Prideland  debuts June 12th at 9pm on your local PBS station.

DELTA Airlines Cuts Gay References and Same Sex Kiss From Elton John Biopic "Rocketman"

DELTA Airlines Cuts Gay References and Same Sex Kiss From Elton John Biopic “Rocketman”

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DELTA Airlines which has scored 100 percent on the the Human Rights Campaign’s almost useless Corporate Equality Index (CEI) multiple times is being accused of “censoring the gay out” of the Elton John biopic “Rocketman”.

Shana Krochmal who works as the digital director of Entertainment Weekly ook to Twitter to detail her recent Delta flight on October 30.

“On Delta today discovered that Rocketman is stripped of almost every gay reference or scene that [Elton John] fought to keep in the film’s mainstream release, including a simple chaste kiss. What does it say that the edit left in a scene of John Reid assaulting Elton but removed any evidence of intimacy between them or for that matter Elton and any man? ” she wrote.

Krochmal is not the only one who has noted the heavy handed anti-gay censorship– an array of other flyers on Delta has alleged similar experiences of censored Rocketman editions.

This is not the first time Delta has come under fire over gay and lesbian censorship aka “cutting the gay away”.  Olivia Wilde slammed Delta and other airlines this week for excising a lesbian kiss from a film she directed, Booksmart.

“Tried watching Booksmart on the plane and they cut the ENTIRE lesbian hookup scene like not even a KISS was allowed!” tweeted Barton. “Oh but don’t worry guys, the Straights got their kiss.”

In past years, Delta has also been called out showing an edited version of the lesbian theme movie Carol , but had no issue showing Chris Rock’s Kill the Messenger HBO comedy special which included the anti-gay slur “faggot” until it received thousands of complaints and removed it.

Delta airlines has not responded for comment to this website.

Rio de Janeiro's Mayor Bans 'Avengers' Comic Over Gay Kiss

Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Bans ‘Avengers’ Comic Over Gay Kiss

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Anti-LGBT Rio de Janeiro mayor Marcelo Crivella has announced that the translated edition of the Marvel comic book series Avengers: The Children’s Crusade would be removed from the literary festival Riocentro Bienal do Livro so as to protect the city’s children from what he described as “sexual content for minors.”

The so-called “sexual content”? A one-panel kiss between two male characters, Wiccan and Hulkling, who are in committed relationship. Both characters are clothed in the scene.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Crivella made the announcement on Twitter, in a video where he says, “Books like this need to be wrapped in black sealed plastic with a content warning displayed on the outside.” In ordering the removal of the title, he claims that the city’s authorities are “protecting the minors of our city.” In the text of the tweet itself, he describes the contents of the comic as “content that is unsuitable for minors.”

Crivella’s tweet followed an Instagram post from Rio de Janeiro councilman Alexandre Isquierdo, decrying the book and complaining that it was “spread[ing] homosexuality to CHILDREN!” (Emphasis his.) The sale of the book, he complained, was “an absurd crime.”

Officials at the Riocentro Bienal do Livro festival have refused to comply  with the Crivella ‘order. Turns out the majority of outlets didn’t have the comic in stock in the first place, and the one that did reporting that copies had already sold out two days earlier.

Before being elected mayor the out-spoken and vehemently anti-gay Crivella was a bishop of the controversial Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which is regarded by some as a “cult” and believes in exorcisms was founded by his uncle, Edir Macedo.

Facebook Updates Content Policy to Bans Talk of Sex, Innuendo, Sexual Roles, and Erotic Art

Facebook Updates Content Policy to Bans Talk of Sex, Innuendo, Sexual Roles, and Erotic Art

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Gird your loins boys.  Facebook is quietly updating its content-moderation policies to crack down on implicit mentions of sex.

Facebook will now “restrict sexually explicit language”—because “some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content”—as well as talk about “partners who share sexual interests,” art featuring people posed provocatively, “sexualized slang,” and any “hints” or mentions of sexual “positions or fetish scenarios.”

Facebook added the new “sexual solicitation” policy on Oct. 15. But it was only on Wednesday when internet users began to take notice. and claims it was implemented because of “conversations with our content reviewers, who told us that the sexual exploitation policy did not adequately distinguish between exploitation.”

The newly added rules of what is forbidden are as follows:

Attempts to coordinate or recruit for adult sexual activities such as filmed sexual activities, pornographic activities and erotic dances or massages

Explicit sexual solicitation, which is defined as offering or asking for sex or sexual partners, sex chats or conversations and nude images

Implicit sexual solicitation, which is defined as mention of a sexual act along with at least one of the following suggestive elements:
> Vague suggestive statements such as “looking for a good time tonight”
> Sexualised slang
> Sexual hints such as mention of sexual roles, positions or fetish scenarios
> Content (hand-drawn, digital or real-world art) that may depict explicit sexual activity or suggestively posed person(s).

Offers or requests for other adult activities, such as commercial pornography or partners who share sexual fetish interests.

Content that engages in explicit sexual solicitation by, including but not limited to the following, offering or asking for:
> Sex or sexual partners
> Sex chat or conversations
> Nude images

Content that offers or asks for other adult activities such as:
> Commercial pornography
> Partners who share fetish or sexual interests

Sexually explicit language that adds details and goes beyond mere naming or mentioning of:
> A state of sexual arousal (wetness or erection)
> An act of sexual intercourse (sexual penetration, self-pleasuring or exercising fetish scenarios.

The news comes after Tumblr’s recent decision to start banning pornography later this month.

Thousands of Facebook Userd Banned After Posting Burt Reynolds Cosmo Centerfold. Including Me!

Thousands Blocked By Facebook After Posting Burt Reynolds Cosmo Centerfold, Including Me!

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When news broke yesterday that movie star Burt Reynolds passed away at the age of 82, many people rushed to Facebook to pay their respects—and some by posting Reynolds’s famous Cosmopolitan magazine centerfold picture including myself.

Well Facebook which seems to have no problem with hate groups and anti-LGBT pastors posting some serious demented propaganda found the iconic images of Reynolds sprawled on a bear-skin rug with his gentials covered may I add that  may passed muster back in 1972 when he appeared in Helen Gurley Brown’s magazine, but they were too much for the pearl-clutching, nit picking FB community standards of today.

The image was repeatedly flagged, according to social media reports. The postings were pulled and account holders were notified that they were violating Facebook’s very high standards. And not all were treated the same.  Some just had the pictures removed. Others like myself have been banned for a number of days. And a few have their accounts disabled.

 

So @facebook just permanently disabled my account and has marked it for deletion because I posted Burt Reynold’s Cosmo centerfold pic.

— Jill Blake (@biscuitkitten) September 6, 2018

My wife posted the Burt Reynolds Playgirl centerfold on Facebook and they took it down because it didn’t meet their community guidelines. This is a great victory for Burt, considering the image is 40 years old.

— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) September 6, 2018

Boy, Facebook really has that Burt Reynolds image dialled in on their content systems… This took like 30 seconds.pic.twitter.com/hbzIX1ykDx

— Dylan Reeve (@DylanReeve) September 6, 2018

Facebook just removed my post about Burt Reynolds, because it says that a photo from 1972 violates its Community Standards in 2018.pic.twitter.com/xAMWeWg3WM

— Jelisa Castrodale (@gordonshumway) September 6, 2018

According to @facebook, the photo of Burt Reynolds’s Cosmo centerfold, which hints at but shows NO nudity, flies in the face of its “community standards.”

Really, FB?

You are the dumbest social media site on the planet.

— Lynn Comella (@LynnComella) September 7, 2018

Raise your hand if you got a Burt Reynolds photo pulled from Facebook today ????

— colin dana (@cocolaintraffik) September 6, 2018

From: Facebook’s Community Standards Page

14. Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity

Policy Rationale…

We restrict the display of nudity or sexual activity because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content. Additionally, we default to removing sexual imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content. Restrictions on the display of sexual activity also apply to digitally created content unless it is posted for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes.

Our nudity policies have become more nuanced over time. We understand that nudity can be shared for a variety of reasons, including as a form of protest, to raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons. Where such intent is clear, we make allowances for the content. For example, while we restrict some images of female breasts that include the nipple, we allow other images, including those depicting acts of protest, women actively engaged in breast-feeding, and photos of post-mastectomy scarring. We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures.

Do not post:

Images of:

Real nude adults, where nudity is defined as
Visible genitalia except in the context of birth giving and after-birth moments or health-related situations (for example, gender confirmation surgery, genitalia self-examination for cancer or disease prevention/assessment)
Visible anus and/or fully nude close-ups of buttocks unless photoshopped on a public figure
Uncovered female nipples except in the context of breastfeeding, birth giving and after-birth moments, health-related situations (for example, post-mastectomy, breast cancer awareness or gender confirmation surgery) or an act of protest
Sexual activity, including
Sexual intercourse
Explicit sexual intercourse, defined as mouth or genitals entering or in contact with another person’s genitals or anus, where at least one person’s genitals are nude
Implied sexual intercourse, defined as mouth or genitals entering or in contact with another person’s genitals or anus, even when the contact is not directly visible, except in cases of a sexual health context, advertisements, and recognized fictional images or with indicators of fiction
Implied stimulation of genitalia/anus, defined as stimulating genitalia/anus or inserting objects into genitalia/anus, even when the activity is not directly visible, except in cases of sexual health context, advertisements, and recognized fictional images or with indicators of fiction
Other sexual activities including (but not limited to)
Erections
Presence of by-products of sexual activity
Stimulating genitals or anus, even if above or under clothing
Use of sex toys, even if above or under clothing
Stimulation of naked human nipples
Squeezing naked female breast except in breastfeeding context
Fetish content that involves
Acts that are likely to lead to the death of a person or animal
Dismemberment
Cannibalism
Feces, urine, spit, snot, menstruation, or vomit
Digital content that meets our definition of sexual activity unless any of the following conditions exist

Content was posted in a satirical or humorous context
Content was posted in an educational or scientific context
Imagery is not sufficiently detailed and only body shapes or contours are visible
Content meets the definition of implied sexual activity.
Sexually explicit language, defined as description that goes beyond mere mention of

A state of sexual arousal
An act of sexual intercourse or sexual activity, unless posted in an attempt at humor or satire, or is educational in nature.

A Facebook spokesperson apologized last Friday and said the posts were incorrectly removed because of automation that flags nudity. Facebook was working to restore the images, which it did. But they left the bans and removals in place despite numerous attempts from this website and many others to rectify the issue.

 

Homeland Security To Begin Monitoring Bloggers, Websites, and Journalists Content For “Sentiment”

Homeland Security To Begin Monitoring Bloggers, Websites, and Journalists Content For “Sentiment”

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Via Bloomberg Law: 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.”

It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage related to the agency or a particular event, according to a request for information released April 3.

The data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed. DHS agencies have “a critical need to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to better reach federal, state, local, tribal, and private partners,” it said

On May 3, UNESCO will once again mark World Press Freedom Day “to inform citizens of violations of press freedom — a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.

Looks like we may shortly be adding America to that list.