Category: censorship

The Westminster Declaration

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October 20, 2023

9:44 am

2 Comments on The Westminster Declaration

censorship

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A couple days ago, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and others launched the Westminster Declaration. Signed by 138 big shots and very big shots, the Declaration is a powerful statement on the importance of free speech and the current threat to it from very strong censorious forces. The Declaration begins,

We write as journalists, artists, authors, activists, technologists, and academics to warn of increasing international censorship that threatens to erode centuries-old democratic norms.

Coming from the left, right, and centre, we are united by our commitment to universal human rights and freedom of speech, and we are all deeply concerned about attempts to label protected speech as ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and other ill-defined terms.

And, later,

We stand for your right to ask questions. Heated arguments, even those that may cause distress, are far better than no arguments at all. 

That’s all you really need.

It’s a great statement, both in its general call for principle and in its naming of specifically dangerous legislative schemes. This includes singling out Australia’s idiotic and insidious draft legislation on “misinformation”.

The introduction to the Westminster Declaration is here, and the full statement and list of signatories is here.

Matt Taibbi Tells Europe to Go Suck a Bag of Dicks

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October 15, 2023

12:27 pm

6 Comments on Matt Taibbi Tells Europe to Go Suck a Bag of Dicks

censorship

Matt Taibbi is a great reporter. He is sometimes referred to as a gonzo journalist, which is not unreasonable given Taibbi’s wild early days, and given that for years Taibbi was the politics journalist for Rolling Stone, following in the footsteps of the legendary Hunter S. Thompson. But Taibbi is, at least now, very different. He is incredibly hard working, meticulous and very careful with his words. Which is why it was striking when, a few days ago, Taibbi told Europe to go suck a bag of dicks. Continue reading “Matt Taibbi Tells Europe to Go Suck a Bag of Dicks” →

Twitter Deals With a Censorious Twit

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June 28, 2023

8:37 pm

2 Comments on Twitter Deals With a Censorious Twit

censorship

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A couple day ago we wrote about the Federal Government’s new, insidious plan to legislate on “misinformation and disinformation”. That distracted us from our writing about insidious legislation already in place, and the insidious nature of its recent application. Here we go.

Last week, Twitter was hit with a “demand” from Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. Fanfared with an eSafety media release, a “Twitter must come clean” sermon from Inman Grant herself, and a predictably gullible SMH puff piece from champion stenographer, Jordan Baker, the demand was in form of a legal notice, “seeking information about what the social media giant is doing to tackle online hate on the platform”. Continue reading “Twitter Deals With a Censorious Twit” →

MAV’s Sense and Censor Ability

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May 13, 2020

6:50 pm

13 Comments on MAV’s Sense and Censor Ability

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We’ve written about MAV’s censorship previously. It seems, unfortunately, that we may have another such incident to write about in the near future. We’ll see.

There is also a third incident that we’ve long planned to write about, but have never gotten around to. It is rather involved, and we won’t give the full story here, but one specific aspect is perhaps worth telling now.

In 2016, we accepted an invitation from the MAV to give a keynote address at their Annual Conference. We chose as our keynote title Same Sermon, New Jokes. We also submitted a “bio pic” – the graphic above – and an abstract. The abstract indicated our contempt for twenty or so organisations and facets of Australian mathematics education.

A couple months later, the Conference organisers emailed to indicate their objection to our abstract. One can argue the merits of and the propriety of this objection, and we will write generally on this at a later date, but one aspect of the objection was particularly notable. The email included the following:

“While we welcome all points of view, we do need to be respectful of the organisations we work with, and with whom we need to maintain good relations … We would like you to re visit the text … without the criticism of formal organisations.”

We pushed back against the criticism, and ended our reply with what we intended as a rhetorical question:

“You wrote that you (plural) welcome all points of view, which I was very reassured to read. Given that, which formal organisations do you consider to be above criticism?”

The email reply from the organisers included a response:

“In regards to the formal organisations with which the MAV has relations, you have stated some of them, e.g. ACARA, VCAA.”

No one at the MAV, including the then President, indicated to us any problem with this request or its clarification.

For now, we’ll leave it there.