decisions when faced with options that aren't entirely right or wrong options. Do I have that right? Is that kind of what the book's about? censor Plato in a philosophy course, right? That's not a gray area. That's a black or white question. It's definitely wrong to do that. Universities shouldn't
planned in advance. It was something that just struck me as the best response when I found out that Plato had been censored . Support for the show comes from Bombas.The springtime thaw is finally here.
And there's something special about that naivete that we had that created something that wasn't censored as such, you know?Like you said, there's kind of use of poetic structure to kind of veil and romanticize these occasionally pretty
Yeah, there was that. censored some information. So that different.
And in both the government and the corporate sphere, powerful interests are gaining power with these tools. Censorship and surveillance are both on the rise. The internet censorship project, which tracks censorship around the world, finds more of it every year.
um so good evening or good afternoon everyone I'm Annie Jacobson I'm the author of this book Area 51 and un censored history of America's top secret military base and I wanted to thankGoogle very much for having me today um I I wouldn't have been able to write my
And I think this is where we really need to change the kind of context for this conversation. Whereas in the past it was about Internet censorship on the one hand, freedom of expression on the other. I think we live now in a completely different context where there is a active cyber arms race going on. And I think that can't be underestimated.
And then there was this long letter that came out saying that it has sexual noises and something, something, something. The censor board gave us the most bizarre reasons for banning the film. And I was like, what do you mean banned?
was lifted, save for some at the Boston Arena and the Boston Garden. City censor , Richard J. Sinnot--" which is, by the way, the greatest name for a sensor, Sinnot. And Boston still had a city censor to the late '70s, which was kind of unbelievable to me.
Uh and that's how censorship works, right? It's pretty rare that everything an author wrote is censored . It's typically their most controversial parts, probably the parts we have to talk about, we ought to talk about, that are being censored . So, of course, it is censorship, there's no uh doubt about that. And I have to say I
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Even censorship raised its head that year, and we had to deliver our coup de gras. During that year, 1987, the general election put Fianna Fail into office with Charles Haughey as Taoiseach.
Yeah, not at Google. The censors of Google. And so we wanted to make a little more of an ambitious show for Comedy Central that felt a little darker in tone than what they would typically
market reasons for existing. So censorship is also a content filtering, or data loss prevention. Propaganda is marketing. Surveillance is surveillance.
And if you talk to any of them, they will tell you, I know that the best time for me to start a five mile run is Appropriately censored . Appropriately censored .
And again, I mentioned a few moments ago about the Shakespearean playwrights would use puns to evade the royal censors . Well today, in China, the censors are going wild trying to police all the puns because while you can control what someone says, you cannot control what someone means and what people infer.
circumventing the wall. Although, recently, China started to crack down on foreign VPNs and other circumventing technology, which makes it harder to climb the wall. But censorship cannot prevail. It cannot eliminate dissent.
Just reiterating what was said earlier that contextual factors are very important to understand that -- that can inculcate a climate of self-censorship, where intimidation factors, and threats, and informal requests, and those sorts of things that happen that aren't always picked up. And a number of other things as well. The big event for me personally, and for many of us, was in -- when we were monitoring for Internet censorship in
Sure. Right. Very quickly, something about Anas that we cannot find in a Google search or on social media. We're going to censor that, right? I swear a lot, by the way, so I'll try to be careful.
some of them won't get enough work to do. And if they don't get enough work to do, they demotivate everybody else by their mere They begin to censor , and always justifying it in their minds perhaps assuming that they are doing good.
Every government tries to censor social media in India.
memos, etc., etc. But that's not really helping. Um Vaden has made it pretty clear that his plan is to continue to censor Plato and other texts in the philosophy department and in other departments. So, the board is not revising or rescinding the policy. In a sense, you could say that they have won. Um I have received a
government does not censor online content but ensures that quote only objectionable content as clearly defined
Do you censor them?
You can censor people.
And the censor looks at it and goes OK, it's a sports page.
I'm not a censor .
Because all the censor sees is this SSL connection to this other site.
But then the Chinese censor 's proxy would win, right?
But we have to censor the games, obviously, and the apps that she is able to use.
authorities might decide to censor certain content.
is we won't censor it um and um so that's that's one um and of course you know I talked about rate your government
The wavefront censor is like going to a optometrist. It says you have this much astigmatism, this much coma, and it rapidly changes the shape of the mirror --
against the censorship of the Soviet Union.
Is it censorship? Are there messages they don't want us hearing?
- How much censorship is there in modern-day China by the Chinese government?
And so censorship is most restrictive when it's things that are actually about China.
to be censored or even persecuted.
natural and not something that we have to be ashamed of. And that was a part that the university had problems with because according to this censorship policy, we aren't allowed to talk about sexual identity. The Symposium is seven guys drinking and giving speeches about the nature of love. Socrates,
decisions when faced with options that aren't entirely right or wrong options. Do I have that right? Is that kind of what the book's about? criticizing the university for censoring Plato and basically claiming that A&M
allegations of censorship. Um no I think uh there are some uh very clear cases where this has uh come out
looks like censorship from the US perspective. Really, what's happening is the government is saying we don't want
extent that censorship is actually driving this, that's actually something governments are really a fan of. And that might explain why it's so popular
Speaking about censorship, right?
And I never was censored by him.
They're not probably censored , but we have to change our language.
The YouTube censors are not going to be cool with it.
And so the censors have to pass every single thing that goes through.
Not just the censorship, by the way.
of regulation of censorship and and and surveillance in China One starts in the
our internal censorship and and propaganda regimes we're just going to erect what