The Final Level of Censorship is Here: The Banning of URLs
The Final Level of Censorship is Here: The Banning of
URLs
After Blocking Zero Hedge And Others, NZ Telcos Demand
Big-Tech Censorship Surge To “Protect Consumers”
Zero Hedge - MARCH 20, 2019
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.
Comments
Post a Comment