#digitalcensorship

[my-asianewstoday-blog]

EU Slams U.S. Travel Bans On Europeans Over Tech Regulations http://dlvr.it/TQ0dGK

[flashnfun]

[alltimeupdating]

Itch.io’s NSFW Crackdown: What Indie Game Creators Should Know - Zolute Network

Itch.io is a unique online platform where indie developers can share and sell creative games, art, and stories. Lately, it’s made headlines

[daviddavi09]

Google AdSense Nightmare: Jewish Site Banned Without Warning | S2 Episode 16 | iShook

Ben Rahmanov, COO of AUK and CEO of iShook, shares a powerful firsthand account of how his Jewish news platform, BukharianPost.com, was suddenly banned from Google AdSense just 12 hours after a routine compliance update—without warning, without a chance to appeal. After investing over $40,000 and years of effort, this shutdown raises serious concerns about transparency, fair treatment, and potential anti-Semitic bias in digital platforms. In this video, Ben speaks out about free trade, press freedom, and the urgent need for accountability in tech.

[chatbotfriends]

Title: Vanishing Complaints, Vanishing Accountability: A Digital Crackdown

They’re not just ignoring complaints anymore. They’re deleting the tools we use to file them.

Across federal and state government websites, once-accessible grievance forms are vanishing. The pages still exist—but links lead nowhere, phone numbers loop endlessly, and when you finally get through? You’re told, “That’s not handled here anymore.”

This isn’t modernization. This is systemic erasure of accountability.

Let’s break down the playbook:

Kill the forms. The Medicare complaint form? Buried. Local government grievance pages? Replaced with vague "contact us" boxes. State departments? Redirect loops or PDFs that no longer open.

Remove direct contact options. Want to talk to someone? Good luck. Phone numbers are automated, emails bounce, and offices refer you to “online portals” that no longer exist.

Claim it's for efficiency. “Too many submissions.” “We’re updating our system.” “Please be patient.” These excuses echo across sites. But no updates come. No timelines are given.

Pretend it's a user error. When people complain that they can’t complain, they're told to clear their browser cache, try a different device, or “check back later.” Gaslight 101.

The real impact:

Whistleblowers silenced.

Abuse victims blocked from reporting.

Disability and elder advocates stonewalled.

Health care grievances buried.

They’re banking on apathy. On frustration. On the belief that you’ll give up trying.

But we’re not giving up. We’re getting louder.

This is a coordinated purge of digital accountability. And every missing form is a cover-up. Every broken link is a barrier. Every ignored voice is a wound that festers.

Share this. Screenshot the broken pages. Name the agencies. Tag your reps. Call your local news. Use your platforms.

If they’re burning down the paper trail, we’ll build a fire so bright they can’t hide in the smoke.

[whattheduckdude]

Political Censorship and Digital Addiction: What is Hidden by One of the Most Popular Applications in the World?

TikTok is a unique platform. Of course, the very idea of such a system of video content consumption is not new, but the scale with which this platform has spread to the whole world is amazing. Someone may not like this application, but to deny the fact that it is a popular media platform, would be foolish. I used this application myself for a while, but now I am sick of it. The very design of the application and its functionality is configured to completely disable human perception and create addiction as if it were not a site with video, but heroin or cigarettes. Perhaps it is because of these factors, this application has become so popular. However, this is a topic for a separate study, and so I suggest that we stop there. TikTok positions itself as an entertainment application where there is no room for negativity and politics. However, the creators deny the existence of censorship in this application. But the facts say the opposite: originally in TikTok, it was impossible to speak negatively about China and its government. Now the resource has become more regionally oriented, and, for example, in the Russian segment, it has become undesirable to talk about Putin. At the same time, there is no prohibition to talk about drugs unless you disguise the most obvious elements of the description of illegal substances use. Although there is no need to even bypass prohibitions lately — I am increasingly seeing candid videos about drugs and their use. But talking about government or terrorism is still forbidden, the application has two main methods of censorship: blocking and freezing of displays. And the second method is the most unfair because the user can't understand why he doesn't have views: because of censorship or poor quality of content. Thus, TikTok's main censorship policy is that politics and terrorism are not fun, and they have entertainment content for teenagers. Why drugs and debauchery are fun, the creators of the application do not say. Fortunately, despite the bans, more and more social content appears on the site, and this is great. P.S. In this application, there was also censorship of the disabled to avoid them being bullied. Now it seems to have been fixed, but it was strange. *link*

[whattheduckdude]

Capitalism has won again.

I wrote a lot about the rules that media platforms themselves create. However, YouTube has a more interesting story about censorship. Of course, this video hosting has strict rules as well as other sites. For example, it prohibits videos and advertisements that contain information about the purchase of drugs, scenes of violence, calls to murder or content of a sexual nature. Nevertheless, even these rules, which seem to be spelled out in the legislation of many countries, are often violated without any punishment from YouTube. It is worth saying that content that obviously violates community rules is removed after a while. However, I personally have seen more than once videos with content for pedophiles (but not porn, because it would have been immediately blocked), as well as advertising of illegal in Russia drug sales service in the CIS countries before each video on this video hosting (it lasted for a month). But these are examples of classical censorship, which is present on many modern popular media platforms. On YouTube sometimes there are booms of the same type of content: when many channels start creating the same low-grade content to capture the media space and make profit. Such videos may not violate the rules of the site, but due to consumer dissatisfaction, many advertisers began to leave the site. Then YouTube, in order not to lose profits, began to delete all the videos and block the channels that were somehow involved in such booms. Thus, it is no longer YouTube, but advertisers decided what can and can not be shown on this platform. There are certain advantages to this — the garbage content was too annoying for many people, including me. The strangest thing YouTube did a couple of years ago was give people the right to decide what content should be blocked. Anyone could complain, and applications were checked by bots, not live people. The good goal turned into the destruction of popular channels by haters and the dissatisfaction of many content makers. It also affected the political situation in Russia: many opposition channels were blocked because of complaints from bots created by the government. Here, censorship violated not only freedom of speech, but also the sovereignty and inviolability of political life of a separate state. This can hardly be considered a good result of a "useful" innovation. To sum up, it is worth saying that YouTube has long ago become a capitalist conveyor in a bad sense. I do not support socialism, but true capitalism should not contradict itself as much as this site does. Since when does the platform decide who can violate the rules of the community and the laws of some countries, and who should remain silent? *link*

[whattheduckdude]

Censorship in my favorite computer games

I play online games every day to relax and have fun. I often play CS:GO and Valorant. These are online shooters in which communication plays an important role. Consequently, players often write to text chat or say something to voice chat. And recently, censorship has come to this place. 

In Counter-Strike, this appeared about a month ago. As usual, I got mad and wrote to my opponent what I thought about his foul play. And instead of the usual text, which has always been, I saw censorship in the form of the * symbol. In Valorant, there was similar censorship from the start of the game, however, only other players see censorship, and you see your messages the way you wrote them. There is no way you can turn off the censorship function.

However, it is just the tip of the iceberg. Both games now have a feature that lets you report a toxic player. Previously, you could mostly complain about cheaters using third-party software for an advantage in the game. Players with a large number of toxicity charges are subject to various sanctions. 

Of course, toxic players are bad. However, there is a difference between toxicity and harsh phrases. Sometimes harsh words can convey a more accurate meaning of your dissatisfaction with something. Thus, these games take away from me the ability to use the words that I want. Also, they take away from me the opportunity to disable such a function. And the worst thing is that any "vulnerable" player can write many complaints against you, because of which you will lose access to your account. Game creators do not get rid of toxicity thanks to this. Toxic players find ways to avoid censorship (look at the title of this blog). Developers are simply creating the appearance of a "right" community by cutting back on free speech and not removing the toxicity issue.

P.S. There is no voice chat in the game Valorant in Russia due to the Yarovaya law. This is how state censorship affected the comfort of the players.