This month saw two art takedowns at the behest of algorithms. Facebook removed an anti-Taliban editorial cartoon by Clay Jones, and earlier this month, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers) had its poster removed from Instagram. Both images were taken…
Facebook’s censorship algorithms strike again! Editorial cartoonist Ġorġ Mallia had his cartoon taken down for violating community standards; the strip in question was removed for spreading “false information about COVID-19 that could contribute to physical harm.” The problem is, the…
Thai political cartoon, Khai Meaw, disappeared from Facebook on January 18, 2018, without attribution or explanation. The popular cartoon never employed speech or thought bubbles but was clearly critical of the military junta. The Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand claimed…
An anti-racist cartoon by Austrian artist Manfred Deix has fallen prey to Facebook’s arbitrary enforcement of their content standards reports Variety. Over the weekend, the cartoon was blocked from the Manfred DEIX Forever Facebook page, and several users who took it…
Another image has fallen victim to Facebook’s arbitrary enforcement of its policy regarding nudity. This time, the image in question is a photo of the bronze statue of Neptune that resides in Piazza del Nettuno in Bologna, Italy. The mid-sixteenth century…
This year has proved to be a turbulent in many regards — a sentiment most poignantly felt within the free speech community. From increasing controversy regarding Facebook’s nudity policy to a whole community coming together to defend the children’s picture book…
In light of repeated instances in which Facebook has blocked or removed posts documenting human rights violations, sometimes at the request of police or other authorities, more than 70 civil rights groups banded together this week to send a letter to…
Even health education isn’t safe from Facebook’s arbitrary nudity policy. The Swedish Cancer Society, Cancerfonden, ran into trouble with the social media giant earlier this month when they posted an animated breast cancer awareness video. It was taken down due to…
Indian cartoonist Orijit Sen is no stranger to censorship. The artist, whose work has been repeatedly pulled from Facebook, recently spoke with Tehelka about why it is important that his “voice of dissent” rubs some people the wrong way and…
Late last year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Visualizing Impact launched an ambitious and much-needed project to gather data on social media content moderation. Last week OnlineCensorship.org bore its first fruit with an in-depth report based on 161 user submissions.…