Tag Archive for 'censorship'

Yahoo Mail is Censoring Emails About #OccupyWallStreet (UPDATE: Yahoo responds)

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 9:29 PM on September 19, 2011 in Commentary. 3 Comments Tags: censorship, lolwut, occupy wall street, yahoo. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/kf

Any time you try to send an email from Yahoo Mail with the text string “occupywallst.org” in it, it will be blocked from being sent due to “suspicious activity”.

What.

I first heard about this from this post, and as you can see in the video, I can confirm that it is, indeed, happening. David, our Chief Operating Plankhead, also confirms that this is happening from his Yahoo account.

UPDATE: Another good example courtesy of slybster. This one’s a bit clearer:

UPDATE 9/20 2:56 PM EST: @Yahoo tweeted:

Thanks to @YahooMail users & @ThinkProgress for catching problem w/ #Occupywallst.org mail. Prob is fixed, but there may be residual delays.

I figured it would end up being explained as a bug. But that’s a really weird bug. I think we need more of an explanation, Yahoo.

Hitler Reacts to Downfall Distributor Having Hitler Parodies Removed From YouTube

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 9:58 PM on April 20, 2010 in Commentary. 1 Comment Tags: censorship, stupid copyright tricks, video, youtube. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/Da

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

One the most enduring (and consistently entertaining) Internet memes of the past few years has been remixes of the bunker scene from the German film, The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich (aka Der Untergang). [...] In a depressing twist, these remixes are reportedly disappearing from YouTube, thanks to Constantin Film (the movie’s producer and distributor) and YouTube’s censorship-friendly automated filtering system, Content I.D. Because the Content I.D. filter permits a copyright owner to disable any video that contains its copyrighted content — whether or not that video contains other elements that make the use a noninfringing fair use — a content owner can take down a broad swath of fair uses with the flick of a switch. It seems that’s exactly what Constantin Film has chosen to do.

Oliver Hirschbiegel, the film’s director, does not condone this. He says, “”Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one. I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director. I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.”

You know who else isn’t happy about it? Hitler.

Someone had to do it, so I did:

Has Anyone Noticed the Fact That the Chinese Government Hacked Into Google and 20 Other Multinational Corporations?

Published by Zacqary Adam Green at 8:15 PM on January 14, 2010 in Commentary. 0 Comments Tags: censorship, china, the googles, wow people are dumb. Short URL: http://plankhead.com/9D

You’ve probably heard about the fact that Google is un-censoring its Chinese search results, and threatening to leave China if the government doesn’t like that. Everyone and their grandmother is blagging and twattering about whether this makes Google the most saintly Lawful Good level 20 Paladin in the history of the world, or whether they weren’t making money in China and are using this as an excuse to spin that as a positive.

Never mind that. Look at their press release, which states the reason why they decided to pull out now:

In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. [Emphasis added]

Excuse me, but why is nobody talking about the fact that the Chinese government was trying to hack into Google?

But Zacqary, you have no way of knowing that the Chinese government was responsible for this!

Is that so, Helvetica Bold 10 Medium Blue? Well, do you have any suggestions for anyone else who would have the desire to spy on human rights activists?

Well, no, not really…

See, this is a much bigger story. It’s not about whether Google has grown the first corporate conscience to ever exist in the history of the world. It’s about the fact that the Chinese government is committing acts of information warfare on multinational corporations.

This is kind of a big deal, guys. Do journalism and shit. Come on. Seriously.

Tag Archive for 'censorship'

Yahoo Mail is Censoring Emails About #OccupyWallStreet (UPDATE: Yahoo responds)

Hitler Reacts to Downfall Distributor Having Hitler Parodies Removed From YouTube

Has Anyone Noticed the Fact That the Chinese Government Hacked Into Google and 20 Other Multinational Corporations?

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