Archive for the ‘censorship’ Category
AMERICANS UNITED AGAINST EDUCATION: JOIN TODAY. ENLIGHTEN THE WORLD.
Photo: “Panic Bear T-Shirt” by Spirals on Flickr, via Everystockphoto.com
[Update 5OCT07: This post accurately captured my feelings about filtering and blocking, but didn't express my absolute respect for, seriously, the best principal I could ever hope to work with. So to be clear, this is in no way an ad hominem, and I regret my inability at the time of writing to make that clear. More here, including a happy ending.]
Please feel free to spread, print, post, and revise this on your own blogs and emails.
Background: This is the first administrative “all faculty” email to be sent after our Web 2.0 Staff Development day:
“Re: Everystockphoto.com
Just a heads up. There are nude photos on this site so be very, very cautious about using this site with students. I would hold off on using it until we see if we can filter content.”
I sent this reply, “all faculty” as well:
SUBJECT: Block Google, YouTube, and Ning: NUDITY
Everystockphoto is a SEARCH ENGINE. It only shows non-copyrighted content, which means no violation of law when students go there for images in their PowerPoints, etc.
If they go to Google SEARCH ENGINE, they steal copyrighted photos for their projects, which is intellectual dishonesty and commercial violation of law.
Hmm. Break the law with Google, or use a solution with a copyright-free version (but also see boobs, which as far as I know are legal). Decision: use Google.
But wait: If you put “boobs” in GOOGLE SEARCH, you’re going to see nudity there too. So the “block or filter sexuality from the universe” approach means NO MORE GOOGLE AT SCHOOL.
And NO MORE YOUTUBE. It has nudity too, if that’s what you’re searching for.
In fact, NO MORE SEARCH ENGINES PERIOD. No more Yahoo, MSN. Nudity there.
[My administrator's name], shut down the HS Staff Ning site you started. If you search for sex on Ning, you’ll find plenty of it. Block Ning. We can’t use it any more.
Avoiding sexuality leads to this, really: No more internet. We’ll just use the laptops for Word documents and Groupwise. You can control that.
No more bookstores either. They have Playboy in them. All kids have to do is search for it, they’ll find nudity in a bookstore.
Sorry, [our librarian's name], no more library. The library has books with sex scenes in. (Read Gilgamesh, the new version, in our library. Or look at any photographic artist’s book. The nude is a favorite of classical art. No more classical art. Let’s cover up Michelangelo’s David, or just block it.)
***
Yes, I’m passionate about this.
It’s the worst strain of American sexual weirdness and Puritanism, and it has teachers in America that I read or talk to daily pulling their hair out.
They can’t use blogs, wikis, YouTube, Flickr, Ning any of the things we’re able to use here.
Europe and Asia don’t have the same hangups America has. But because we’re Americans IN Europe and Asia, we’re carrying those hangups with us and spreading our Nothing Educational If Chance of Boobs Involved hysteria around the world.
If we stop and think, we can export America’s best products - things like the internet, Skype, del.icio.us, YouTube, etc - around the globe, WITHOUT infecting global education with the worst of America’s neuroses and hangups.
This is a VERY American thing. The rest of the world - and I lived in Europe for four years, Shanghai for 5, and studied Arabic for a two years with ten professors from all over the Arab world I came to know well - the rest of the world LAUGHS at America.
Only in America would a large percentage of the population say “Politicians who have sexual lives should not be allowed to serve.” (Examples: pick your latest congressman - Republican or Democrat - or remember Clinton. Bush was “better” because he played to the same Puritanical crowd we’re talking about playing to by BLOCKING and FILTERING. He may not lead to many “sex” links, but if you Google “Bush” and “disaster,” he’ll have far more hits than Clinton. Or “Bush” and “unconstitutional” and “illegal.” But non-nude crimes aren’t scandalous, I guess.)
We should be having discussions about Authrorized Use Policies, Responsible Use, etc - not about simply blocking everything that has images of human reproductive or mammalian organs.
And we should be INVITING parents and students to join those discussions, not trying to avoid the inconvenience with a crippling decision.
I understand the admin’s desire to avoid parent complaints. But filtering and blocking as a first response will lead the 1:1 program down the wrong road.
This is such a crucial issue.
I’m trying to make a point about the slippery slope you’re entering with this email. It threatens to paralyze the whole potential of 1:1 because a few parents (hypothetical, I might add) think avoiding sex is more important than embracing expanded educational power.
Those hypothetical parents have children, by definition. How scandalous. They must have had sex. We should block them from our school.
Clay
What a horrible email to wake up to after a week of fairly sleepless planning for staff development.
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And China’s Censorship Gets Slammed Because…
…the USA is so free?
More from Save the Internet dot com (and watch the comments for the corporate lobbyists’ responses - they’re apparently paid to find posts like this, hit reply, and leave a tossed salad of obfuscations, red herrings, and straw men. Logic and debate teachers, help yourself to this real-world example.
I’d apologize about being political, but gee, doesn’t democracy sort of demand it? Anyway, my future as a teacher using web 2.0 sort of requires that web 2.0 stays around. Free citizen radio didn’t a century ago - and corporate history is trying to repeat itself.
Here’s the latest from Save the Internet:
Dear Clay,
| |
You’ve probably heard that Verizon censored text messages sent by the pro-choice group NARAL. They claim it was a glitch. And they feel really, really bad about it.
Sorry, Verizon. That’s not good enough. This is just the latest example in the long list of phone company efforts to block, filter or interfere with the free flow of information over 21st century communications networks.
Take Action: Protect Free Speech Everywhere!
In August, AT&T censored a live webcast of a Pearl Jam concert just as lead singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush. AT&T said it was a glitch.
Both Verizon and AT&T illegally handed over private customer phone records to the National Security Agency. The phone companies first denied it and then started a secret campaign with the White House to gain immunity from any lawsuits.
This pattern of abuse shows that powerful phone companies cannot be trusted to safeguard our basic freedoms. The democratic principles of free speech and open communication are too important to be entrusted to corporate gatekeepers. Whether it’s liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, pro-choice or pro-gun, the phone companies can’t pick and choose what messages get through.
Censorship by AT&T and Verizon shows us what we can expect in a future where these network gatekeepers gain control over the free flow of information. Congress must reaffirm its commitment to free speech on the Internet, on cell phones, on our airwaves — everywhere!
Tell Congress: Stop the Gatekeepers
We’ve had it with phony apologies from phone companies. Congress must act now to protect free speech and the free flow of information.
Thank you for all that you do,
Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net
1. Spread the word. Tell your friends about this important campaign.
2. Support our work by contributing to the Free Press Action Fund today.
3. See what people are saying about Verizon’s recent efforts to block text messaging at the Free Press Action Network and SavetheInternet.com.
4. Read about AT&T’s efforts to cover its tracks after blocking a Pearl Jam live concert webcast and the latest on the phone companies’ secret campaign to stay above the law.
Tell your friends about this campaign at: www.action.freepress.net
If you received this message from a friend, you can click here to become a Free Press activist.
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