A fan of the heavy metal band Slayer, a British-themed pub owner, a man who wants to take back the term “queer” from bigots, and a motorcycle aficionada have one thing in common: They’ve all run afoul of the personalized license plate censor at the California DMV.
Read more
President Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help him be re-elected, according to a scathing new book by former national security adviser John Bolton that accuses Trump of being uninformed on important issues and driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.
Read moreSeveral black content creators filed a federal class action Wednesday accusing YouTube and Google of using racial profiling in algorithms and artificial intelligence that filter and censor their video content so it reaches fewer viewers, similar to improper censorship of LGBTQ+ content creators the tech giants said was fixed years ago.
Read more
Facebook employees participated in a protest over the company’s response to President Donald Trump, saying the social media network doesn’t do enough to address posts by Trump that could incite violence in the nation.
Read more
Human-caused undersea noise from ships stress out shore crabs, weakening their defenses and leaving them vulnerable to predators, according to research released Monday.
Read more
Less than 30 minutes into a lecture on bioinformatics, Chu Xinjian’s online class was abruptly cut short. “I guess we touched on some sensitive topic,” he said.
Read more
China on Wednesday ordered three reporters The Wall Street Journal to leave the country for what Beijing called a racist headline, in one of the harshest moves against foreign media in years.
Read moreSingapore on Monday ordered Facebook to block the page of an anti-government website in the city-state, the latest use of a law against online misinformation that critics say stifles free speech.
Read moreTexas A&M University reached a settlement with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Monday, agreeing to remove filters from its Facebook page that PETA claimed violated its right to speak out against the school’s research on dogs.
Read more
Pakistan’s government on Monday postponed its decision on whether to lift a ban on a movie that had offended hard-line Islamists in this Muslim-majority country, after asking a high council of clerics to weigh in on the film.
Read moreA federal magistrate threw out a discrimination suit against Vimeo from a California pastor who says he is the product of gay-conversion therapy.
Read moreU.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has unblocked a former New York politician on Twitter and apologized to him, just before she was to take the stand in his First Amendment lawsuit against her.
Read moreA federal judge Tuesday awarded Prison Legal News $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees and costs for its successful, 8-year-old lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections for refusing to allow the monthly publication in its prisons.
Read more
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Chinese officials wanted Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey to be fired for his tweet supporting anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, and that the league dismissed the request.
Read more
Apple removed a smartphone app that allows Hong Kong residents to report police movements from its online store Thursday after an official Chinese newspaper accused the company of facilitating illegal behavior.
Read more
In response to the NBA’s defending Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey’s freedom of speech, China canceled events scheduled with the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets.
Read more
The NBA’s lucrative interests in China are under threat, but the league enjoys an important piece of leverage that could carry it through the crisis: It’s the only game in town.
Read moreTiffany & Co. have removed a tweet showing a woman covering one eye after Chinese consumers accused the jeweler of supporting the Hong Kong protesters.
Read moreCollege students in San Diego County saw two court victories this summer in First Amendment cases challenging how mandatory student fees are allocated by schools. It’s a trend legal experts say will continue as alternative student groups challenge who gets access to funds raised by students, with lack of funding amounting to censorship.
Read more
A Catholic school in Tennessee has removed the Harry Potter books from its library after the school’s priest decided they could cause a reader to conjure up evil spirits.
Read more