[Air-L] Corporate censorship of political discourse?

Wed Jul 3 17:56:11 PDT 2013

A very interesting topic! Another example I thought of was when Yahoo blocked emails containing content relating to the Occupy movement back in 2011. They admitted to the blocks, however claimed that this was an accidental glitch in the system to do with their spam filters. There's no proof one way or the other but it does seem a little bit questionable.
Here is one article about the occurrence, yet a quick Google search garners many more: http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/68-68/7517-yahoo-admits-to-blocking-wall-street-protest-emails
Hope this helps.

Dr Theresa Sauter
Research Assistant/ CIF Sessional Academic
ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Creative Industries Precinct
Z1 - 515 Musk Ave
Kelvin Grove QLD 4059
E-mail: t.sauter at qut.edu.au
________________________________________
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of gus andrews [gus.andrews at gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 4 July 2013 10:21 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Corporate censorship of political discourse?

What about a discussion of self-censorship in online spaces, Dr. Ess? I am
perhaps feeling this a bit much myself at the moment, as someone who is
both exploring working as a researcher for companies like Google and
LinkedIn, and who also feels inclined to publicly make an educated critique
of some of their design and policy decisions. If we are all supposed to
manage our online personas as to not give offense, does this have a
chilling effect on speech?

Gillian "Gus" Andrews, EdD
Http://gandre.ws

On Jul 3, 2013 7:11 PM, <air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

> > I guess one good parallel could be Weibo censorship. There was a good
> > empirical paper published to First Monday last year that documented
> > deletions:
http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3943/3169
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 8:48 PM, Charles Ess <charles.ess at gmail.com>
wrote:
> >
> >> Dear AoIRists,
> >>
> >> I've been asked to develop a presentation on the future of freedom of
> >> expression in online environments, including discussion of multiple
ways
> >> in
> >> which - in addition to whatever governments may be up to in different
> >> contexts and ways - the private enterprises that increasingly dominate
> >> and
> >> control much of our online spaces and infrastructures censor political
> >> speech and expression.
> >>
> >> One example passed on to me was of a well-established professional in a
> >> European country (i.e., not fitting the profile of terrorist,
anarchist,
> >> or
> >> even leftist) who posted comments on his/her SNS page critical of the
> >> U.S.
> >> These comments disappeared from the page without notice or explanation.
> >>
> >> I would be very grateful for:
> >> 1) recommendations for careful studies of such events and phenomena
> >> which
> >> include reliable documentation of their occurrence? (Yes, I realize
that
> >> documenting and studying such episodes would be extremely tricky and
> >> difficult.)
> >> And/or
> >> 2) well documented anecdotes or examples (e.g., as reported in a
> >> reliable
> >> newspaper of record) of such episodes?
> >>
> >> Please send these along offlist.  I will, of course, more than happily
> >> credit the sources and authors of any examples and resources collected
> >> and
> >> used for the presentation (unless anonymity is requested instead).
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:
air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Alex Leavitt
> Sent: marted?, 2. luglio 2013 22:53
> To: Charles Ess
> Cc: Air list
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Corporate censorship of political discourse?
>
> I guess one good parallel could be Weibo censorship. There was a good
empirical paper published to First Monday last year that documented
> deletions: http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3943/3169
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 8:48 PM, Charles Ess <charles.ess at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear AoIRists,
> >
> > I've been asked to develop a presentation on the future of freedom of
> > expression in online environments, including discussion of multiple
> > ways in which - in addition to whatever governments may be up to in
> > different contexts and ways - the private enterprises that
> > increasingly dominate and control much of our online spaces and
> > infrastructures censor political speech and expression.
> >
> > One example passed on to me was of a well-established professional in
> > a European country (i.e., not fitting the profile of terrorist,
> > anarchist, or even leftist) who posted comments on his/her SNS page
critical of the U.S.
> > These comments disappeared from the page without notice or explanation.
> >
> > I would be very grateful for:
> > 1) recommendations for careful studies of such events and phenomena
> > which include reliable documentation of their occurrence? (Yes, I
> > realize that documenting and studying such episodes would be extremely
> > tricky and
> > difficult.)
> > And/or
> > 2) well documented anecdotes or examples (e.g., as reported in a
> > reliable newspaper of record) of such episodes?
> >
> > Please send these along offlist.  I will, of course, more than happily
> > credit the sources and authors of any examples and resources collected
> > and used for the presentation (unless anonymity is requested instead).
> >
> > Many thanks in advance,
> > - charles ess
> >
> > Professor in Media Studies
> > Department of Media and Communication
> > Director, Centre for Research on Media Innovations
> > <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/center/media-innovations/>
> >
> > University of Oslo
> > P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
> > NO-0317
> > Oslo Norway
> > email: c.m.ess at media.uio.no
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> > Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> > http://www.aoir.org/
> >
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