tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/censorship-208/articles
Censorship – The Conversation
2024-03-22T02:10:41Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226118
2024-03-22T02:10:41Z
2024-03-22T02:10:41Z
Conspiracy theorist tactics show it’s too easy to get around Facebook’s content policies
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583342/original/file-20240321-26-joql1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C148%2C4257%2C2849&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kuala-lumpur-malaysia-august-25-2013-1168328122">MavardiBahar/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID pandemic, social media platforms were swarmed by far-right and anti-vaccination communities that spread dangerous conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>These included the false claims that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/54893437">vaccines are a form of population control</a>, and that the virus was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanon-conspiracy-theories-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-a-public-health-threat-135515">“deep state” plot</a>. Governments and the World Health Organization redirected precious resources from vaccination campaigns to debunk these falsehoods. </p>
<p>As the tide of misinformation grew, platforms were accused of not doing enough to stop the spread. To address these concerns, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, made several policy announcements in 2020–21. However, it hesitated to remove “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/751449002072082/?hc_location=ufi">borderline</a>” content, or content that didn’t cause direct physical harm, save for one <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/04/covid-19-misinfo-update/">policy change</a> in February 2021 that expanded the content removal lists.</p>
<p>To stem the tide, Meta continued to rely more heavily on algorithmic moderation techniques to reduce the visibility of misinformation in users’ feeds, search and recommendations – known as shadowbanning. They also used fact-checkers to label misinformation.</p>
<p>While shadowbanning is widely seen as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-shadowbanning-how-do-i-know-if-it-has-happened-to-me-and-what-can-i-do-about-it-192735">concerningly opaque technique</a>, our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241236984">new research</a>, published in the journal Media International Australia, instead asks: was it effective?</p>
<h2>What did we investigate?</h2>
<p>We used two measures to answer this question. First, after identifying 18 Australian far-right and anti-vaccination accounts that consistently shared misinformation between January 2019 and July 2021, we analysed the performance of these accounts using key metrics.</p>
<p>Second, we mapped this performance against five content moderation policy announcements for Meta’s flagship platform, Facebook.</p>
<p>The findings revealed two divergent trends. After March 2020 the <em>overall</em> performance of the accounts – that is, their <em>median</em> performance – suffered a decline. And yet their <em>mean</em> performance shows increasing levels after October 2020. </p>
<p>This is because, while the majority of the monitored accounts underperformed, a few accounts overperformed instead, and strongly so. In fact, they continued to overperform and attract new followers even after the alleged policy change in February 2021.</p>
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<h2>Shadowbanning as a badge of pride</h2>
<p>To examine why, we scraped and thematically analysed comments and user reactions from posts on these accounts. We found users had a high motivation to stay engaged with problematic content. Labelling and shadowbanning were viewed as motivating challenges.</p>
<p>Specifically, users frequently used “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221111923">social steganography</a>” – using deliberate typos or code words for key terms – to evade algorithmic detection. We also saw <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2021.1938165">conspiracy “seeding”</a> where users add links to archiving sites or less moderated sites in comments to re-distribute content Facebook labelled as misinformation, and to avoid detection.</p>
<p>In one example, a user added a link to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/17/key-facts-about-bitchute/">BitChute</a> video with keywords that dog-whistled support for QAnon style conspiracies. As terms such as “vaccine” were believed to trigger algorithmic detection, emoji or other code names were used in their place:</p>
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<p>A friend sent me this link, it’s [sic.] refers to over 4000 deaths of individuals after getting 💉 The true number will not come out, it’s not in the public’s interest to disclose the amount of people that have died within day’s [sic.] of jab.</p>
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<p>While many conspiracy theories were targeted at government and public health authorities, platform suppression of content fuelled further conspiracies regarding big tech and their complicity with “Big Pharma” and governments.</p>
<p>This was evident in the use of keywords such as MSM (“mainstream media”) to reference QAnon style agendas: </p>
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<p>MSM are in on this whole thing, only report on what the elites tell them to. Clearly you are not doing any research but listening to msm […] This is a completely experimental ‘vaccine’.</p>
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<p>Another comment thread showed reactions to Meta’s <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/addressing-movements-and-organizations-tied-to-violence/">dangerous organisations policy update</a>, where accounts that regularly shared QAnon-content were labelled “extremist”. In the reactions, MSM and “the agenda” appeared frequently. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/qanon-is-spreading-outside-the-us-a-conspiracy-theory-expert-explains-what-that-could-mean-198272">QAnon is spreading outside the US – a conspiracy theory expert explains what that could mean</a>
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<p>Some users recommended that sensitive content be moved to alternative platforms. We observed one anti-vaccination influencer complain that their page was being shadowbanned by Facebook, and calling on their followers to recommend a “good, censorship free, livestreaming platform”.</p>
<p>The replies suggested moderation-lite sites such as <a href="https://rumble.com/">Rumble</a>. Similar recommendations were made for Twitch, a livestreaming site popular with gamers which has since attracted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/us/politics/twitch-trump-extremism.html">far-right political influencers</a>.</p>
<p>As one user said:</p>
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<p>I know so many people who get censored on so many apps especially Facebook and Twitch seems to work for them. </p>
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<h2>How can content moderation fix the problem?</h2>
<p>These tactics of coordination to detect shadowbans, resist labelling and fight the algorithm provide some insight into why engagement didn’t dim on some of these “overperforming” accounts despite all the policies Meta put in place. </p>
<p>This shows that Meta’s suppression techniques, while partially effective in containing the spread, do nothing to prevent those invested in sharing (and finding) misinformation from doing so.</p>
<p>Firmer policies on content removal and user banning would help address the problem. However, <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2022/07/oversight-board-advise-covid-19-misinformation-measures/">Meta’s announcement last year suggests</a> the company has little appetite for this. Any loosening of policy changes will all but ensure this misinformation playground will continue to thrive.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-researcher-asked-covid-anti-vaxxers-how-they-avoid-facebook-moderation-heres-what-they-found-186406">A researcher asked COVID anti-vaxxers how they avoid Facebook moderation. Here's what they found</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amelia Johns has received funding from Meta content policy award for some of the research presented in this article. She has also received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Booth is supported by funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Defence Innovation Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Bailo has received funding from Meta content policy award for some of the research presented in this article. He receives funding from the Defence Innovation Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Defence Innovation Network and the Australian Academy of Science.</span></em></p>
New research shows that even after Facebook made changes to stem the tide of dangerous pandemic misinformation, some accounts continued to thrive.
Amelia Johns, Associate Professor, Digital and Social Media, School of Communication, University of Technology Sydney
Emily Booth, Research assistant, University of Technology Sydney
Francesco Bailo, Lecturer, Digital and Social Media, University of Sydney
Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Associate Professor in Behavioral Data Science, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223533
2024-02-29T13:38:58Z
2024-02-29T13:38:58Z
How teens benefit from being able to read ‘disturbing’ books that some want to ban
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578696/original/file-20240228-24-s5xddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C59%2C7892%2C5190&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young readers report becoming more thoughtful after reading stories that feature characters who face complex challenges.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/student-choosing-a-book-on-library-royalty-free-image/959761242?phrase=teens+books&adppopup=true">FG Trade via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Should we worry, as <a href="https://pen.org/report/book-bans-pressure-to-censor/">massive book-banning efforts</a> imply, that young people will be harmed by certain kinds of books? For over a decade and through hundreds of interviews, my colleague, literacy professor <a href="https://www.albany.edu/education/faculty/peter-johnston">Peter Johnston</a>, and I have <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/teens-choosing-to-read-9780807768686">studied</a> how adolescents experience reading when they have unfettered access to young adult literature. Our findings suggest that many are helped rather than harmed by such reading.</p>
<p>For one study, we spent a year in a public middle school in a small, mid-Atlantic town, observing and talking to eighth grade students whose teachers, rather than assigning the “classics” or traditional academic texts, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46">let students choose what to read</a> and gave them time to read daily in class. To support student engagement, they made available hundreds of contemporary books that are relevant to the students’ lives. The books included many of the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a6v7R7pidO7TIwRZTIh9T6c0--QNNVufcUUrDcz2GJM/edit#gid=9827573720">titles currently being challenged</a>, according to PEN America, which is a nonprofit that advocates against censorship, among other things. The titles include Ellen Hopkins’ “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.net/books/Identical/Ellen-Hopkins/9781416950066">Identical</a>,” Jay Asher’s “<a href="https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780451478290">Thirteen Reasons Why</a>,” Patricia McCormick’s “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/sold">Sold</a>,” and others that were banned because of themes of sex and violence.</p>
<p>We were interested in what the students perceived to be the consequences of reading young adult literature. They tended to read books they described <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2317944">as “disturbing</a>.” At the end of the school year, we interviewed 71 of the students about changes in their reading and relationships with peers and family. </p>
<p>We also asked open-ended questions about how, if at all, they had changed as people since the beginning of the year. Beyond reading substantially more than they had previously, they reported positive changes in their social, emotional and intellectual lives that they attributed to reading, the kinds of books they read and the conversations those books provoked.</p>
<p>Here are six ways students told us they had been changed by reading and talking about edgy young adult books. </p>
<h2>1. They became more empathetic</h2>
<p>The students chose mostly fiction, with characters whose life circumstances in many cases differed from their own, including those associated with race, gender, sexuality, culture, language, mental health and household income. Because fiction <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.06.002">provides windows into the minds of others</a>, it has the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1239918">potential to improve empathy</a>, which becomes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341">more probable when readers get emotionally involved in stories</a>.</p>
<p>This is consistent with what the students reported. As one student explained after reading a book about a bullied character, “Like when you see people … you think, well, they don’t have problems or whatever, but then some of the ones I’ve read, you can just understand people better.”</p>
<h2>2. They improved relationships</h2>
<p>The books contained stark realities about humanity. For instance, some books dealt with how children and teens might be exploited by adults or how mental illness might radically affect a person’s behavior.</p>
<p>Students shared that as they read, they were encountering some of this information for the first time. Their initial instinct, they said, was to find someone else who had read the book and talk about it. </p>
<p>Consequently, students who rarely talked to each other came together over books. In the process, they learned about each other, became friends or at least developed greater appreciation for each other. They also talked to family members, including parents, some of whom they convinced to read the books. </p>
<p>Relationships in books made teens rethink their own relationships. “Her mom was all rude to her,” one student recalled about a character. “It kind of had me feeling bad, ‘cause I was rude to my aunt, and my situation could have been worse.” </p>
<p>Students shared that reading about characters in dire circumstances changed how they thought about their own families. For instance, several admitted that reading a book about a girl their age who was abducted and abused by an adult male made them more likely to listen to their parents’ advice about safety. Others reading that same book reported becoming more protective of siblings.</p>
<h2>3. They became more thoughtful</h2>
<p>Reading about the decisions characters made gave the teens a chance to see the potential consequences of their own future choices.</p>
<p>Some described positive characters as role models. Others described using characters who made questionable decisions as cautionary tales and tools of self-reflection. </p>
<p>Statements such as one student’s comment that “I have changed because I think more about things before I do them” were common and were related to problems teens were already facing or could see on the horizon. These problems included toxic relationships, substance abuse, gang-related activity and risky sexual behaviors. </p>
<h2>4. They were happier</h2>
<p>Despite the fact that many students chose books with serious and unsettling content, students claimed reading made them feel better.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl lies on her back on a bench reading a book that she is holding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teens say reading books can boost their mood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenage-girl-reading-book-outdoors-royalty-free-image/1223187399?phrase=teens+books&adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some explicitly attested to the pleasure of reading. “It’s the happiest I’ll get,” one student stated about the time she spent with the books.</p>
<p>More frequently, students described how mental trips through books helped them reconsider their own worries compared with characters with much harder lives.</p>
<p>“You do get an appreciation for what you do have, and, like, for being thankful for the happiness and joy in your life,” one explained. “Some of those books, it’s crazy what’s in there.”</p>
<h2>5. Books helped students heal</h2>
<p>Some students reported that books helped them heal from depression and grief.</p>
<p>“When I was younger, I lost my best friend,” one student shared after reading about a character whose mother died. “It was really hard for me, but books like that really take me back and help me remember her but without getting really upset.” </p>
<p>Many pointed to good feelings they got from meaningful book conversations with peers. That is not surprising given the link between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9083-0">positive social relationships and young people’s happiness</a>.</p>
<h2>6. They became better readers</h2>
<p>Some of the books were difficult for students to read, but they persisted even though they had to work harder to understand them. Other research has found that this persistence is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2010.481503">related to the interest</a> that students had in the subjects of the books.</p>
<p>Students reported rereading large chunks of books or even entire books to clear up confusion about storylines, and asking teachers and peers for help with problems such as unfamiliar vocabulary. Their scores on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46">end-of-year reading tests improved</a>, whereas scores for other students remained flat. That is not surprising, since the students in our study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.404">read so much</a>. Also, they read mainly fiction, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3498">which is correlated with better reading skills</a> compared with other genres.</p>
<p>Students said they started visiting public libraries and bookstores. Declarations like “I’m a bookworm now” suggested they began viewing themselves as readers. They also reported larger changes. “I think I got smarter,” one student remarked. </p>
<p>The positive transformations reported by students we interviewed cannot be generalized, but experimentally controlled studies yield related findings. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101216">adolescents who read and talk to each other</a> about stories with social themes report greater motivation to read, greater use of reading strategies, such as rereading what they don’t understand, and insight into human nature than those who do not.</p>
<p>Our research left us reflecting on why we want young people to read in the first place. Do we want them to reap the social, emotional, moral and academic benefits that reading confers? If so, preserving their access to relevant books – even the “disturbing” ones – matters a lot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gay Ivey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Amid calls to ban certain books from libraries and schools, research shows that students benefit when they have the ability to choose which materials they want to read.
Gay Ivey, Professor of Literacy, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217347
2024-01-04T13:45:06Z
2024-01-04T13:45:06Z
School board members could soon be blocked from blocking people − and deleting their comments − on social media
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566311/original/file-20231218-15-v903xy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6877%2C4213&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A California couple sued two school board members who blocked them on Facebook after they made critical remarks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/laptop-and-colour-speech-bubbles-royalty-free-image/1403128248?adppopup=true">OsakaWayne Studios via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If a school board member has a social media account, would it be wrong for them to block someone and delete their comments? That’s a question the Supreme Court has decided to take up after public officials, including two school board members, blocked constituents from seeing their accounts or removed critical comments. </p>
<p>At stake is what constitutes state action – or action taken in an official governmental capacity – on social media. Under the First Amendment, officials engaging in state action <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/state-action-doctrine-and-free-speech">cannot restrict individuals’ freedom of speech and expression</a>. </p>
<p>A ruling in the case, likely to come in spring or early summer 2024, could have broad implications for American society, where nearly three-fourths of the population <a href="https://backlinko.com/social-media-users">use social media in their daily lives</a>. The ruling could also establish whether social media accounts of public officials should be treated as personal or governmental. </p>
<p>In a joint oral argument, the Supreme Court heard <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/10/justices-consider-liability-for-officials-who-block-critics-on-social-media/">two separate cases on the matter</a>, including the one involving school board members, in late October 2023. Interestingly, lower courts reached opposite outcomes, prompting the question of whether a post on a personal social media page can be considered state action.</p>
<h2>The school board case</h2>
<p>Beginning around 2014, two school board candidates in the Poway Unified School District in San Diego created Facebook and Twitter, now X, pages as part of their campaigns for office. They continued to use them after they were elected to communicate with residents and seek their input. </p>
<p>In 2017, the school board members blocked a couple with children in the district from commenting on their pages. Christopher and Kimberly Garnier <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2022/07/27/21-55118.pdf">repeatedly posted criticism</a> on those pages over such issues as the board members’ handling of race relations in the district and alleged financial wrongdoing by the then-superintendent. The Garniers responded to being blocked by filing a lawsuit. </p>
<p>In the resulting case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/22-324">O'Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier</a>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed that the two school board members violated the Garniers’ First Amendment rights to free speech and expression. The court rejected the board members’ claims that their accounts were private because they were not controlled by their boards and their posts were not directly related to their official duties.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566369/original/file-20231218-23-9xvonp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Christopher and Kimberly Garnier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Cory Briggs</span></span>
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<p>The 9th Circuit judges made three points in ruling that the board members violated the First Amendment. First, the pages identified the board members as government officials and displayed their titles prominently. Second, the social media accounts provided information about school activities. And third, the board members solicited constituent input about school matters on the social media pages in question. </p>
<p>However, the court concluded that the board members were not liable for monetary damages. This is because at the time the school board members blocked the Garniers, no court had yet established whether the First Amendment applies to public officials’ speech in the context of social media. It was – and remains – a new frontier in the law.</p>
<h2>Critical comments over COVID-19</h2>
<p>Conversely, in a similar case in Port Huron, Michigan, the 6th Circuit made the opposite ruling.</p>
<p>Years before he was appointed city manager in 2014, a man named James Freed created a personal Facebook page that he eventually made public when he reached the limit of “friends” allowed on Facebook. Once in office, he used the page for both personal and professional reasons, posting updates about his family as well as policies he was working to implement. During the pandemic, constituent Kevin Lindke posted on Freed’s page, <a href="https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/22a0138p-06.pdf">criticizing his handling of the public health crisis</a>. Freed deleted Lindke’s comments and blocked him from the page. Lindke sued.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/22-611">Lindke v. Freed</a>, the 6th Circuit affirmed that Freed did not violate the First Amendment in deleting and blocking Lindke’s comments. And like the 9th Circuit in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/22-324">O'Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier</a>, the court concluded that people’s First Amendment rights to comment on public officials’ social media pages had not yet been established.</p>
<p>The 6th Circuit ruled that Freed posted on his social media page as a private citizen, rather than as a governmental official. The court determined this for three reasons. First, no state law required him to run a social media page. Second, state funds and resources were not used to run the page. And third, the page belonged to Freed as an individual, rather than to the office of city manager – unlike the <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS">@POTUS</a> page on X, for example. Therefore, the court concluded that the postings did not constitute state action subject to the First Amendment.</p>
<p>In April 2023, the Supreme Court agreed to intervene in both cases.</p>
<h2>The future of the cases</h2>
<p>Both cases not only have consequences for citizens’ First Amendment rights but also for <a href="https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/10/27/23929468/supreme-court-social-media-twitter-free-speech-content-moderation">social media companies and users</a>. The Court may decide whether social media platforms such as Facebook and X can be liable for allowing a public official to block private citizens from commenting on their accounts.</p>
<p>These cases might also establish rules and standards about how public officials can control their social media accounts and the role of the courts in these disputes.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-611/275406/20230815175747110_22-611bsacUnitedStates.pdf">brief supporting the city manager in Lindke v. Freed</a>, the U.S. Department of Justice basically argued that if the government neither owns nor controls the personal social media accounts of public officials, their behavior on the platforms “will rarely be found to be state action.”</p>
<p>The DOJ added that preventing public officials from blocking some messages might make them less willing to speak out about important issues. They warned that this could reduce, rather than enhance, free speech and discourse on matters of public interest, whether in schools or other agencies. </p>
<p>On the other hand, organizations such as the ACLU argue that allowing public officials to restrict comments on social media would be detrimental to democracy by limiting free speech.</p>
<p>“The upshot of the government officials’ argument is that they should have a constitutional blank check to silence or retaliate against their constituents for expressing disfavored viewpoints on social media,” the ACLU <a href="https://www.aclu.org/cases/oconnor-ratcliff-v-garnier-and-lindke-v-freed">wrote about the two cases</a>. “This would give officials a way to short-circuit our most fundamental First Amendment protections.”</p>
<p>Depending on how the court rules, social media may be headed into a new era of who can access and comment on the accounts of public officials.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A law scholar examines a pair of Supreme Court cases that pit the public’s free speech rights against politicians’ rights.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204322
2023-12-11T15:50:11Z
2023-12-11T15:50:11Z
Digital platforms like TikTok could help China extend its censorship regime across borders
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563620/original/file-20231205-19-pcod9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5097%2C3398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tiktok-icon-mobile-app-on-screen-2036791064">Primakov / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>China’s drive to expand its influence through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13540661211015722?journalCode=ejta">soft power mechanisms like censorship</a> is coming into sharper focus, especially under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Recently, the social media app TikTok has become a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/tiktok-ban.html">prominent symbol</a> of this global strategy.</p>
<p>The platform <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/24/problem-tiktoks-claim-independence-beijing">consistently denies</a> that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is close to China’s government. “ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. It is a private company,” <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-03-23/tiktok-ceo-faces-bipartisan-grilling-over-privacy-china-ties-and-teens">TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew said</a>. However, US <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-ceo-face-tough-questions-support-us-ban-grows-2023-03-23/">congressional hearings</a> and discussions about potential bans this year may suggest that there are suspicions in some quarters of other countries suspect a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/24/problem-tiktoks-claim-independence-beijing">deeper, more intricate connection</a>.</p>
<p>The crux of the matter lies in understanding how TikTok, and platforms like it, fit into China’s wider interests in spreading its culture, <a href="https://www.journaloffreespeechlaw.org/chen.pdf">enhancing its global influence</a> and censoring views it objects to across national borders.</p>
<p>At first glance, TikTok provides <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-is-more-than-just-a-frivolous-app-for-lip-syncing-and-dancing-podcast-182264">light-hearted entertainment</a> via catchy dances and comedic sketches. Yet, its content strategy largely reflects a prevalent ethos in China – to “<a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/public-opinion-china-liberal-silent-majority">live silently</a>”. </p>
<p>This essentially means navigating the digital space in a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/evidence-tiktok-national-security-threat-reason-concern-experts/story?id=98149650">seemingly non-confrontational</a> manner, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/26/tiktok-says-it-doesnt-censor-but-a-user-who-criticized-china-was-locked-out.html">being less critical</a>, or at least overtly so, of the Chinese government.</p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.cecc.gov/silencing-critics-by-exploiting-national-security-and-state-secrets-laws">myriad of censorship laws in China</a>, this approach may be both strategic and necessary for TikTok. It reportedly ensures that content creators <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing">steer clear of potential controversies</a>. By <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/15/tiktoks-beijing-roots-fuel-censorship-suspicion-it-builds-huge-us-audience/">aligning itself</a> with the Chinese government’s narrative, TikTok would certainly reduce its chances of being banned in China.</p>
<p>Such an ethos, however, starkly contrasts with those of western democracies that <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/504/near-v-minnesota">champion freedom of expression</a>, even when it encompasses <a href="https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/handyside-v-uk/#:%7E:text=The%20European%20Court%20of%20Human%20Rights%20held%20that%20Handyside's%20conviction,necessary%20in%20a%20democratic%20society'.">controversial or unpopular opinions</a>. </p>
<p>The US Supreme Court, for instance, adheres to a constitutional doctrine which holds that the American government <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Texas-v-Johnson">cannot prohibit</a> “expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable”. </p>
<p>These two divergent philosophies are at the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/14/tiktok-ban-us-canada-eu-government/">heart of the debate</a> in western countries over TikTok and a broader narrative about how digital platforms can become <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/sovereignty-and-evolution-internet-ideology">tools of the state</a>.</p>
<h2>When censorship meets capitalism</h2>
<p>The potential and temptation for China to exert censorship across borders gets magnified when it’s intertwined with global economic interests. China’s emphasis on cyber sovereignty and efforts to <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/cff/2022/08/18/sovereignty-and-cyberspace-chinas-ambition-to-shape-cyber-norms/">mould digital standards globally</a> along with its aspirations to <a href="https://www.nbr.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/publications/sr97_chinas_digital_ambitions_mar2022.pdf">position itself</a> at the helm of the digital era are closely aligned with its wider geopolitical goals. </p>
<p>Projects such as the <a href="https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2022/09/06/ten-years-of-the-belt-and-road-reflections-and-recent-trends/">Belt and Road Initiative</a> further underscore China’s ambitions, where “soft power” and censorship combine to become <a href="https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/soft-power-disinformation-and-censorship-featuring-sarah-cook">a formidable tool of influence</a>.</p>
<p>Such global ambitions are intricately tied to China’s economic prowess. Using the promise of access to its vast market and investments, China has been criticised for exerting what has been described as “<a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2022/738219/EPRS_BRI(2022)738219_EN.pdf">economic coercion</a>”. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/07/06/chinese-social-media-platforms-censor-us-embassy-posts/?sh=31e8d622224a">Governments</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/chinese-slaps-comedy-firm-with-2-mln-fine-after-military-joke-2023-05-17/">corporations</a>, eager for a slice of the pie, might find themselves compromising their principles, including freedom of expression. </p>
<p>This economic leverage becomes a subtle yet powerful tool, potentially making nations or businesses think twice about <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20902947/nba-rockets-daryl-morey-hong-kong-protests-tweet-internet-speech-censorship-china">opposing or criticising China’s policies</a>.</p>
<p>Today, global tech giants find themselves having to balance <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/rising-authoritarian-wave/">profits against democratic principles</a> if they want to <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/11/01/opinion-u-s-tech-firms-must-rethink-their-relationships-with-china/">tap into</a> China’s vast and lucrative markets. The conundrum isn’t just about TikTok’s content policies. It’s a reflection of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Business/UNGPs10/Stocktaking-reader-friendly.pdf">broader challenges</a> global corporations face, balancing profit motives with foundational principles.</p>
<h2>A digital divide</h2>
<p>China’s efforts to exert influence go beyond mere content curation. Its economic prowess allows it to deploy what some academics have called “<a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/Complete_FH_TransnationalRepressionReport2021_rev020221.pdf">transnational repression</a>” – a potent tool in the party-state’s <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/26/chinese-censorship-enes-kanter-celtics-browder-is-going-global/">transnational censorship</a> arsenal.</p>
<p>There’s evidence that China has used a combination of <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/18/1054452/china-censors-social-media-comments/">digital platforms</a>, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/assets/2021/07/Chinas-Surveillance-State.pdf">surveillance technology</a> and <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/04/world/china-overseas-police-stations-intl-cmd/index.html">international collaborations</a> to suppress dissent. This is not just happening domestically, but also <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/20/how-chinas-censorship-machine-crosses-borders-and-western-politics">among its</a> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/14/wechat-trap-chinas-diaspora">diaspora</a>.</p>
<p>If governments and corporations <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/14/chinas-influence-global-human-rights-system">compromise their foundational values</a> to access China’s markets and resources, it extends the regime’s control, ensuring that criticism and challenges to its authority are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-softpower-rights/">curtailed globally</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/why-tiktok-is-a-threat-to-democracy/">ideological rift</a> between platforms like TikTok and western democratic values therefore extends beyond mere business challenges. It underscores a profound <a href="https://verfassungsblog.de/os4-china/">conflict of values</a>. Digital platforms hailing from China, such as TikTok, operate within a framework that <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/how-beijing-uses-tiktok-s-sister-app-to-spread-propaganda-20221102-p5bv2u">mandates content curation</a> in line with the Chinese government’s directives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shanghai skyline" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563634/original/file-20231205-21-yv8xtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nations and companies could be tempted to compromise their values in order to access China’s immense markets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shanghai-china-city-skyline-over-pudong-272220503">Sean Pavone / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Amplified influence</h2>
<p>China’s <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/as/article-abstract/56/6/1168/24874/The-Ideological-Campaign-in-Xi-s-ChinaRebuilding?redirectedFrom=fulltext">unwavering adherence</a> to its ideological principles, including campaigns such as “<a href="https://www.modernlawreview.co.uk/july-2016/fusco-schmitt/">class struggle</a>”, can be traced back to historical movements in China like the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbtzp48">Yan’an Rectification Movement</a>” of 1942. The <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/digital-propaganda-the-power-of-influencers/">strategies may have changed</a>, but the core objective remains unaltered: to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/chatbot-censorship-china-freedom-house">amplify the influence</a> of an assertive, authoritarian regime.</p>
<p>In today’s interconnected world, digital platforms are not just sources of entertainment. Instead, they represent <a href="https://policyreview.info/concepts/platformisation">the convergence</a> of technology, politics and culture. TikTok, and its global reach, is a testament to this fusion. With its catchy challenges and trending dances, it is not just an entertainment app, but a digital stage where <a href="https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/geopolitics-platforms-tiktok-challenge">business, entertainment and geopolitics converge</a>. </p>
<p>As we continue to interact with these platforms, it’s vital to understand these underlying currents, recognising the geopolitical games at play beneath the surface of viral trends and social media challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ge Chen is Affiliated Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.</span></em></p>
Discussions about potential bans highlight the tension between Western countries and China over the app.
Ge Chen, Assistant Professor in Global Media & Information Law, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218730
2023-11-28T16:52:44Z
2023-11-28T16:52:44Z
Gaza war: Israeli government has Haaretz newspaper in its sights as it tightens screws on media freedom
<p>The Israeli government is putting pressure on the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz to line up in support of the government in its conduct of the war in Gaza. </p>
<p>The communications minister, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-23/ty-article/israels-communications-minister-threatens-haaretz-suggests-penalizing-its-war-coverage/0000018b-fd0c-de73-a9bb-ffefb9f10000">Shlomo Karhi</a>, has suggested financial penalties be applied to the paper accusing it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime”. The proposal aims to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-23/ty-article/israels-communications-minister-threatens-haaretz-suggests-penalizing-its-war-coverage/0000018b-fd0c-de73-a9bb-ffefb9f10000">cancel state subscriptions to the paper</a> and “forbid the publication of official notices”.</p>
<p>In response, the Israeli Journalists’ Union called the move a “populistic proposal devoid of any feasibility of logic”. Haaretz, which is an independent daily newspaper, has been publishing since 1919, and has frequently been the target of right-wing administrations.</p>
<p>On October 20 the government enacted <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/govt-approves-emergency-regulations-that-could-pave-way-to-closing-al-jazeera-offices/">emergency regulations</a>, enabling it to temporarily shut down foreign media seen as harmful to the country. This legislation allows for the closure and signal blocking of any media for 30 days at a time. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-15/ty-article/.premium/israeli-minister-seeks-to-imprison-citizens-who-harm-national-morale/0000018b-33a7-d0b2-afff-33e788c00000">Haaretz noted</a> on October 15 that an earlier draft of the legislation titled: “Limiting Aid to The Enemy through Communication” included plans for sweeping limitations on domestic as well as foreign media. In the end, the former was not included in the new law.</p>
<p>Karhi’s intention with this legislation was also to shutter the Qatari TV station Al Jazeera. However, the cabinet turned down this specific proposal due to <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjuttprz6">Qatar’s role</a> in current hostage and prisoner negotiations. On November 13, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/govt-approves-emergency-regulations-that-could-pave-way-to-closing-al-jazeera-offices/">the Times of Israel</a> reported that the same legislation was used to prevent broadcasts of the Lebanese channel Al-Mayadeen TV inside Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories for “security reasons”. </p>
<p>Israel’s <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/israel-blocks-pro-iranian-al-mayadeen-tv-websites-e892cb90">defence minister, Yoav Gallant, accused</a> the network of being “a mouthpiece of Hezbollah” and its journalists of “supporting terror while pretending to be reporters”.</p>
<p>One week later on November 21, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/21/israeli-strike-kills-three-journalists-near-lebanon-border">two of the station’s reporters</a> were killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon. Correspondent Farah Omar and camera operator Rabih al-Maamari were covering firing between Hezbollah and Israel in Tayr Harfa, a mile from the Israeli border, when they were hit.</p>
<p>On its website, the <a href="https://cpj.org/2023/11/al-mayadeen-tv-reporter-and-videographer-killed-by-israeli-strike-in-south-lebanon/">Committee to Protect Journalists</a>, while labelling Al-Mayadeen “Hezbollah-affiliated,” called for “<a href="https://cpj.org/2023/11/al-mayadeen-tv-reporter-and-videographer-killed-by-israeli-strike-in-south-lebanon/">an independent investigation</a> into the killing of journalists”. It emphasised that “journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://cpj.org/2023/11/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/">CPJ</a> reports that 57 journalists and media workers have been killed since the conflict began. This includes 50 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese media workers. <a href="https://rsf.org/en/index">Reporters without Borders</a> lists Israel at number 97 in its Freedom of Press rankings of 180 countries, above the Central African Republic and below Albania. It notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Under Israel’s military censorship, reporting on a variety of security issues requires prior approval by the authorities. In addition to the possibility of civil defamation suits, journalists can also be charged with criminal defamation and ‘insulting a public official’. There is a freedom of information law, but it is sometimes hard to implement.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Mandate-era restrictions</h2>
<p>Limitations on the press were first introduced under the “<a href="https://www.btselem.org/legal_documents/emergency_regulations">Defence (Emergency) Regulations</a>” put in place by the British during the Palestine mandate and repealed when they left in 1948. But following the establishment of the state of Israel, most of the wide-ranging regulations got incorporated into Israeli legislation. </p>
<p>Legacy mandate-era legislation concerned with demolishing houses, detention of individuals and curfews has been in continuous use in the Occupied Territories, according to <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/200411_punitive_house_demolitions">Israeli human rights group B'Tselem</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-taps-kobi-mandelblit-to-serve-as-next-military-censor/">the Times of Israel</a> in terms of domestic censorship, “any articles in both traditional media and social media” that deal with security and intelligence have to be sent to the chief censor, Brigadier General Kobi Mandelblit, for approval before publication. This is completely in line with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210102012058/http://nolegalfrontiers.org/military-orders/mil029ed2.html?lang=en">The Defence (Emergency) Regulations</a>, 1945.</p>
<p>The Times <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/minister-suggests-sanctions-on-haaretz-for-false-propaganda-but-action-unlikely/">reported</a> that Haaretz’s journalism has been “largely supportive of the war effort, though highly critical of the government leading it”.</p>
<p>In attacking the newspaper, Shlomo Karhi wrote a letter to cabinet secretary, Yossi Fuchs, in which he quoted from a couple of pieces which were, in fact, opinion columns rather than straight news reports. </p>
<p>One was written by <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-10-09/ty-article-opinion/.premium/israel-cant-imprison-2-million-gazans-without-paying-a-cruel-price/0000018b-1476-d465-abbb-14f6262a0000">Gideon Levy</a> on October 9, under the headline: “Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price”. In the article Levy opined: “Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it. We’ll carry on undisturbed.”</p>
<p>In another column, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-10-10/ty-article/.premium/arriving-again-at-the-cycle-of-vengeance/0000018b-15d7-d2fc-a59f-d5df4d810000">Amira Hass</a>, was also mentioned as proof of Haaretz’s “defeatist and false propaganda”. Karhi quoted from a piece she wrote on October 10: “In a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing – military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up in the road.”</p>
<p>In response to Karhi’s attacks on the newspaper, Haaretz’s publisher, Amos Schocken, accused the government of attempting “to stifle the free press in Israel”. In <a href="https://twitter.com/haaretzcom/status/1727860046246121477/photo/1">a post on X</a> (formerly Twitter) he wrote: “When Netanyahu’s government wants to shut us down, it’s time to read Haaretz.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Murrell receives funding from Coimisiún na Meán (Ireland's media regulator) to research and write the annual Reuters Digital News Report Ireland (2021-2026)</span></em></p>
The Netanyahu government is pressuring Israel’s most prominent left-leaning newspaper over its coverage of the war in Gaza.
Colleen Murrell, Full Professor in Journalism, Dublin City University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216004
2023-11-13T00:12:23Z
2023-11-13T00:12:23Z
Australia’s media classification system is no help to parents and carers. It needs a grounding in evidence
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557940/original/file-20231107-29-5gynl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3964%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/classic-vintage-retro-style-old-television-614643728">Commonwealth of Australia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the era of proliferating streaming platforms, choosing what to watch on family movie night can be hard.</p>
<p>Parents have a greater need than ever for good advice to help them narrow down the options, and they should be able to turn to the government’s classification system. </p>
<p>When they do, they will usually trust that if something is rated G or PG, it’s suitable for young children. </p>
<p>You might be surprised to learn, then, the current media classification system has no basis in evidence about children’s developmental needs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/episode-choose-your-story-the-inappropriate-game-your-kids-have-probably-played-127445">Episode – Choose Your Story: the inappropriate game your kids have probably played</a>
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<h2>Where did classifications come from?</h2>
<p>Australia’s National Classification Scheme for films, games and publications was established in 1995. The Commonwealth and the states and territories agreed to replace what was then known as the “censorship” system. </p>
<p>The scheme classifies media content based on the perceived impact (very mild, mild, moderate, and so on) of elements such as violence, sex, and themes related to social issues including crime, racism and suicide. </p>
<p>The ratings aim to give effect to four principles listed in the <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/legislation">National Classification Code</a>. One of those is that “minors should be protected from material likely to harm or disturb them”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This film ratings promo was on many VHS and DVDs in Australia in the 2000s.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Initially there was no R18+ classification for games. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://theconversation.com/r18-classification-for-videogames-the-quest-continues-2835">intense debate</a> in the late 2000s, the adults-only classification was introduced in 2013.</p>
<h2>Flawed attempts at reform</h2>
<p>The Commonwealth referred classification law to the Australian Law Reform Commission for review in 2011. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/national-classification-scheme-review/">2012 report</a> revealed little about the efficacy of the scheme for families. </p>
<p>The review led to <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/national-classification-scheme-review/implementation-13/">very few changes</a>. None were of any real significance for consumers.</p>
<p>Recommendations from the <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/review-of-australian-classification-regulation--may2020.pdf">latest review</a> of the scheme were submitted to the Morrison government in 2020. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-no-age-restrictions-for-gambling-in-video-games-despite-potential-risks-to-children-96115">There are no age restrictions for gambling in video games, despite potential risks to children</a>
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<p>There was no action on those until the Albanese government, in April 2023, announced a couple of fairly significant changes, such as <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/media-release/albanese-government-outlines-key-reforms-national-classification-scheme">mandatory minimum classifications</a> for gambling-related content.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, useful information for families is still hard to come by. </p>
<h2>Vague terms not based in fact</h2>
<p>The current system is based entirely on “impact”, which is undefined. </p>
<p>The efficacy of the system in protecting children from harm or disturbance is diminished because it’s not based on evidence of children’s developmental needs. </p>
<p>For example, there is strong evidence that scary content <a href="https://smallscreen.org.au/september-2023-editorial/">poses risks</a> for children’s mental wellbeing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A child plays a video game wearing headphones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">R18+ classifications were brought in for video games in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-boy-playing-video-game-dark-1587426013">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But unless it’s actually violent (which it isn’t always), you have to hope it will be picked up under the “themes”. </p>
<p>If we had an evidence-based system, scariness would be established as a separate criterion during the classification process.</p>
<p>Regarding violent content, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2003.pspi_1433.x">there is evidence</a> as to which kinds pose greater risks than others.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2021.1904446">a study</a> of the Classification Review Board’s thought processes around violence shows these are often at odds with the evidence.</p>
<p>For example, they tend to downplay “superhero violence”. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300218879.001.0001">research</a> shows appealing perpetrators whose violence is justified are more likely to foster an attitude in viewers that violence is an appropriate way to resolve conflict.</p>
<p>The most recent review of the scheme recognised the need for an evidence-based system, but stopped short of recommending it. </p>
<h2>Overhaul needed to better guide parents</h2>
<p>Parents need reliable information to judge the suitability of content for children of different ages. </p>
<p>The G and PG ratings, for example, effectively lump everyone under 15 into a single age group. This means they don’t provide any guidance about whether or not content is suitable for any particular age group under that threshold. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/review-of-australian-classification-regulation--may2020.pdf">2020 review</a> suggested an additional category (PG13) could be appropriate. </p>
<p>This may help address the vast range of content lumped in the current PG category, but only if it was based on evidence about the developmental needs of children under 13. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mother, father and young boy sit on the couch eating popcorn" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Parents should have more of a say to make the Australian classification system more user-friendly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-leisure-people-concept-happy-smiling-1658483641">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>And even if PG13 was introduced, the system would still fail to address the differing developmental stages of children aged 1 to 12 years.</p>
<p>An overhaul of the system is needed, including a move away from “impact” to a test based on children’s developmental needs.</p>
<p>This could help support parents to make well-informed decisions for their children. The Commonwealth is obliged to do this under article 18 of the UN’s <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>.</p>
<p>Policy-makers should also be seeking the thoughts of parents, who ultimately interact with the system most. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/research-and-publications/classification-usage-and-attitudes-2022">Previous government research</a> hasn’t focused on parents enough.</p>
<p>A 2022 report found 74% broad agreement with the statement “classification categories do not need to change”. But participants, only 30% of whom were parents or carers, were not given an alternative model for comparison. </p>
<p>We cannot know what participants would have said if they had been asked to consider other options, such as an age-based set of categories.</p>
<p>Research we are currently undertaking fills this gap. </p>
<p><a href="https://unisasurveys.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cV1sFcIAgFXa1gy">Our survey</a> informs parents and carers about the current Australian system and asks them to rate content using an evidence-informed framework.</p>
<p>It will provide important information about the usability of the scheme. Then, we can propose a model of classification that better reflects the needs of its primary users – one that is actually based on evidence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Handsley is President of Children and Media Australia, the national peak non-profit organisation representing children's rights and interests as media users. In this capacity she made submissions and representations to the Stevens review of the National Classification Scheme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fae Heaselgrave is conducting research with Children and Media Australia about the usability of the Australian Classifications Scheme for parents and carers. </span></em></p>
We’re all familiar with a green ‘G’ or a red ‘MA’ on a movie poster, but those ratings don’t have any basis in what we know about child development. They’d be much more useful for parents if they did.
Elizabeth Handsley, Adjunct Professor of Law, Western Sydney University
Fae Heaselgrave, Lecturer in Communication and Media, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216809
2023-11-03T21:14:23Z
2023-11-03T21:14:23Z
It’s not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557492/original/file-20231103-28-dk0wt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C7217%2C4808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your political leanings go a long way to determine whether you think it's a good or bad idea to take down misinformation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/man-reading-fake-news-on-laptop-royalty-free-image/1441611425">Johner Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Misinformation is a key <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Risks_Report_2023.pdf">global threat</a>, but Democrats and Republicans disagree about how to address the problem. In particular, Democrats and Republicans diverge sharply on removing misinformation from social media.</p>
<p>Only three weeks after the Biden administration announced the Disinformation Governance Board in April 2022, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/18/disinformation-board-dhs-nina-jankowicz/">effort to develop best practices for countering disinformation was halted</a> because of Republican concerns about its mission. Why do Democrats and Republicans have such different attitudes about content moderation?</p>
<p>My colleagues <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=5EIL7zMAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">Jennifer Pan</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=KfipOeoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">Margaret E. Roberts</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=3flEE1wAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">I</a> found in a study published in the journal Science Advances that Democrats and Republicans not only disagree about what is true or false, they also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg6799">differ in their internalized preferences</a> for content moderation. Internalized preferences may be related to people’s moral values, identities or other psychological factors, or people internalizing the preferences of party elites. </p>
<p>And though people are sometimes strategic about wanting misinformation that counters their political views removed, internalized preferences are a much larger factor in the differing attitudes toward content moderation. </p>
<h2>Internalized preferences or partisan bias?</h2>
<p>In our study, we found that Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to want to remove misinformation, while Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to consider removal of misinformation as censorship. Democrats’ attitudes might depend somewhat on whether the content aligns with their own political views, but this seems to be due, at least in part, to different perceptions of accuracy.</p>
<p>Previous research showed that Democrats and Republicans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210666120">have different views</a> about content moderation of misinformation. One of the most prominent explanations is the “fact gap”: the difference in what Democrats and Republicans believe is true or false. For example, a study found that both Democrats and Republicans were more likely to believe news headlines <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.31.2.211">that were aligned with their own political views</a>.</p>
<p>But it is unlikely that the fact gap alone can explain the huge differences in content moderation attitudes. That’s why we set out to study two other factors that might lead Democrats and Republicans to have different attitudes: preference gap and party promotion. A preference gap is a difference in internalized preferences about whether, and what, content should be removed. Party promotion is a person making content moderation decisions based on whether the content aligns with their partisan views. </p>
<p>We asked 1,120 U.S. survey respondents who identified as either Democrat or Republican about their opinions on a set of political headlines that we identified as misinformation based on a bipartisan fact check. Each respondent saw one headline that was aligned with their own political views and one headline that was misaligned. After each headline, the respondent answered whether they would want the social media company to remove the headline, whether they would consider it censorship if the social media platform removed the headline, whether they would report the headline as harmful, and how accurate the headline was.</p>
<h2>Deep-seated differences</h2>
<p>When we compared how Democrats and Republicans would deal with headlines overall, we found strong evidence for a preference gap. Overall, 69% of Democrats said misinformation headlines in our study should be removed, but only 34% of Republicans said the same; 49% of Democrats considered the misinformation headlines harmful, but only 27% of Republicans said the same; and 65% of Republicans considered headline removal to be censorship, but only 29% of Democrats said the same.</p>
<p>Even in cases where Democrats and Republicans agreed that the same headlines were inaccurate, Democrats were nearly twice as likely as Republicans to want to remove the content, while Republicans were nearly twice as likely as Democrats to consider removal censorship. </p>
<p><iframe id="GJnyn" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/GJnyn/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We didn’t test explicitly why Democrats and Republicans have such different internalized preferences, but there are at least two possible reasons. First, Democrats and Republicans might differ in factors like their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141">moral values</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104031">identities</a>. Second, Democrats and Republicans might internalize what the elites in their parties signal. For example, Republican elites have recently framed content moderation as a <a href="https://www.rubio.senate.gov/rubio-introduces-sec-230-legislation-to-crack-down-on-big-tech-algorithms-and-protect-free-speech/">free speech</a> and <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2021/05/24/governor-ron-desantis-signs-bill-to-stop-the-censorship-of-floridians-by-big-tech/">censorship</a> issue. Republicans might use these elites’ preferences to inform their own.</p>
<p>When we zoomed in on headlines that are either aligned or misaligned for Democrats, we found a party promotion effect: Democrats were less favorable to content moderation when misinformation aligned with their own views. Democrats were 11% less likely to want the social media company to remove headlines that aligned with their own political views. They were 13% less likely to report headlines that aligned with their own views as harmful. We didn’t find a similar effect for Republicans. </p>
<p>Our study shows that party promotion may be partly due to different perceptions of accuracy of the headlines. When we looked only at Democrats who agreed with our statement that the headlines were false, the party promotion effect was reduced to 7%.</p>
<h2>Implications for social media platforms</h2>
<p>We find it encouraging that the effect of party promotion is much smaller than the effect of internalized preferences, especially when accounting for accuracy perceptions. However, given the huge partisan differences in content moderation preferences, we believe that social media companies should look beyond the fact gap when designing content moderation policies that aim for bipartisan support.</p>
<p>Future research could explore whether getting Democrats and Republicans to agree on <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4005326">moderation processes</a> – rather than moderation of individual pieces of content – could reduce disagreement. Also, other types of content moderation such as downweighting, which involves platforms reducing the virality of certain content, might prove to be less contentious. Finally, if the preference gap – the differences in deep-seated preferences between Democrats and Republicans – is rooted in value differences, platforms could try to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12501">different moral framings</a> to appeal to people on both sides of the partisan divide.</p>
<p>For now, Democrats and Republicans are likely to continue to disagree over whether removing misinformation from social media improves public discourse or amounts to censorship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Elisabeth Appel has been supported by an SAP Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering, a Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society PhD Research Fellowship and a Stanford Impact Labs Summer Collaborative Research Fellowship. She has interned at Google in 2020 and attended an event where food was paid for by Meta.</span></em></p>
One person’s content moderation is another’s censorship when it comes to Democrats’ and Republicans’ views on handling misinformation.
Ruth Elisabeth Appel, Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, Stanford University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214673
2023-10-09T12:07:50Z
2023-10-09T12:07:50Z
The power of pink: how Barbie’s popularity is pushing back against Kremlin control of information
<p>Underground screenings of the summer’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/23/1195387845/the-barbie-movies-success-puts-her-among-historys-top-20-films">Hollywood blockbuster Barbie</a> are now being shown around Russia, despite the film being frowned on by government officials.</p>
<p>The fantasy comedy film, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie, is being shown at some Russian cinemas as well as other venues. Some places are using pirated copies with bad voiceovers. However, the film has been <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/01/media/barbie-russia-barbiemania-intl/index.html">criticised by officials</a> and other pro-government voices as not conforming <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-culture-ministry-barbie-vladimir-putin-media-ukraine-war-2023-9?r=US&IR=T">with “Russian values”</a>. </p>
<p>The movie is based on the American doll produced by Mattel since <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-marketing-tricks-that-have-kept-barbies-brand-alive-for-over-60-years-200844">the late 1950s</a>. Some reviewers argue that the film promotes self-acceptance, inclusivity and <a href="https://theconversation.com/greta-gerwigs-barbie-movie-is-a-feminist-bimbo-classic-and-no-thats-not-an-oxymoron-210069">female empowerment</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, these values stand in stark contrast to the Russian government’s current world view and beliefs, which seeks to promote conformity and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1060586X.2015.1019242">collective, patriotic ideals</a>. In 2022, the Russian ministry of culture proposed a list of traditional spiritual and moral values for the Russian people, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-60123117">which included “patriotism” and “service to the Fatherland”</a>. </p>
<p>Given this position, it is not surprising that one St Petersburg newspaper article argued that the film should be banned because it promotes an aggressive denial of “family values” and <a href="https://www.fontanka.ru/2023/07/24/72527573/">discrimination against men</a>.</p>
<p>From the Kremlin’s viewpoint, the conflict between Russian and western values is part of a “hybrid war” the west is waging on Russia. The claim here is that the west is trying to penetrate Russia’s information space in order to influence Russian citizens and exploit the “<a href="https://ria.ru/20190424/1552999330.html">protest potential of the population</a>,” as Russian chief of general staff Valeri Gerasimov warned.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greta-gerwigs-barbie-movie-is-a-feminist-bimbo-classic-and-no-thats-not-an-oxymoron-210069">Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie is a 'feminist bimbo' classic – and no, that's not an oxymoron</a>
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<p><a href="https://jamestown.org/program/a-new-version-of-the-gerasimov-doctrine/">Information from the west</a> is now considered a threat to Russia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/01/30/soviet-opposition-plans-civil-disobedience/393d4d14-20ac-480d-bb4e-e476482604c7/">just as it once was in the Soviet era</a>. It is only logical, therefore, for the government to try and prevent not only western films from entering Russia’s information space, but also to censor <a href="https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-59255248">Russian-made films</a> that do not echo the Russian government’s stated ideals and values. </p>
<p>From the Kremlin’s perspective, it is better to prevent information flow, rather than deal with the consequences. The Kremlin <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/rupo/5/4/article-p426_3.xml">often refers</a> to the Arab Spring, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Euromaidan protests in 2014 as products of western influence. </p>
<p>To avoid these kind of uprisings one week after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia restricted access to numerous western media, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/4/russia-restricts-access-to-several-western-media-websites">such as the BBC</a>. The increasingly tight controls on information have led <a href="https://corporate.dw.com/en/one-year-in-how-putins-war-has-changed-journalism-in-exile/a-64708915">independent journalists</a> to leave Russia.</p>
<h2>Barbie breaks through</h2>
<p>There are several possible explanations that may have contributed to the film’s popularity in Russia, aside from a simple desire to see a globally popular piece of entertainment. </p>
<p>Although there is no hard evidence of the movie’s influence on Russian viewers, it is worth noting that the Russian population is <a href="https://russiapost.info/regions/majority">not homogenous in its views</a>. This is especially true concerning sensitive topics such as the war in Ukraine and the influence of western culture. </p>
<p>The country’s sanctions and government regulations allow limited access to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/08/mcdonalds-bows-to-pressure-and-closes-all-its-russian-restaurants">western products</a>, such as Starbucks and McDonald’s. This is also the case for western <a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/3691230/russias-iphone-ban-and-the-digital-supply-chain.html">technologies</a>, including those that have become commonplace in other parts of the world.</p>
<p>Some segments of society may see viewing the movie or buying Barbie-pink items in shops as an act of defiance, a symbol of their refusal to conform to the government’s narrative and divorce themselves from the conformist majority, similar to acts of rebellion <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/16/forward-into-the-past-forbidden-books-in-russia-a81105">during Soviet times</a>.</p>
<p>This is after all a country where people are not allowed to call the “special military operation” in Ukraine <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/05/1084729579/russian-law-bans-journalists-from-calling-ukraine-conflict-a-war-or-an-invasion">a war</a> and journalists can face up to 15 years in prison for publishing “false” information.</p>
<p>After years of geopolitical tensions and the ongoing war in Ukraine, a portion of Russia’s population may also be seeking a respite from the grim reality of living in a country facing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/behind-russias-digital-iron-curtain-tech-workarounds-thrive-2022-03-23/">digital exclusion</a> – blocking of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/world/europe/russia-censorship-media-crackdown.html">western news and social media websites</a> – international sanctions, and in some parts of the country, drone <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65475333#:%7E:text=How%20many%20drone%20attacks%20have,and%20in%20Russian%2Dannexed%20Crimea.">attacks</a>. </p>
<p>If nothing else, the reaction to the Barbie phenomenon exposes two important facts: the Kremlin’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13523260.2022.2082633">sense of insecurity towards the west</a> and the diversity of opinions and desires within Russian society.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-crimean-tatar-fighters-are-playing-an-increasing-role-in-resistance-to-russian-occupation-210484">Why Crimean Tatar fighters are playing an increasing role in resistance to Russian occupation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Miron is working on a British Academy-funded project related to Russia's and China's information war. </span></em></p>
The film Barbie is seen as an icon of American values , but is still proving popular in Russia.
Marina Miron, Post-doctoral Researcher, King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210329
2023-08-29T12:24:41Z
2023-08-29T12:24:41Z
This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children’s stories
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544524/original/file-20230824-27-r4eqqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=479%2C176%2C4677%2C3390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some fairy tales aren't so innocent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-reading-under-sheet-using-flashlight-royalty-free-image/475017710?phrase=bedtime+stories">danez/iStock / via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Children’s Literature”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>The idea came from a book I bought at a used book sale.</p>
<p>It was Roald Dahl’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/176964">“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,</a>” but it wasn’t the version I expected.</p>
<p>While reading the book to my children in 2017, I discovered that in the copy of the book I had bought, Willy Wonka describes the Oompa-Loompa characters – the subservient chocolate makers in his factory – in a way that resembled the Black slave experience in the United States. Specifically, Willy Wonka says he smuggled them to his factory in crates.</p>
<p>“Imported direct from Africa!” Wonka says in this version of the book. “I discovered them myself. I brought them over from Africa myself – the whole tribe of them, three thousand in all. I found them in the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had ever been before.”</p>
<p>This version, which was published in 1964, <a href="https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/roald-dahl-the-caribbean-and-a-warning-from-his-chocolate-factory/">did not include the changes that Dahl had made in the late 1970s</a> at the urging of the NAACP. Dahl subsequently made the Oompa-Loompa characters’ skin “rosy-white” and their place of origin “Loompaland.”</p>
<p>As a parent, I was so struck by my experience reading the book to my children that, the following year in 2018, I chose to create a course that shows how children’s literature has changed over time.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>We examine books from different periods in time. The texts range from the bawdy Latin plays written for medieval schoolboys to contemporary works like Jacqueline Woodson’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/brown-girl-dreaming/oclc/870919395">“Brown Girl Dreaming,</a>” an autobiography written as a series of poems for young readers.</p>
<p>The course also explores how cultural biases shape people’s assumptions about what books are appropriate for children. We examine the ways race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and age show up in children’s stories. We also explore shifts in capitalism, parenting, sexuality and mental illness that are reflected in texts such as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/little-prince/oclc/57393678">“The Little Prince”</a> and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/293680/peter-pan-by-j-m-barrie/">“Peter Pan.”</a> </p>
<p>I ask students to define childhood, what it looks like and what its purpose is. Students’ answers tend to reflect current cultural norms, describing childhood as a time of innocence in which we learn, play and make mistakes, under the protective gaze of caring adults. But as we read the course texts, it becomes clear just how varied childhood is and has been. Time has changed what people expect childhood to look like. For instance, a 17th-century version of <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/giambattista-basiles-the-tale-of-tales-or-entertainment-for-little-ones/oclc/777595973">“Sleeping Beauty”</a> has a king <a href="https://sites.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0410.html#basile">impregnating a sleeping young lady</a>. In a <a href="https://sites.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0410.html#grimm">19th-century version</a>, however, there’s no king but a prince, and no sex but a kiss.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/by-the-numbers">American Library Association</a> reports that in 2022 there were more attempts to ban books than in any previous year on record. In the course we discuss the history of censorship. Philosophers and writers such as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1029203531">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a> and <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/guardian-of-education-a-periodical-work/oclc/470574816">Sarah Trimmer</a> argued that fairy tales would morally corrupt children by distorting their grasp on reality. However, once realism in literature became popular in the 19th century, <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade1999">censors</a> tried to protect children from the harsh reality of societal ills.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Near the beginning of the course we examine the fairy tales that permeate modern culture. We read multiple versions of tales like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella” to see how these stories were rewritten over time. </p>
<p>Students are often surprised by the overt sexuality and violence in these early versions of tales for children. They learn that the appropriateness of a book is debatable, not fixed.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• Lewis Carroll’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/27976103">“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</a>” – one of the earliest novels written expressly for children.</p>
<p>• Pamela Brown’s <a href="https://pushkinpress.com/books/the-swish-of-the-curtain-blue-door-1/">“The Swish of the Curtain</a>” follows a group of kids who realize their dream of performing on stage.</p>
<p>• Christopher Paul Curtis’ <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/35779/the-watsons-go-to-birmingham--1963-25th-anniversary-edition-by-christopher-paul-curtis/">“The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963,</a>” a novel with a young Black narrator who is a keen observer of his family’s struggles and joys.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>My hope is that students will begin to look at children’s books in a more critical way. Many people never pick up a children’s book once they become adults, or, if they do, they are reading it to a child or for nostalgic reasons. My course is meant to get students to look at children’s books not just as sources of entertainment or enjoyment, but to better understand how those books are shaped by – and help shape – the cultural norms of the society in which we live.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meisha Lohmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A lecturer in English literature gets her students to examine children’s books through the lens of race, class and sexuality.
Meisha Lohmann, Lecturer in English Literature, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212093
2023-08-23T04:50:58Z
2023-08-23T04:50:58Z
Censorship or sensible: is it bad to listen to Fat Bottomed Girls with your kids?
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</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>International music press has reported this week that Queen’s song Fat Bottomed Girls <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/queen-fat-bottomed-girls-greatest-hits-1235396348/">has not been included</a> in a greatest hits compilation aimed at children. </p>
<p>While there was no formal justification given, presumably lyrics “fat bottomed” and “big fat fatty” were the problem, and even the very singable hook, “Oh, won’t you take me home tonight”. </p>
<p>Predictably, The Daily Mail and similar outlets used it as an excuse to bemoan cancel culture, political correctness and the like, with the headline “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12424449/We-woke-Classic-Queen-song-Fat-Bottomed-Girls-mysteriously-dropped-groups-new-Greatest-Hits-collection.html">We Will Woke You</a>” quickly out of the gate. </p>
<p>Joke headlines aside, should children be exposed to music with questionable themes or lyrics?</p>
<p>The answer is not a hard yes or no. My colleague Shelley Brunt and I studied a range of factors and practices relating to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Popular-Music-and-Parenting/Brunt-Giuffre/p/book/9780367367138">Popular Music and Parenting</a>, and we found that more important than individual songs or concerts is the support children are given when they’re listening or participating. </p>
<p>A parent or caregiver should always be part of a conversation and some sort of relationship when engaging with music. This can involve practical things like making sure developing ears aren’t exposed to too harsh a volume or that they know how to find a trusted adult at a concert. But this also extends to the basics of media and cultural literacy, like what images and stories are being presented in popular music, and how we want to consider those in our own lives. </p>
<p>In the same way you’d hope someone would talk to a child to remind them that superheroes can’t actually fly (and subsequently if you’re dressed as a superhero for book week don’t go leaping off tall buildings!), popular music of all types needs to be contextualised. </p>
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<h2>Should we censor, or change, the way popular music is presented for kids?</h2>
<p>There is certainly a long tradition of amending popular songs to make them child or family friendly. On television, this has happened as long as the medium has been around, with some lyrics and dance moves toned down to appease concerned parents and tastemakers about the potential evils of pop. </p>
<p>Famously, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oim51kUg748">Elvis Presley serenaded a literal Hound Dog</a> rather than the metaphorical villain of his 1950s hit.</p>
<p>In Australia, the local TV version of <a href="https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/music-on-film-and-tv/bandstand-australia/">Bandstand</a> from the 1970s featured local artists singing clean versions of international pop songs while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guembJBOOyI">wearing modest hems and neck lines</a>.</p>
<p>This continued with actual children also re-performing pop music, from the Mickey Mouse Club versions of songs from the US to our own wonderful star factory that was <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-my-loving-young-talent-time-still-glows-50-years-since-first-airing-on-australian-tv-159533">Young Talent Time</a>. The tradition continues today with family-friendly, popular music-based programming like The Voice and The Masked Singer. </p>
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<p>In America, there is a huge industry for children’s versions of pop music via the Kidz Bop franchise. Its formula of child performers covering current hits has been wildly successful for over 20 years. Some perhaps obvious substitutions are made – the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkctByJbtNY">cover of Lizzo’s About Damn Time</a> is now “About That Time”, with the opening lyric changed to “Kidz Bop O’Clock” rather than “Bad Bitch O’Clock”. </p>
<p>In some other Kidz Bop songs, though, <a href="https://pudding.cool/2020/04/kidz-bop/">references to violence and drugs have been left in</a>. </p>
<p>Other longer-standing children’s franchises have also made amendments to pop lyrics, but arguably with a bit more creativity and fun. The Muppets’ cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, replacing the original murder with a rant from Animal, is divine.</p>
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<h2>Should music ever just be for kids?</h2>
<p>Context is key when deciding what is for children or for adults. And hopefully we’re always listening (in some way) together. </p>
<p>Caregivers should be able to make an informed decision about whether a particular song is appropriate for their child, however they consider that in terms of context. By the same token, the resurgence of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/05/how-the-wiggles-took-over-the-world-and-got-the-cool-kids-on-side-too">millennial love</a> for The Wiggles has shown us no one should be considered “too old” for Hot Potato or Fruit Salad.</p>
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<p>When considering potential harm for younger listeners, factors like <a href="https://kidsafeqld.com.au/risks-noise-exposure-baby/">volume and tone</a> can be more dangerous than whether or not there’s a questionable lyric. Let’s remember, too, lots of “nursery rhymes” aimed at children are also quite violent if you listen to their words closely. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-30-years-since-freddie-mercury-died-his-music-is-still-the-soundtrack-of-our-lives-172389">It's 30 years since Freddie Mercury died. His music is still the soundtrack of our lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>French writer Jacques José Attali <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Noise/OHe7AAAAIAAJ?hl=en">famously argued</a> the relationship between music, noise and harm is politics and power – even your most beloved song can become just noise if played too loudly or somewhere where you shouldn’t be hearing it.</p>
<p>As an academic, parent and fat-bottomed girl myself, my advice is to keep having conversations with the children in your life about what you and they are listening to. Just like reminding your little superhero to only pretend to fly rather than to actually jump – when we sing along to Queen, we remember that using a word like “fat” and even “girl” isn’t how everyone likes to be treated these days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Giuffre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It was reported this week that Queen’s song Fat Bottomed Girls has not been included in a greatest hits compilation aimed at children – presumably because of the lyrics.
Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211882
2023-08-21T21:52:21Z
2023-08-21T21:52:21Z
Ron DeSantis shows how ‘ugly freedoms’ are being used to fuel authoritarianism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543728/original/file-20230821-23-xfr6rf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers a speech in Iowa City, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/ron-desantis-shows-how-ugly-freedoms-are-being-used-to-fuel-authoritarianism" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>At a time when conspiracy theories and far-right nationalist groups are gaining strength, it’s crucial to understand how authoritarians are using the rhetoric of freedom to undermine crucial notions of justice and liberty. </p>
<p>In the United States, under the banner of right-wing demagoguery, “freedom” is being touted as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/banned-books-list-increased-schools-ban-critical-race-theory-sexuality-pen-america-report/">an excuse to ban books</a> by people of colour, Indigenous people and members of the LGBTQ community. </p>
<p>For example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law the <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/education/floridas-governor-to-sign-critical-race-theory-education-bill-into-law">Individual Freedom bill, which bans educators from teaching topics relating mostly to race</a>. </p>
<p>This regressive notion of freedom is used to advance a right-wing education agenda in the name of what DeSantis calls the “war on woke,” which is code for attacking educators and others who refuse to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2023/03/28/desantis-wokeism-racism-marginalized/">whitewash history and address a range of systemic injustices</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada, the “universal” concept of freedom has failed to include the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples and has often served as a cloak for <a href="https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/canadafailingindigenouspeoples">maintaining illegitimate relations of power</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada as well as in the U.S., freedom has historically been shaped by what American historian <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/opinion/freedom-liberty-racial-hierarchies.html">Tyler Stovall has called “white freedom”</a> — the belief and practice “that freedom is central to white identity, and that only white people can or should be free.”</p>
<p>Freedom in this context has given Canada and the U.S. the right to dominate, colonize and exploit.</p>
<h2>‘Ugly’ freedoms</h2>
<p>The presence of what U.S. academic Elisabeth Anker calls <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/opinion/ugly-freedom-discrimination-racism-sexism.html">“ugly freedoms”</a> is not new. Its history is repeating itself with a politics that is as cruel as it is dangerous and widespread.</p>
<p>Central to this history has been a struggle over the meaning of freedom and which vision of freedom society should adopt. Those holding up the importance of freedom are no longer just advocates of social justice but also emerging authoritarians.</p>
<p>The appeal to these “ugly” freedoms is being used to legitimize and promote censorship, systemic racism and naked forms of political opportunism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the state of Florida.</p>
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<img alt="A dark-haired man speaks at a podium with American flags behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543729/original/file-20230821-14265-g9dtmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at the Celebrate Freedom Foundation Hangar in West Columbia, S.C., in July 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Sean Rayford)</span></span>
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<h2>DeSantis’s ‘freedom’ fixation</h2>
<p>DeSantis has hijacked the notion of freedom.</p>
<p>His political career is marked by an obsessive appropriation and relentless defence of freedoms that are false and illusory. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/desantis-disney-lawsuit-free-speech-florida/673903/">He defines himself as “governor of the free state of Florida”</a> and fills his public appearances with self-congratulatory references to freedom.</p>
<p>As a member of U.S. Congress before he became governor, <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/politics/state/2023/05/23/ron-desantis-time-in-congress-represented-volusia-flagler/70169117007/">he was one of the founders of the far-right Freedom Caucus</a>. </p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/02/27/heres-what-we-know-about-ron-desantis-book-as-it-hits-the-shelves/?sh=4fc52c012328">launched his presidential campaign with a tour promoting his book titled <em>Courage to Be Free</em></a>. In naming Florida as the freest state in the nation, DeSantis claims he is engaged in a movement for freedom.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1630730107957518338"}"></div></p>
<p>In doing so, <a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2023/04/13/summit-county-republicans-hear-florida-gov--ron-desantis-talk-successes-in-education--immigration--the-economy">he states repeatedly</a> that in Florida: “We’re No. 1 in economic freedom, No. 1 in education freedom, No. 1 for parental involvement in education … and we’re No. 1 for public higher education. So we lead in Florida, not merely with words.” </p>
<p>Ironically, DeSantis has become the sneering face <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/ron-desantis-war-on-freedom/">for the suppression of freedom</a> while proclaiming to be its foremost advocate. </p>
<h2>Authoritarian values</h2>
<p>Freedom for DeSantis is divorced from civic culture and isolated in the regressive discourse of authoritarian values, manufactured ignorance and nefarious power relations. </p>
<p>In the name of individual freedom, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/16/florida-ron-desantis-academic-freedom">he bans books from classrooms and libraries. He also passes legislation forbidding teachers from teaching about slavery and racial injustice</a> while <a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-slavery-election-2024-1fb51d663e6051051aa23b71421b9479">defending his attacks</a> on diverse and inclusive forms of education with the spurious notion of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/us/florida-education-critical-race-theory-bill/index.html">protecting young people from feeling uncomfortable</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1692114810807243064"}"></div></p>
<p>Echoing the rise of past and emerging forms of authoritarianism, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/us-education-state-school-laws.html">he bans teachers</a> from addressing Black history, critical ideas and issues related to gender, sexuality and systemic racism. </p>
<p>Amid the wave of repressive policies that make up <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/new-poll-ron-desantis-anti-woke-backfire-rcna74350">DeSantis’s so-called anti-woke agenda</a>, his anti-democratic model of governance is in direct contradiction of his claim that Florida is the freest state in the union.</p>
<p>He has used state power to punish both his critics and individuals and groups he suggests are unworthy of citizenship. He has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/13/ron-desantis-transgender-education-laws-florida-woke-act">waged a vicious attack against the civil rights of women, gay, transgender and queer youth.</a> </p>
<p>He’s also signed <a href="https://jacobin.com/2022/07/ron-desantis-freedom-branding-rights-education-abortion">a six-week abortion ban</a>, restricted transgender bathroom access, banned gender-affirming care for minors, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-lgbtq-education-health-c68a7e5fe5cf22ab8cca324b00644119">signed bills that target drag shows</a> and attacked businesses like Disney that disagree with his policies. </p>
<p>He’s also <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/6/2/23742508/ron-desantis-florida-higher-education-ideological-war">waged a vicious assault on public and higher education</a>, creating a culture that requires teachers to function as agents of state indoctrination.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-republicans-row-with-mickey-mouse-highlights-widening-gap-between-historical-bffs-gop-and-corporate-america-182401">Florida Republicans' row with Mickey Mouse highlights widening gap between historical BFFs GOP and corporate America</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Remembering what freedom really is</h2>
<p>What can be done to preserve freedom as a crucial element in the struggle for democracy in Florida and around the world? </p>
<p>Educators, parents, young people and other stakeholders need to rediscover freedom as an emancipatory force. This requires language that enables people to fight against the ideological and economic conditions that strip them of their liberties and rights.</p>
<p>It’s also essential for the public to develop strategies capable of organizing a mass multicultural struggle in support of a fundamentally democratic conception of freedom — one that enables people to reject “ugly” freedoms that reinforce the scourge of domination and prevents them from living meaningful and just lives.</p>
<p>Genuine freedom must be used in the fight for justice and equality. It should address staggering, ongoing levels of inequality in wealth and power, the poisonous legacy of systemic racism and an anti-intellectual culture that rejects reason.</p>
<p>The hijacking of freedom by far-right politicians like DeSantis not only raises crucial questions about whose freedom is at stake in a time of tyranny, but also how to fight for a version of freedom that is expansive and just. </p>
<p>True freedom furthers rather than destroys the promise of democracy. In an era of rising authoritarianism, a return to a concept of truly democratic freedom is urgently needed, as is collective resistance that makes it possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Giroux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The hijacking of freedom by far-right politicians like Florida’s Ron DeSantis raises crucial questions about whose freedom is truly at stake in a time of tyranny.
Henry Giroux, Chaired professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the Department of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209864
2023-08-17T20:10:17Z
2023-08-17T20:10:17Z
Friday essay: what do publishers’ revisions and content warnings say about the moral purpose of literature?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542938/original/file-20230816-21-f4anvz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C4000%2C2982&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway and Agatha Christie.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, there has been some controversy about the rewriting of passages from authors such as <a href="https://time.com/6256980/roald-dahl-censorship-debate/">Roald Dahl</a>, <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/enid-blyton-famous-five-rewritten-sensitivity-edit/b8c5073a-6ea4-4df8-9143-5089e9bbe1a3">Enid Blyton</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/james-bond-novels-to-be-reissued-with-racial-references-removed">Ian Fleming</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/26/agatha-christie-novels-reworked-to-remove-potentially-offensive-language">Agatha Christie</a> with the aim of removing potentially offensive material. Some publishers have also adopted the precautionary measure of adding content warnings and disclaimers to books by <a href="https://amp.theage.com.au/world/north-america/ernest-hemingway-masterpiece-given-trigger-warning-by-publisher-20230625-p5dj8h.html">Ernest Hemingway</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/01/virginia-woolf-to-the-lighthouse-trigger-warning-vintage/">Virginia Woolf</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/29/raymond-chandler-philip-marlowe-trigger-warning-vintage/">Raymond Chandler</a> and <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/jeeves-wooster-trigger-warning-edited-publisher-unacceptable-prose-pg-wodehouse/">P.G. Wodehouse</a>. </p>
<p>Critics of these bowdlerisations and disclaimers have come from across the political spectrum and seem to vastly outnumber those defending the practice. It is some time since I have noticed a literary topic come up as frequently as this one in conversation with those outside the literary culture. And while, as an academic, it is heartening to see people worked up about books and their value, it is disheartening to see books recruited as culture-war fodder. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542940/original/file-20230816-25-evtmsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Conservative publications have tended to frame these developments as evidence of “wokeness” (a word, in this context, vacant of meaning). Others have offered more nuanced, less loaded critiques, arguing that such measures fail to account for our obligation to attend to and preserve history, rather than ignore or erase it. In the case of children’s books, the argument has been made for the role of adults as responsible literary guides.</p>
<p>Much has been said on the issue of rewriting writers that I don’t want to relitigate, but it is worth examining the nature of the debate itself and the fact of its prominence. In an era when literature sits on the cultural margins, why does a story like this break through to the mainstream? What are the stakes that have conjured so much talk? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-rewrites-rather-than-bowdlerising-books-on-moral-grounds-we-should-help-children-to-navigate-history-200254">Roald Dahl rewrites: rather than bowdlerising books on moral grounds we should help children to navigate history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Moral questions</h2>
<p>A literary story is taken up by the media most enthusiastically, it seems, when it can be connected to moral concerns. Those who would clean up the classics, and their conservative opponents, are entangled in a moral battle which encourages the application of the same ethical criteria to books that might be apply to elected officials or ministers of religion. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538900/original/file-20230724-19-gxzebd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Skimming any contemporary writers’ festival program will demonstrate that we struggle to talk about books on any other terms. Yet if book-talk most easily rises to the level of public discussion when it involves a simple moral controversy, then we are inexorably incorporating literature into the sepia mass of monetised cultural gruel of which our society appears increasingly to comprise. </p>
<p>Two questions motivate this latest argument. The first entails uncertainty about what constitutes literary censorship. Is rewriting a sentence to expurgate an offensive term a form of vandalism, or is it no different from (or at least comparable to), say, translation? </p>
<p>The second is a much debated and oft-reformulated inquiry, familiar within and without literary studies: is there a necessary connection between a work’s literary value and its moral quality? When we read a book do we expect a degree of moral instruction, as to how we should or should not live? </p>
<p>These are worthwhile questions, but they are not the only ones. Literature is extraordinary, in part, because it cannot be reduced to such questions. </p>
<p>Moral debates arise easily because they tend to encourage definitive judgements, which are both gratifying and compatible with an increasingly commodified world. In particular, a moral judgement has the power to bestow a final endorsement or condemnation, meaning one can avoid what <a href="https://theconversation.com/john-keats-concept-of-negative-capability-or-sitting-in-uncertainty-is-needed-now-more-than-ever-153617">Keats described as negative capability</a>: “being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”.</p>
<p>A capacity to cope with the unpleasantness of irresolution could be taken as a mark of maturity. The desire for certainty, for a world of unambiguously demarcated ethical boundaries of the kind found in much young adult fiction, could be described as a reassuring childish fantasy.</p>
<p>There might be good reasons for removing offensive language from a text, but we should be suspicious of the impulse to polish literature for modern sensibilities, to make writing newly palatable and inoffensive. To treat books as objects that can be modified to suit the mood of the times is to risk ushering them into the category of pure commodity, optimised according to market desires.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542933/original/file-20230816-19-eks3cu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ernest and Pauline Hemingway in Paris, 1927.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The urge to keep Dahl agreeable, for example, is a consequence of a corporation desiring to profit from Roald Dahl the brand. Children’s author Philip Pullman suggested that, rather than revising Dahl, it would be preferable to let him go out of print. This is inconceivable. Dahl’s estate is simply worth too much. </p>
<p>It is in the interest of the Roald Dahl Story Company, purchased by Netflix in 2021, to make Dahl as widely acceptable as possible. Thus the effort to sand off his edges. Brands must be slick, inoffensive, inhuman. </p>
<p>No sensible person would defend Dahl’s character. He was a professed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/19/roald-dahl-museum-acknowledges-authors-antisemitism">antisemite</a>. In the 1970s, he was forced by the advocacy of the civil rights organisation NAACP to change Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Oompa Loompas, who were originally depicted as pygmies brought from Africa to work in the chocolate factory unpaid. </p>
<p>These facts may repulse you to such an extent you can never read Dahl again – or perhaps you might prefer to evaluate his books on their own terms, detaching them from the author’s beliefs. Either response is possible and understandable. But the texts cannot be entirely revalued or made morally sound by meddling with a few sentences or replacing them with clunky alternatives. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538173/original/file-20230719-17-h41mg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roald Dahl in 1982.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hans van Dijk/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Literature has always been influenced by the marketplace. Historically, it has evolved through systems of patronage and copyright, gatekeeping publishers and nepotistic periodicals. But to reduce an author to a brand is to obliterate what makes literature a meaningful category. Art distinguishes itself from commerce by pushing back against these capitalist formations and, consequently, being incompatible with reductive moralism. </p>
<p>This is obvious when we consider how we treat books differently to other purchasable items. If you buy a vacuum cleaner that fails to suck dust from your carpet, you should be able to return it. This is because vacuum cleaners are meant to perform a clearly identifiable, unambiguous function. </p>
<p>If you purchase a book that does not work as expected, it would be perverse to attempt to return it to the bookshop and say: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I found the prose too dense; the characters were meaner than I wanted them to be; I thought I was reading a detective story, but halfway through it became a revenge tragedy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The nourishment offered by reading depends, in fact, on our not knowing how the experience of a book will unfold until we are reading it. The value is revealed in the act of reading. Even when rereading, we find pleasure in noticing patterns or aspects of a work that did not come into view during the previous encounter. We never quite know what we are in for.</p>
<p>The best literature can be spiky, ambiguous, difficult, cruel, strange, unpredictable, hectoring and unpleasant. It is not the job of a book to ease the life of its reader. Reading a good book might mean having a terrible day, a day in which you are scared, sad, distressed. </p>
<p>It is rare (if not unheard of) that we pay to undergo unpleasant experiences that teach us nothing. But literature does not have an obligation to be useful; we do not have to learn anything from it. It need not produce anything except a readerly response. The alternative is that we are paying to be numbed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proceed-with-caution-the-trouble-with-trigger-warnings-192598">Proceed with caution: the trouble with trigger warnings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A reasonable reaction?</h2>
<p>What, then, is a reasonable reaction to a book that offends? And by what mechanisms are thresholds of offence and moral transgression established? </p>
<p>There are social norms arrived at more or less by consensus which few would dispute. There are certainly examples of books that necessitate judicious editing if they are to continue being published. To return to the original title of Agatha Christie’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None">And Then There Were None</a>, for example, would make the book unsellable. (Conversely, it could be argued that concealing the author’s choice so as to prolong a book’s life unfairly deceives readers.)</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542939/original/file-20230816-22-b5topg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In most circumstances, there is nothing wrong with trying to avoid offence. When teaching a text that students may find difficult, I am happy to provide a content warning. It is not obvious to me that forcing a student to encounter shocking material, perhaps material they find personally painful, is necessarily edifying or educational. </p>
<p>In fact, any social interaction requires us to calculate what it is permissible to say, and there are many remarks we refrain from making for fear they might hurt. In the case of this current controversy, however, attention must be paid to how and why the decisions about what constitutes unacceptable material are being made.</p>
<p>In an ordinary setting, a reader who finds a book disagreeable can put that book down, or not pick it up in the first place. An author might also consider such consequences when writing a book. </p>
<p>But if the moral authority to make these decisions on behalf of an audience is sourced from the imperative to keep a property such as James Bond or Willy Wonka marketable, the literature is degraded. While it may be in the interest of art to leave its audience in distress, it will never be in the interest of capital to upset a potential consumer. </p>
<p>To defend literature entirely on moral grounds is to cede important territory. Of course, literature can make you a better person; it can also make you a worse one. It is most likely to do neither. Of course, a reader can find a book morally offensive or morally instructive, but that might be only one thread in a complex array of responses. </p>
<p>Any argument that treats literature as fundamentally therapeutic, self-improving or society-improving, risks reducing literature to self-help – a genre that promises to improve its reader’s character. To approach literature as a machine for self-improvement is to share ground with the bad-faith arguments of those who justify their bigoted moralising by referring to the cultural achievements of Western civilisation. </p>
<p>The shared perspective is that the value of books depends on the readers they produce. To read broadly and deeply is a marvellous thing that can make us alert to the wide-ranging varieties of being. But no book will condemn or redeem us. This is because books do not exist without readers, and each reader is an unpredictable variable. While it is appealing to believe that a person’s aesthetic judgement is a reliable indication of their moral character, these traits are only tenuously connected.</p>
<p>So, if not on moral terms, how might we defend literature? We can liken it to conversation. A conversation can be morally nourishing or deadening. It is neither good nor bad. Conversations are surely responsible for some of history’s worst atrocities, along with its most wondrous achievements. And clearly we cannot stop having conversations, whether we wish to or not. </p>
<p>In this and other ways, reading resembles conversation. It is an ongoing exchange between reader and writer, one that will continue to change with the times, enlivening us for its own sake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Dixon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
To read broadly and deeply is a marvellous thing that can make us alert to the wide-ranging varieties of being. But no book will condemn or redeem us.
Dan Dixon, Adjunct Lecturer, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209928
2023-08-10T12:41:42Z
2023-08-10T12:41:42Z
‘Uncivil obedience’ becomes an increasingly common form of protest in the US
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540448/original/file-20230801-25-ykxcyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5522%2C3119&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in Utah demonstrate against a school district's ban on the Bible for having 'vulgarity and violence' unfit for young children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BibleBanUtahSchools/10711f2c31de462f899153fe9fd49502/photo">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Utah legislators passed a bill requiring the review and removal of “pornographic or indecent” books in school libraries, they likely did not imagine the law would be used to justify banning the Bible.</p>
<p>Utah’s H.B. 374, which took effect in May 2022, “prohibits certain <a href="https://le.utah.gov/%7E2022/bills/static/HB0374.html">sensitive instructional materials in public schools</a>.” It joins a series of conservative book bans that supporters claim protect children but critics have argued unfairly target <a href="https://www.nypl.org/blog/2023/06/23/lgbtq-titles-targeted-censorship-stand-against-book-banning">LGBTQ+ content</a> and <a href="https://www.goalcast.com/how-book-bans-silence-minority-groups/">minority authors</a>. </p>
<p>But in early June 2023, the bill stirred further controversy when, after receiving a complaint from a parent using the bill’s provisions, a Utah school district <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65794363">removed the Bible</a> from elementary and middle schools because it contains “vulgarity and violence” deemed inappropriate for the age group. </p>
<p>Utah is not the only state that has faced complaints about the age-inappropriate content of the Bible in response to book bans. In June 2023, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maX9IoUo5uc">Florida rabbi, Barry Silver</a>, <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/palm-beach-county/parent-wants-bible-removed-from-palm-beach-county-school-to-make-a-point">compiled a list of Bible verses</a> that he argues contains violence and sex. Although he maintains he is opposed to censorship, he argues the Bible meets the criteria for Florida’s controversial <a href="https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=76545">Parental Rights in Education Act</a> and concludes: “You want to censor books? <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/palm-beach-county/parent-wants-bible-removed-from-palm-beach-county-school-to-make-a-point">Start with the one that you like the best</a>.”</p>
<p>In May 2023, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit promoting the separation of church and state, called for <a href="https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/local-regional/2023-05-17/state-superintendent-ryan-walters-possibly-ripe-for-lawsuit-after-promoting-biblical-instruction">Oklahoma to ban the Bible from schools</a> due to its pornographic content. That move came after state education Superintendent Ryan Walters called for a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/oklahoma-s-head-superintendent-wants-to-ban-lgbtq-books-but-teach-the-bible-in-history-classes/ar-AA1aPjQ9">ban on LGBTQ+ books</a>, while arguing the Bible should be taught in government-funded public schools. Like Silver, foundation leaders say <a href="https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/2023/05/20/ryan-walters-oklahoma-banned-books-freedom-from-religion-foundation-letter-bible/70238103007/">they do not support book bans</a> but maintain that if conservative Christians, who have been some of the strongest supporters of recent bans, want to ban books containing sexual references, they cannot ignore the Bible.</p>
<p>Such attempts to ban the Bible based on book ban laws are examples of a protest strategy called “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43387025">uncivil obedience</a>.”</p>
<h2>A different approach to protest</h2>
<p>Uncivil obedience is the opposite of the more commonly known protest strategy of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civil-disobedience/">civil disobedience</a>, which entails breaking the law in surprisingly respectful ways. Uncivil obedience, on the other hand, involves following the law but in ways that disregard people’s expectations.</p>
<p>Like civil disobedience, the purpose of uncivil obedience is to change laws, but it does so by “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43387025">mastering the system’s rules</a>.” Protesters may appear to respect authority by carefully following the laws to show what they are doing is legal. But the behavior may be seen as “uncivil” by some because the behavior challenges social expectations, uses laws in ways unintended by their originators, or both.</p>
<p>Uncivil obedience has been used to challenge the practicality and fairness of laws and processes. For example, in the 1990s, protesters challenged low <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-26-me-27445-story.html">speed limits</a> by strictly following them on a busy California freeway, leading to the disruption of traffic. The strategy has also been used to challenge
<a href="https://eu.gainesville.com/story/news/2006/05/02/industries-feel-effect-of-boycott/31482810007/">immigration policies</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/709417">election laws</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar of <a href="https://www.usd.edu/research-and-faculty/faculty-and-staff/kristina-lee">political and religious rhetoric</a>, I have seen uncivil obedience be embraced by people across the political spectrum as a way to challenge laws – and to specifically use religion as one element of those challenges.</p>
<h2>Conservative Christians step to the plate</h2>
<p>A federal law passed in 1993 called the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Religious-Freedom-Restoration-Act">Religious Freedom Restoration Act</a> has often been at the center of religious strategists embracing uncivil obedience. That law, which prohibits the government from creating substantial burdens on citizens’ free exercise of religion, was originally passed by Congress in response to a <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/364/employment-division-department-of-human-resources-of-oregon-v-smith">1990 Supreme Court</a> case that critics argued restricted the religious freedom of Indigenous people. Over <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/research-central/rfra-info-central/">20 states have passed similar laws</a>.</p>
<p>Although the law was originally designed to protect the rights of practitioners of all religions, <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/do-no-harm-act">particularly ones that are not as prominent</a> in the U.S. as Christianity, conservative Christians have <a href="https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/3931/">used its provisions</a> to resist progressive policies including <a href="https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/02/rfra-discrimination-concerns-really-surprise/70820966/">same-sex marriage</a> and the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2013/13-354">Affordable Care Act</a>. A common argument proponents use is that the law protects conservative Christian business owners and employees who view recognizing same-sex marriage or providing contraception as a violation of their religious beliefs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2018/05/bad-faith-how-conservatives-are-weaponizing-religious-liberty-allow-institutions">Opponents view</a> the conservative embrace of the idea of religious freedom as a bizarre interpretation of the law, arguing that they are using it for the purpose of justifying discrimination based on religious beliefs. Defenders of the practice, however, argue that they want <a href="https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/25/gov-mike-pence-sign-religious-freedom-bill-thursday/70448858/">religion to be free from government intervention</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a suit stands at a lectern in front of a group of people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540446/original/file-20230801-15-o2s08v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In 2015, when he was governor of Indiana, Mike Pence supported a state version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indiana-gov-mike-pence-speaks-during-a-press-conference-news-photo/468209982">Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Progressive groups turn the tables</h2>
<p>Now, progressive groups are increasingly using religious freedom arguments, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, to justify exemptions from conservative policies.</p>
<p>Most recently, progressive Christian clergy members, Jews, Muslims, Satanists and other religious plaintiffs have begun to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/21/legal-strategy-that-could-topple-abortion-bans-00102468">file lawsuits</a> in states challenging strict abortion bans. These lawsuits claim their religions allow reproductive health care and abortions, and that bans violate their religious freedom.</p>
<p><a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us">The Satanic Temple</a>, one of the religious organizations that embrace opposing injustices as part of its mission, has also used other religious freedom cases to demand the same rights as Christians. For example, the group uses the ruling of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-2036.ZO.html">Good News Club v. Milford Central Schools</a>, which determined schools cannot prohibit religious clubs from meeting on school ground after hours, to argue that schools also must allow <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/after-school-satan">Satanist clubs</a>. Satanists argue that they are just <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-after-school-clubs-became-a-new-battleground-in-the-satanic-temples-push-to-preserve-separation-of-church-and-state-209579">demanding the same rights that Christians</a> have won in court.</p>
<p>Progressive advocates claim they are championing religious freedom and equality. Their opponents, however, argued that plaintiffs are just engaging in “<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/21/legal-strategy-that-could-topple-abortion-bans-00102468">political stunts</a>,” not advocating for <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20230118184008/Individual-Members-v.-Anonymous-Planitiff-Amicus-Brief.pdf">sincere religious beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>When uncivil obedience is used, its critics can frame such behavior as unprecedented, dangerous and insincere. Advocates, however, can argue that they are simply trying to follow the law and ask others to do the same. In religious freedom debates, these disputes are at the heart of a crucial question: where to establish the legal limits of religious freedom.</p>
<h2>Even failure can become a victory</h2>
<p>If uncivil obedience advocates are not successful, they can use their experiences to identify double standards in laws and policies, which can stir public anger over perceived biases regarding religious freedom. </p>
<p>When conservatives lose religious freedom cases, they <a href="https://www.moodymedia.org/articles/demise-religious-freedom-america/">can claim</a> such losses reflect bias against conservative Christian religious beliefs.</p>
<p>When minority religions or progressive Christians lose their religious freedom cases, <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/legal-action">they can point to the success</a> of conservative Christians in similar cases to highlight the courts’ protection of conservative religious principles.</p>
<p>Using uncivil obedience is a relatively safe protest strategy – at least legally speaking – because, unlike civil disobedience, those who use it do not risk being arrested. Yet it still allows people to draw attention to social issues in unprecedented ways that can spark public discussion.</p>
<p>There is risk, though. Uncivil obedience tactics can draw immense criticism from the public, who may view such tactics as manipulative or disingenuous. Additionally, although uncivil obedience can draw attention to double standards in societies, those standards can remain obstacles for those wanting social change. This can result in legal challenges that can be long and expensive to pursue but in which there is no guarantee of success.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/21/utah-bible-school-libraries-ban-reversed">Utah</a>, while the Bible was initially banned, public pressure caused the school board to quickly reverse the decision.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.wptv.com/news/education/bible-wont-be-banned-in-palm-beach-county-public-schools">Florida</a> and <a href="https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/2023/05/20/ryan-walters-oklahoma-banned-books-freedom-from-religion-foundation-letter-bible/70238103007/">Oklahoma</a>, challenges to the Bible so far have been dismissed, with the holy book’s supporters arguing that the proposals should not be taken seriously. </p>
<p>Both Rabbi Silver and the Freedom From Religion Foundation have maintained they will continue the fight until attempts to censor books in schools cease, or all books are judged by the same standards.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristina M. Lee is on the board of the Secular Student Alliance.</span></em></p>
Distinct from civil disobedience, this legal strategy demands complete compliance with the law – even when there are loopholes that the laws’ creators didn’t intend.
Kristina M. Lee, Assistant Professor, University of South Dakota
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211081
2023-08-08T13:41:05Z
2023-08-08T13:41:05Z
Internet shutdowns: here’s how governments do it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541286/original/file-20230804-17-3ju57z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BigNazik/GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Senegal’s government has shut down internet access in response to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/senegal-government-cuts-mobile-internet-access-amid-deadly-rioting-2023-06-04/">protests about the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko</a>. This is a <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/keepiton/">tactic</a> governments are increasingly using during times of political contention, such as elections or social upheaval. The shutdowns can be partial or total, temporary or prolonged. They may target specific platforms, regions, or an entire country.</p>
<p>I’m a researcher who investigates the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11558-022-09483-z">causes</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00223433231168190">consequences</a> of internet access disruptions and censorship in various African countries. This includes understanding how shutdowns work. </p>
<p>It’s important to understand the complex technicalities behind internet shutdowns, for at least two reasons. </p>
<p>First, understanding how an internet shutdown works shows whether or how it can be circumvented. This makes it possible to support affected communities. </p>
<p>Second, the way a shutdown works shows who is responsible for doing it. Then the responsible actors can be held to account, both legally and ethically. </p>
<p>Different forms of shutdowns require different levels of technical sophistication. More sophisticated forms are harder to detect and attribute. </p>
<p>There are two common strategies governments use to disrupt internet access: <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6678649">routing disruptions and packet filtering</a>.</p>
<h2>How to shut down the internet</h2>
<p><strong>Routing disruptions</strong></p>
<p>Every device connected to the internet, whether it’s your computer, smartphone, or any other device, has an IP (internet protocol) address assigned to it. This allows it to send and receive data across the network. </p>
<p>An autonomous system is a collection of connected IP networks under the control of a single entity, for instance an internet service provider or big company. </p>
<p>These autonomous systems rely on protocols – called border gateway protocols – to coordinate routing between them. Each system uses the protocol to communicate with other systems and exchange information about which internet routes they can use to reach different destinations (websites, servers, services etc). </p>
<p>So, if an autonomous system, like an internet service provider, suddenly withdraws its border gateway protocol routes from the internet, the block of IP addresses they administer disappears from the routing tables. This means they can no longer be reached by other autonomous systems. </p>
<p>As a consequence, customers using IP addresses from that autonomous system can’t connect to the internet.</p>
<p>Essentially this tactic stops information from being transmitted. Information can’t find its destination, and people using the internet will not be able to connect. </p>
<p>The disruption of border gateway protocols can easily be detected from the outside due to changes in the global routing state. They can also be attributed to the internet service provider administering a certain autonomous system. </p>
<p>For instance, data suggests that the infamous <a href="https://policycommons.net/artifacts/1302785/egyptian-government-attacks-egypts-internet/1906077/">internet shutdown in Egypt in 2011</a> – an unprecedented blackout of internet traffic in the entire country – was the result of tampering with border gateway protocols. It could be <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6678649">traced back to individual autonomous systems</a> and hence internet service providers. </p>
<p>Border gateway protocol disruptions that entirely disconnect customers from the internet are rare. These disruptions can easily be detected by outside observers and traced back to individual organisations or service providers. In addition, shutting down entire networks is the most indiscriminate form of an internet shutdown and can <a href="https://freemyinternet.info/3_about_internet_shutdowns">cause significant collateral damage</a> to a country’s economy.</p>
<p><strong>Packet filtering</strong></p>
<p>To target specific content, governments often use packet filtering – shutting down only parts of the internet. </p>
<p>Governments can use packet filtering techniques to block or disrupt specific content or services. For instance, internet service providers can block access to specific IP addresses associated with websites or services they wish to restrict, such as 15.197.206.217 associated with the social media platform WhatsApp. </p>
<p>Governments also increasingly use <a href="https://democracyinafrica.org/a-new-anti-democratic-tool-the-deep-packet-inspection-technique/">deep packet inspection</a> technology as a tool to filter and block specific content. It’s commonly used for surveillance. Deep packet inspection infrastructure enables the inspection of data packets and hence the content of communication. It’s a more tailored approach to blocking content and makes circumvention more difficult. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://ooni.org/post/2023-senegal-social-media-blocks/">Senegal</a>, internet service providers likely used deep packet inspection to block access to WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. </p>
<p>When internet shutdowns are done through packet filtering, only individuals within the affected network are able to detect the shutdown. Therefore, <a href="https://ensa.fi/active-probing/">active probing</a> is required to detect the shutdown. This is a technique that’s used by cybersecurity researchers and civil society actors to study the extent and methods of internet censorship in different regions.</p>
<h2>Violation of rights</h2>
<p>Though the two most common strategies are <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6678649">routing disruptions and packet filtering</a>, there are many other tools governments can use. For instance, <a href="https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-protests/iran-is-moving-towards-a-complete-internet-shutdown-one-bite-at-a-time/">domain name system manipulation</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/hot-topics-denialofservice-attacks-on-news-websites-in-autocracies/A50BD0533D1132765F64C2700E5822FC">denial of service attacks</a>, or the blunt sabotage of physical infrastructure. A <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/A-taxonomy-of-internet-shutdowns-the-technologies-behind-network-interference.pdf">detailed overview</a> of techniques is provided by Access Now, an NGO defending digital civil rights of people around the world.</p>
<p>There is wide agreement that internet shutdowns are a violation of fundamental rights such as freedom of expression. However, governments are developing increasingly sophisticated means to block or restrict access to the internet. It’s therefore important to closely monitor the ways in which internet shutdowns are being implemented. This will help to provide circumvention strategies and hold the implementers to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Garbe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There are different tactics that governments can use to block the internet, some more sophisticated than others.
Lisa Garbe, Research Fellow, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210199
2023-08-02T12:52:29Z
2023-08-02T12:52:29Z
Zimbabwe’s rulers won’t tolerate opposing voices – but its writers refuse to be silenced
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539973/original/file-20230728-19-7tnmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NoViolet Bulawayo, Zimbabwean author of the politically charged novels We Need New Names and Glory.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Levenson/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ruling elite in Zimbabwe has always tried to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/04/zimbabwe-43-years-independence-commemoration-marred-by-rapidly-shrinking-civic-space/">silence</a> opposing political voices and erase histories it does not wish to have aired. Although “democratic” elections have been held since 1980, the country has become what the scholar Eldred Masunungure <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24388181">calls</a> a state of “militarised, electoral authoritarianism”. </p>
<p>As Zimbabwe heads to the polls again in 2023, it’s worth considering the role that writers have played in engendering political resistance. Their voices have been important in challenging oppression, exposing social injustices and advocating for political change. </p>
<h2>The liberation struggle</h2>
<p>Literature was vital for raising awareness about the harshness of colonial rule. It was used to mobilise resistance against the white minority regime and garner international support for the liberation struggle. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with an illustration of an African man against a spider's web, a needle stitching a wound on his forehead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539976/original/file-20230728-27-n59hy5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heinemann African Writers Series</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Texts like <a href="https://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/books/voices-of-liberation-ndabaningi-sithole">Ndabaningi Sithole’s</a> foundational 1955 novel Umvekela wamaNdebele (The Revolution of the Ndebele) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-dambudzo-marechera-the-letters-zimbabweans-wrote-to-a-literary-star-144299">Dambudzo Marechera</a>’s 1978 magnum opus The House of Hunger were instrumental. Many others like <a href="https://www.gale.com/intl/databases-explored/literature/charles-mungoshi">Charles Mungoshi</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tsitsi-dangarembga-and-writing-about-pain-and-loss-in-zimbabwe-144313">Tsitsi Dangarembga</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/21/chenjerai-hove">Chenjerai Hove</a> produced texts that encouraged resistance against colonial rule. </p>
<p>These works showcased the resilience of Zimbabweans in the face of adversity, inspiring the population to continue their fight for freedom.</p>
<h2>Independence</h2>
<p>Since independence in Zimbabwe, there has remained little space for dissenting voices – first under the leadership of <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-mugabe-as-divisive-in-death-as-he-was-in-life-108103">Robert Mugabe</a> and then <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-three-barriers-blocking-zimbabwes-progress-zanu-pf-mnangagwa-and-the-military-89177">Emmerson Mnangagwa</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fairplanet.org/story/zimbabwes-genocide-an-open-wound/">Gukurahundi genocide</a>, which novelist <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Novuyo_Rosa_Tshuma/">Novuyo Rosa Tshuma</a> called the country’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/09/house-of-stone-novuyo-rosa-tshuma-review">original sin</a>”, marked the first instance in which the state quashed opposing voices. Between 1982 and 1987, the government sent a North Korean-trained brigade to quell dissenters in the provinces of Matabeleland and the Midlands. An estimated 20,000 civilians were killed. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with an illustration of an African woman looking directly ahead with traditional hairstyle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539978/original/file-20230728-15-vc4suo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Women's Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, despite the shrinking of the civic and political space in Zimbabwe, literary production has thrived in providing political resistance.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/tvl/article/view/168612">My research</a> as a scholar of African literature has demonstrated that literature in Zimbabwe has highlighted diverse forms of state sponsored violence. Through their works, writers have raised awareness, sparked dialogue, and inspired readers to engage in opposition and activism.</p>
<h2>The turbulent ‘lost decade’ (2000-2010)</h2>
<p>From around 2000, Zimbabwe <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zimbabwe-inflation-idUSL1992587420070919">experienced</a> economic meltdown, coupled with an increased shrinking of the civic space. The rise of a formidable opposition, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Movement-for-Democratic-Change">Movement for Democratic Change</a>, in 1999 <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/election-violence-in-zimbabwe/movement-for-democratic-change-was-number-one-enemy-in-2000/2CB944ACBCDB63C2311FDAB85ACD8037">was met with violence</a> by the state. </p>
<p>This period also saw a flourishing in literary production. Fresh voices emerged, among them <a href="https://writersmakeworlds.com/brian-chikwava/">Brian Chikwava</a>, <a href="https://novioletbulawayo.com/about/">NoViolet Bulawayo</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e1fad84a-903e-44ec-b7c5-920e88a91eac">Petina Gappah</a>, <a href="https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-5757_Eppel">John Eppel</a>, <a href="https://www.icorn.org/writer/christopher-mlalazi">Christopher Mlalazi</a> and <a href="https://www.africanbookscollective.com/authors-editors/lawrence-hoba">Lawrence Hoba</a>.</p>
<p>Literature from this period captured the socioeconomic realities of the country. Gappah’s debut collection of short stories in 2009, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/faberbooks/petina-gappah-an-elegy-for">An Elegy for Easterly</a>, depicts the emotions experienced by Zimbabweans in the face of diverse challenges. Some characters express disillusionment and despair, while others maintain optimism and resilience, representing a complex reality.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with illustrative fonts spelling the words " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539979/original/file-20230728-24712-naw856.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Random House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bulawayo’s award-winning 2013 novel We Need New Names depicts the political situation through the perspective of its teenage protagonist, Darling. The story delves into the effects of political turmoil, economic challenges and societal changes on regular lives. Her 2022 novel <a href="https://theconversation.com/noviolet-bulawayos-new-novel-is-an-instant-zimbabwean-classic-185783">Glory</a> parodies a dictatorship, protesting the irrationality of a police state.</p>
<p>White Zimbabwean writers have also criticised autocracy in books like Catherine Buckle’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/AFRICAN_TEARS/haxhDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">African Tears: The Zimbabwe Land Invasions</a> (2000) and Graham Lang’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Place_of_Birth/TzCsAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Place%20of%20Birth%20graham%20lang">Place of Birth</a> (2006). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with an illustration showing the portrait of a woman with butterflies instead of hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539980/original/file-20230728-3718-jawgb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Faber and Faber</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>These novels portray the emotional effects of the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/zimbabwe/ZimLand0302-02.htm">Fast Track Land Reform Programme</a> on many white Zimbabweans, who found themselves dispossessed of their farms and their sources of income.</p>
<p>Writers from the 2000s have offered multifaceted portrayals, highlighting the interconnectedness of personal lives and political realities. The stories illuminate the human cost of political decisions and the resilience of ordinary people in the face of hardships.</p>
<h2>Literature in the Second Republic</h2>
<p>Literature after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-state-is-the-man-and-that-man-is-mugabe-a-new-era-begins-with-his-fall-87868">demise</a> of Mugabe and his four-decade regime – a period referred to as the Second Republic – has continued to grapple with Zimbabwe’s prevailing sociopolitical environment. In the book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Zimbabwean-Crisis-after-Mugabe-Multidisciplinary-Perspectives/Mangena-Nyambi-Ncube/p/book/9781032028149">The Zimbabwean Crisis after Mugabe</a>, my colleagues and I contend that today’s Zimbabwe is similar to the Mugabe years in many ways.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539974/original/file-20230728-19-7nqol2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tsitsi Dangarembga was arrested in 2020 for staging a protest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zinyange Autony/AFP/Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.batsiraichigama.com/">Batsirai Chigama</a>’s collection of poems Gather the Children captures the vicissitudes of contemporary life in Zimbabwe. In <a href="https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/article/104-29416_On-Chigama-8217-s-Gather-the-Children">his analysis</a> of this collection, literary scholar Tinashe Mushakavanhu explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Zimbabwe’s political crisis has been a different kind of catastrophe, one that has occurred in slow motion: its mechanisms abstract and impersonal, although the economic, physical, and psychological consequences have been very real and devastating. These strictures insinuate themselves into the ambience of everyday life and language, something that Chigama observes with careful attention. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In her poem Zimbabwe, Chigama writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Like eating olives</p>
<p>we have acquired the taste of discomfort</p>
<p>over the longest time</p>
<p>it has gently settled on our tongues</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her poems highlight how Zimbabweans have normalised the abnormal.</p>
<p>Other writers from the post-Mugabe period like <a href="http://www.panashechigumadzi.com/bio">Panashe Chigumadzi</a> and <a href="https://novuyotshuma.com/about">Novuyo Rosa Tshuma</a> grapple with similar issues and themes. Writer and academic <a href="https://brittlepaper.com/2023/03/siphiwe-ndlovu-on-the-rise-and-rise-of-zimbabwean-literature/">Siphiwe Ndlovu</a> explains that in contemporary Zimbabwean fiction</p>
<blockquote>
<p>there is anger, outrage, disappointment, disillusionment, hope (and the loss of it), but most importantly, there is a call for reckoning and change that the politics of the country have failed to successfully address.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The power (and limits) of literature</h2>
<p>Despite its power, reading remains a luxury that many Zimbabweans cannot afford. Books are extremely expensive and few people have disposable income to read for pleasure. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with an illustration of birds flying into a tree and down into a red backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539982/original/file-20230728-16223-8s27vs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ntombekhaya Poetry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s for this reason that, since independence, the state has not banned the many novels which are critical of the situation in the country. Writer Stanley Nyamfukudza <a href="http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:240525/FULLTEXT02.pdf">explains</a>: “It has been suggested that one of the best ways to hide information in Zimbabwe is to publish it in a book.” </p>
<p>Literature can achieve greater effects if there is a robust culture of critical thinking and reading.</p>
<p>However, despite the continued oppression and the lack of a robust reading culture, Zimbabwean writers have been unrelenting in telling the world what is really happening in Zimbabwe. They have always spoken truth to power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gibson Ncube does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Writers have challenged oppression, exposed social injustices and advocated for political change.
Gibson Ncube, Lecturer, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205743
2023-07-20T12:29:26Z
2023-07-20T12:29:26Z
How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537930/original/file-20230718-21-p9vveg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4966%2C3514&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Librarian Sharice Towles checks in books at the main branch of the Reading Public Library circulation desk in Reading, Penn. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/librarian-sharice-towles-checks-in-books-at-the-circulation-news-photo/1322393868?adppopup=true">Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite misconceptions and <a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/10/30/the-stereotype-stereotype/">stereotypes</a> – ranging from what librarians Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos have described as the “middle-aged, bun-wearing, comfortably shod, shushing librarian” to the “sexy librarian … and the hipster or tattooed librarian” – library professionals are more than book jockeys, and they do more than read at story time. </p>
<p>They are experts in classification, pedagogy, data science, social media, disinformation, health sciences, music, art, media literacy and, yes, storytelling.</p>
<p>And right now, librarians are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">taking on an old role</a>. <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport">They are defending the rights</a> of readers and writers in the battles raging across the U.S. over censorship, book challenges and book bans. </p>
<p>Book challenges are an <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned-books-qa">attempt to remove a title from circulation</a>, and <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/986/book-banning">bans mean the actual removal of a book</a> from library shelves. The current spate of bans and challenges is the most notable and intense since the <a href="https://libraryleadershippodcast.com/103-dealing-with-book-banning-with-tracie-d-hall/">McCarthy era</a>, when censorship campaigns during that Cold War period of political repression <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/119516/report-book-burning-under-huac-and-eisenhower">included public book burnings</a>. </p>
<p>But these battles are not new; book banning can be <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">traced back to 1637</a> in the U.S., when the <a href="https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/in-1650-william-pynchon-tweaks-the-puritans/">Puritans banned a book</a> by Massachusetts Bay colonist William Pynchon they saw as heretical. </p>
<p>As long as there have been book challenges, there have been those <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">who defend intellectual freedom and the right to read freely</a>. Librarians and library workers have long been <a href="https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/intellectual-freedom-manual-tenth-edition">crucial players in the defense of books and ideas</a>. At the 2023 annual American Library Association Conference, <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/92618-freedom-fighters-ibram-x-kendi-kicks-off-ala-2023-with-a-powerful-message-to-librarians.html">scholar Ibram X. Kendi</a> praised library professionals and reminded them that “if you’re fighting book bans, if you’re fighting against censorship, then you are a freedom fighter.”</p>
<p>Library professionals maintain that books are what education scholar Rudine Sims Bishop called the “<a href="https://www.greatschoolspartnership.org/mirrors-windows-and-sliding-glass-doors-a-metaphor-for-reading-and-life/">mirrors</a>, windows and sliding glass doors” that allow readers to learn about themselves and others and gain empathy for those who are different from them. </p>
<p>The drive to challenge, ban or censor books has not only changed the lives of librarians across the nation. It’s also changing the way librarians are now educated to enter the profession. As a <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/faculty-staff/cooke_nicole.php">library school educator</a>, I hear the anecdotes, questions and concerns from library workers who are on the front lines of the current fight and are not sure how to react or respond. </p>
<p>What once, and still is, a curriculum that includes book selection, program planning and serving diverse communities in the classroom, my faculty colleagues and I are now expanding to include discussions and resources on how students, once they become professional librarians, can physically, legally and financially protect themselves and their organizations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of protesters standing outside a library; one carries a sign that says 'Quit grooming students, you sexually perverted animals'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Demonstrators who support banning books gather during a protest outside of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich., on Sept. 25, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-who-support-banning-books-gather-during-a-news-photo/1243508520?adppopup=true">JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>More than shelving books</h2>
<p>Degreed librarians are professionals with master’s degrees from nationally <a href="https://www.ala.org/educationcareers/accreditedprograms">accredited</a> academic programs. I have personally gone through such a program and now teach in one. </p>
<p>In fact, many librarians who work on college and university campuses have subject masters and doctorates, and K-12 librarians must have a valid teaching license or a state endorsement to <a href="https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/requirements_to_become_a_school_librarian_by_state">work in a school library or media center</a>. They know how to select appropriate materials for communities. </p>
<p><a href="https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/">Librarians</a> adhere to <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues">core values</a>, standards and <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics">professional ethics</a>. They see it as their duty to create and maintain a collection that reflects the diverse needs and interests of the entire community, not just for a select, vocal part of the community. The <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/coredocuments">Freedom to Read statement</a> of the American Library Association tells us: “It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people’s freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information.”</p>
<p>Books are challenged and banned for many <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10">reasons</a>, including profanity, depictions of sex, LGBTQIA+ content, depictions of sexual abuse, equity, diversity and inclusion content, depictions of drug use and alcoholism, anti-police rhetoric and providing sex education. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/">Reasons for challenges</a> can be personally subjective, and claims that books present divisive topics that should be excluded from collections are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/30/books/book-ban-us-schools.html">increasing</a>.</p>
<p>George Johnson, author of the frequently banned book <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1130433140/banned-books-all-boys-arent-blue-george-johnson-lgbtq-ya">“All Boys aren’t Blue,</a>” has said that he believes books are challenged to eliminate <a href="https://time.com/6261238/george-m-johnson-book-bans-censorship-interview/">narratives</a> that elucidate the truths of marginalized groups and depict the everyday diversity of their lives. Johnson believes the stories of the LGBTQIA+ and minoritized communities are specifically under attack. </p>
<p>Johnson is a complainant in a recently filed <a href="https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-files-lawsuit-against-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans/">federal lawsuit</a> against Florida’s Escambia County School District and School Board, which <a href="https://www.wuwf.org/local-news/2023-02-21/escambia-school-board-removes-three-books-from-libraries">unanimously voted</a> to remove Johnson’s book from their school libraries because of passages that describe a sexual experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman stands next to a book car and touches some of the books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca shows off a cart of books that were removed from the shelves at the Peter L. ‘Pete’ Gitz Library on Feb. 13, 2023, in Madisonville, La.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/st-tammany-parish-library-director-kelly-larocca-shows-off-news-photo/1247658403?adppopup=true">Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>The new librarians’ education</h2>
<p>To balance the needs of everyone in the community, <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/Collection%20Development/collectiondevelopment">libraries have collection development policies</a> as well as <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/statement">reconsideration and withdrawal policies</a> that guide librarians in selecting new books and materials and removing those that are outdated. These policies are key when facing potential bans and challenges. </p>
<p>But with the current controversies about racially diverse and LGBTQIA+ books, policies are no longer enough to demonstrate the integrity of professionally curated library collections. </p>
<p>Neither policies nor book reviews nor professional expertise are keeping library workers from being called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">pedophiles, groomers, indoctrinators and pornographers</a>. They are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-27/school-librarians-vilified-as-the-arm-of-satan-in-book-banning-wars">being harassed</a>, <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-school-librarian-pushes-back-on-censorship-and-gets-death-threats-and-online-harassment/2022/09">receiving death threats</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">being fired</a>. <a href="https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/politics/crawford-county-parents-sue-library-lgbtq-books/527-6d8b5d95-b541-4ba2-bf5a-ef6d97bc9e33">Libraries have been sued</a> and library workers are so threatened and harassed that <a href="https://www.slj.com/story/from-the-breaking-point-to-fighting-anew-school-librarian-martha-hickson-shares-her-story-of-battling-book-banning-censorship">they are getting sick</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html#:%7E:text=Many%20librarians%20have%20quit%20%E2%80%94%20or,demanded%2C%20according%20to%20a%20lawsuit">and leaving their careers</a>.</p>
<p>The current threats to librarians and the books they circulate are necessitating a shift in the content of graduate library education. Librarians obviously need to know the content of books. But educators like me now know we need to provide graduate students with information about how to physically and legally protect themselves and their organizations. </p>
<p>When we teach intellectual freedom, we also teach students how to prepare for protesters and contentious board meetings. When we teach information professionals how to select materials for their libraries, we emphasize their need to know how to articulate, in writing, the reasons for having a particular book, film or material item in their collection. </p>
<p>I believe that our students now need to consider getting professional liability insurance in case they are sued for buying a contested book. And when we teach story-time planning, we can pair that with strategies to devise a <a href="https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/2019/02/02/heres-lowdown-so-far-drag-queen-story-hour-evansville/2740490002/">safety plan</a> in case they are threatened or receive a bomb threat because of their work. </p>
<p>Librarians and the future librarians we teach have always loved books and reading. While our work has changed in this era of increasing censorship, in one sense it has not: We’re still devoted to the idea that we serve our communities by providing them with books that open the world to them and give them the opportunity to learn about themselves and others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Cooke receives funding from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).</span></em></p>
Librarians are defending the rights of readers and writers in the battle raging across the US over censorship, book challenges and book bans. That conflict has even changed how librarians are trained.
Nicole A. Cooke, Baker Endowed Chair and Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209876
2023-07-19T20:00:14Z
2023-07-19T20:00:14Z
Yes, Oppenheimer isn’t opening in Japan this week – but the country has a long history of cinema about the war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537951/original/file-20230718-21-mnil56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C7932%2C5538&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer is opening in much of the world this week, a Japanese release date has <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/oppenheimer-christopher-nolan-theatrical-release-japan-1235645752/">not yet been announced</a>. </p>
<p>A delay in naming a release date is nothing new for Japan, where Hollywood releases often take place <a href="https://blog.gaijinpot.com/going-movies-japan/">weeks or months later</a> than other national markets. </p>
<p>Japan’s cinema industry is savvy enough to take a wait-and-see approach to blockbuster films. If Oppenheimer fails at the box office in other markets, then Japan may decide on a quick opening in a smaller number of cinemas. If it is the global hit the producers hope, it may open across the country.</p>
<p><a href="https://screenrant.com/is-oppenheimer-movie-banned-in-japan/">Some have speculated</a> the tragic history of events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki make the film too sensitive for Japanese audiences. But concerns that the film contains sensitivities to Japan’s past can be easily discarded by a quick glance through Japan’s cinematic history.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/now-i-am-become-death-the-destroyer-of-worlds-who-was-atom-bomb-pioneer-robert-oppenheimer-209398">'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds': who was atom bomb pioneer Robert Oppenheimer?</a>
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<h2>The Japanese film industry</h2>
<p>The Japanese film industry began in 1897, developing quickly through studios such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikkatsu">Nikkatsu</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shochiku">Shochiku</a>. In the 1930s, the industry gained international attention with emerging filmmakers such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasujir%C5%8D_Ozu">Yasujiro Ozu</a>. </p>
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<p>By the late 1930s, studios and filmmakers were drafted into the war effort, making propaganda films. </p>
<p>Until the end of the second world war, the Japanese government had been strictly censoring all films in line with efforts to produce this state-sanctioned propaganda. From 1945 to 1949, the US-Occupation forces set up procedures to ensure films <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/radical-history-review/article/1988/41/67/87998/The-Japanese-Tragedy-Film-Censorship-and-the">avoided</a> intensely nationalist or militaristic themes.</p>
<p>Japan’s <a href="https://www.eirin.jp/english/008.html">film classification body</a> was created in 1949 following the withdrawal of the Production Code. This gave Japanese authorities the chance to determine their own rules around film content based on themes of language, sex, nudity, violence and cruelty, horror and menace, drug use and criminal behaviour. </p>
<p>Japanese film was always quite progressive in terms of artistic licence, escaping the type of strictly enforced limitations found in America’s <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/early-hollywood-and-hays-code/">Hays Code</a>, which put restrictions on content including nudity, profanity and depictions of crime. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tokyo-olympiad-kon-ichikawas-documentary-of-the-1964-games-is-still-a-masterpiece-163800">Tokyo Olympiad, Kon Ichikawa’s documentary of the 1964 Games, is still a masterpiece</a>
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<p>Filmmakers in Japan had freedom to practice their art, so the <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_film">pinku</a></em> (soft pornography) films of the 1960s and 70s were the products of the major studios rather than underground independents. </p>
<p>These freedoms saw Japanese filmmakers absorb influences from Europe (particularly through French and Italian cinema), but saw significant content differences between Japanese and Hollywood cinema until the close of the Hays era.</p>
<p>Since the 1950s, censorship in the form of suggested edits or very rarely, “disallowed films”, has mostly been in response to violent or overly-explicit sexual imagery, rather than concerns over political or militaristic issues. </p>
<p>Japan is the <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/japan-box-office-market-1235507695/">third biggest</a> box office market in the world, behind only China and North America, and cinema is dominated by local films.</p>
<p>While it can appear that Japanese cinema is dominated by anime and live-action remakes of manga and anime, it includes a rich array of genres and styles. The late 1990s saw a global appetite for horror films, under the mantle of J-horror. Films like Battle Royale (2000) and Ichi: The Killer (2001) created a new level of violence combining the horror genre with comic moments. Meanwhile samurai and yakuza films continue to find audiences, as do high-school themed dramas. </p>
<p>Internationally, the arthouse stylistics of films by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Naomi Kawase are feted at Cannes and Venice.</p>
<h2>The war on screen</h2>
<p>Many Japanese filmmakers have explored the second world war.</p>
<p>As early as 1952, Kaneto Shindo’s Children of Hiroshima directly addressed the aftermath of the war through confronting imagery then with a gentle, humanist touch. </p>
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<p>A year later, Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima upped the political ante with a docudrama critical of the United States’ actions in a film that included real survivors from the nuclear blast acting as victims. </p>
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<p>The obvious metaphorical imagery of successive Godzilla films reflect fears of the potential horrors nuclear activities could unleash.</p>
<p>The title of Shōhei Imamura’s Black Rain (1989, not to be confused with Ridley Scott’s yakuza film of the same name and same year) referenced the colour of the acid rain following the nuclear blast in Hiroshima, and was recognised with some of Japan’s highest film honours. </p>
<p>Anime has also directly shown the damage wrought by Oppenheimer’s device, most notably with Barefoot Gen in 1983, and its sequel in 1986. </p>
<p>In the style of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, a young wide-eyed boy, Gen, is caught in the horrors of the conflict, watching as his mother literally melts in front of him. </p>
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<p>Summer with Kuro (1990) and In This Corner of the World (2016) each gave their own, less graphic, anime versions of lives touched by the conflict.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/suzume-builds-on-a-long-line-of-japanese-art-exploring-the-impacts-of-trauma-on-the-individual-and-the-collective-203920">Suzume builds on a long line of Japanese art exploring the impacts of trauma on the individual and the collective</a>
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<h2>Foreign films</h2>
<p>Foreign films about the second world war have also found an audience in Japan.</p>
<p>Alain Resnais’ intensely serious French New Wave drama, the French/Japanese co-production Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), exposed the international implications of personal relations after the bomb.</p>
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<p>Japan warmly welcomed Clint Eastwood’s 2006 twin-release of Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, which showed the battle from the views of Japanese and US soldiers, respectively. </p>
<p>Both films would go on to win <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Academy_Film_Prize_for_Outstanding_Foreign_Language_Film">Outstanding Foreign Language Film</a> at the prestigious Japan Academy Awards. </p>
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<p>Stories of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not a taboo topic in Japan. Of all the nations in the world to be banning films, Japan must surely be near the bottom of the list. </p>
<p>Whether there’s a release date or not, Oppenheimer must have the appeal to be a box office hit to determine its suitability for release in Japan.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-vietnams-ban-of-the-barbie-movie-tells-us-about-chinas-politics-of-persuasion-209088">What Vietnam's ban of the Barbie movie tells us about China's politics of persuasion</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter C. Pugsley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Japanese filmmakers have been exploring the impacts of the second world war from as early as 1952.
Peter C. Pugsley, Associate professor, Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202629
2023-07-11T05:39:42Z
2023-07-11T05:39:42Z
Indonesia is suppressing environmental research it doesn’t like. That poses real risks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536711/original/file-20230711-15-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C508%2C4613%2C3319&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September last year, several leading scientists were effectively banned from further research in Indonesia’s vast tropical forests, where most had been working for decades. </p>
<p>Their sin? In large part, producing research suggesting the Bornean orangutan was in trouble – and following it up with an <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/09/14/orangutan-conservation-needs-agreement-on-data-and-trends.html">opinion piece</a> which countered the <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/09/26/forestry-ministry-responds.html">government’s assertion</a> the species was rebounding. </p>
<p>These researchers clearly angered someone powerful. Soon, the influential environment and forestry ministry circulated a letter accusing the scientists of writing with “negative intentions” that could “discredit” the government. They were to be <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/as-indonesia-paints-rosy-picture-for-orangutans-scientists-ask-wheres-the-data/">barred from the forests</a>. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00550-X">published new research</a> exploring the risks of this response from Indonesia’s government.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="borneo deforestation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536710/original/file-20230711-19-tn2pnk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forests are still falling in Indonesia, but the rates of loss have declined.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Worrying — and surprising</h2>
<p>Indonesia’s reaction is a worrying sign. The island nation has a fast-growing population and economy, as well as spectacular biodiversity and one of the world’s <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/countries.html">largest areas</a> of tropical forests. But its growing population and economy have been putting pressure on the natural world <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Indonesia.htm">for decades</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesia’s combativeness is also surprising. In recent years, forest destruction has declined by two-thirds, following <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-cites-deforestation-decline-stricter-controls-2023-06-26/">government clamp-downs</a> on illegal logging, forest burning and felling for plantations. This is a remarkable achievement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/research-reveals-shocking-detail-on-how-australias-environmental-scientists-are-being-silenced-140026">Research reveals shocking detail on how Australia's environmental scientists are being silenced</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So why the recent crackdown on the researchers? It’s likely to be precisely because Indonesia has been doing better environmentally. Its leaders want their progress to be recognised, not criticised. </p>
<p>But while it’s important scientists are fair – and do recognise welcome progress when it happens – it’s even more important governments let scientists do their work, even if the results we report are not what they want to hear. </p>
<p>This isn’t the first time Indonesia has tried to silence environmental scientists. Three years ago, researcher David Gaveau was deported from Indonesia after <a href="https://theconversation.com/alternative-data-setting-the-record-straight-on-the-scale-of-indonesias-2019-fires-173593">publishing estimates</a> of wildfire extent much larger than those reported by the government. </p>
<p>For local and overseas researchers in Indonesia, the pressure is clear. Many privately say to us and other colleagues that they feel coerced to publish good news, or at least avoid bad news. </p>
<h2>Governments must be open to warranted criticism</h2>
<p>Conservationists and researchers have long run up against suppression or <a href="https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2022/09/29/2213088/philippines-still-deadliest-country-asia-environmentalists-global-witness#:%7E:text=According%20to%20a%20report%20by,%2C%20and%20Nicaragua%20(15).">even violence</a> in developing nations with large forest tracts, <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/global-witness-reports-227-land-and-environmental-activists-murdered-single-year-worst-figure-record/">such as</a> Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. </p>
<p>That’s because there’s huge pressure on these forests. Demand for economic development often leads to exploitation of remaining forests. </p>
<p>While Indonesia’s forest management is <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/country/IDN/?category=summary&location=WyJjb3VudHJ5IiwiSUROIl0%3D&map=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%3D%3D&showMap=true">improving in some ways</a> with deforestation clampdowns, there are still very real areas of concern. </p>
<p>In recent decades, huge swathes of forest have been felled and converted into palm oil and wood-pulp plantations. The rush for critical minerals underpinning the green transition, such as nickel, <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/red-floods-near-giant-indonesia-nickel-mine-blight-farms-and-fishing-grounds/">are damaging</a> fisheries and rivers. </p>
<p>And then there are the roads, which are expanding dramatically across Indonesia. A road is a spike driven into the natural world. Once a road is in place, the forest opens up like a flayed fish. Bulldozers, chainsaws and mining equipment can come in. It’s a <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(09)00206-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534709002067%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">devastating dynamic</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="road palm oil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536713/original/file-20230711-23-a38esp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When roads push into forests, it’s far easier to convert them to plantations or log them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alternative-data-setting-the-record-straight-on-the-scale-of-indonesias-2019-fires-173593">Alternative data: setting the record straight on the scale of Indonesia’s 2019 fires</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the past few decades, Indonesia has been plagued by <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesias-five-most-consequential-environmental-stories-of-2020/">environmental catastrophes</a>, from massive forest loss to lethal smoke plumes from vegetation burning. </p>
<p>To avoid being blindsided by future environmental catastrophes, Indonesia needs a dynamic and open scientific community – one that isn’t being pressured to toe the government’s line.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-election-puts-global-biodiversity-at-stake-with-an-impending-war-on-palm-oil-115468">How Indonesia's election puts global biodiversity at stake with an impending war on palm oil</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Laurance receives funding various scientific and philanthropic organisations. He is the director of the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. He also founded and directs ALERT -- the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers -- a science and conservation advocacy group.</span></em></p>
In recent years, Indonesia has slashed the rate of deforestation. That’s why this new crackdown on researchers is so surprising.
Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209088
2023-07-06T20:50:54Z
2023-07-06T20:50:54Z
What Vietnam’s ban of the Barbie movie tells us about China’s politics of persuasion
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536099/original/file-20230706-16210-k7hkwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4874%2C3378&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Actor Margot Robbie blows out a candle on the cake to celebrate her birthday during the pink carpet event for the movie 'Barbie' in Seoul, South Korea, in July 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barbie has always had some degree of notoriety. She is at once <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cultural-history-barbie-180982115/">a symbol of female empowerment, ridicule and consumerism</a>. People might suspect that the recent <a href="https://apnews.com/article/barbie-movie-vietnam-china-ninedash-df593a95b5826b03429d28ab855081a8">ban of the <em>Barbie</em> movie by the Vietnamese government</a> is motivated by these concerns. Instead, international political intrigue provides a better explanation. </p>
<p>Territorial disputes run deep in Southeast Asia, having both real and symbolic value. Claims by both Korea and Japan of <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/islands-ire-south-korea-japan-dispute">the Dokdo (Takeshima) Islands are more than three centuries old</a>, while Japan, Taiwan and China each claim ownership of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/asia/japan-china-senkaku-islands-ships-intl-hnk-mic-ml/index.html">the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands</a>.</p>
<p>Amid the frothy <em>Barbie</em> plot, the attentive viewer might notice a map depicting a broad area claimed by China in international waters that <a href="http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/SOUTHCHINASEA-RULING/010020QR1SG/index.html">buffer the Philippines, Malaysia/Indonesia, Vietnam and China</a>. The Chinese claim of the vast swath of territory, known as the “nine-dash line” because this symbol demarcates China’s claims in the region, ignores both international law and the counterclaims of other countries.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1677020203819884546"}"></div></p>
<p>One map in one movie might seem innocuous. But the Chinese Communist Party revels in the persuasive power of pop culture, going so far as to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-radio/">purchase radio stations to broadcast its messages in other countries</a>. </p>
<h2>Appropriating culture</h2>
<p>While critical viewers might discount the <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/china-propaganda-censorship-control/">overt propaganda</a> of many Chinese movies, they are likely less aware of the <a href="https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/AUPress/Display/Article/3267338/mapping-chinese-influence-in-hollywood">increasing influence China has in Hollywood</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond movies, China has made more overt claims to the cultures of other countries. Korea is an example. </p>
<p>China has claimed traditional Korean songs (<em>arirang</em>), <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3166389/hanbok-years-kimchi-china-denies-cultural-appropriation-over">dress (<em>hanbok</em>)</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/stealing-our-culture-south-koreans-upset-after-china-claims-kimchi-as-its-own">the quintessential culinary staple, <em>kimchi</em></a>. </p>
<p>In the case of kimchi, Chinese <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/pao-cai-v-kimchi-chinese-south-koreans-clash-on-social-media">state media claimed</a> that the International Organization for Standardization’s recognition of <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/78112.html"><em>pao kai</em></a>, a Chinese fermented vegetable dish, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55129805">extends to kimchi</a>. Yet such assertions ignore international recognition of <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/tradition-of-kimchi-making-in-the-democratic-people-s-republic-of-korea-01063">kimchi-making</a> and <a href="https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsites%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCXS%2B223-2001%252FCXS_223e.pdf">kimchi as uniquely Korean</a>.</p>
<p>Posts on Weibo, China’s popular social media platform, show the hashtag <a href="https://www.koreaboo.com/news/china-south-korea-thief-country-kimchi-hanbok-stolen/">#小偷国# (thief country)</a> when referring to Korean’s cultural products as China’s own.</p>
<p>Online debates over fermented cabbage, dresses and songs might seem trivial. But on a psychological level, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-97016-000">culture and physical territory are central to group identities</a>. The attempted slow erosion of independent cultural identities can pose future threats.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s concerns about a momentary glimpse of a map in a movie must be viewed in these terms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in scrubs wearing masks and gloves handle mounds of fermented cabbage with red chilis colouring them red." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536101/original/file-20230706-7970-lnc31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employees of a South Korean financial institution make kimchi to donate to needy neighbours at the organization’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, in November 2022. Even kimchi has been subject to cultural appropriation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cultures evolve</h2>
<p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/10/13/china-s-influence-in-south-asia-vulnerabilities-and-resilience-in-four-countries-pub-85552">Imperial China’s former sphere of influence</a> included countries like Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan. Known as the “Middle Kingdom,” it framed itself as a <a href="https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/blog-entries/from-the-middle-east-to-the-middle-kingdom-7/">parent culture</a>. But this is not how cultural evolution works.</p>
<p>People innovate, ideas are adopted within a group, they spread beyond the boundaries and borders of groups and are adapted by others. The Vietnamese, for example, <a href="https://ethnomed.org/resource/traditional-vietnamese-medicine-historical-perspective-and-current-usage/">developed their own folk medicine</a>, often appropriated by the Chinese as <a href="http://www.joaat.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=57&id=356">“southern medicine (<em>Thuốc Nam</em>).”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/04/the-us-should-pay-attention-to-the-china-south-korea-culture-clash/">By making claims on other cultures in the region, China is attempting to legitimize its influence</a> as it seeks global superpower status.</p>
<p>Understandably, when China makes claims on regional cultural traditions — and territory — <a href="https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/south-koreans-are-rethinking-what-china-means-their-nation">its neighbours fear for their autonomy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A plane flies over a hilly island." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536104/original/file-20230706-21-602cul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Japanese maritime defence plane flies over disputed islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Kyodo News)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Eyeing territory</h2>
<p>The Chinese Communist Party has set its sights on what it calls the South China Sea, ignoring <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/world/asia/south-china-sea-hague-ruling-philippines.html#:%7E:text=BEIJING%20%E2%80%94%20An%20international%20tribunal%20in,waters%20had%20no%20legal%20basis.">a 2016 international ruling</a> on the illegitimacy of its claims to the area.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A combo photo shows an artificial island with just a few structures on it, and the same island almost 25 years later with what appears to be a military base on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473621/original/file-20220712-31833-2bvded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1007&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This combo photo shows the same Chinese structures on an man-made island in February 1999, top, and March 2022 in a disputed area of the South China Sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photos/Aaron Favila)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The party has dedicated considerable effort to <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2021/04/yes-china-has-the-worlds-largest-navy-that-matters-less-than-you-might-think/">building up a powerful navy</a> and constructing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/21/china-has-fully-militarized-three-islands-in-south-china-sea-us-admiral-says">artificial islands atop coral reefs to place military bases</a>.</p>
<p>If not in form, then in spirit, the Chinese government’s actions are similar to Imperial Japan’s notion of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09592299608405994">“sphere of co-prosperity”</a> in the Pacific from 1931 to 1945. During this time, parts of Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and other countries were subjected to brutal colonial rule.</p>
<p>While an arms build-up is underway, China’s main weapon is its <a href="https://world101.cfr.org/foreign-policy/tools-foreign-policy/what-soft-power">soft power</a>, a persuasive approach to international relations that involves the use of economic or cultural influence.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2016.07.007">Belt and Road Initiative</a> represents an explicit, direct means to influence countries with financial support. Shaping the content of movies presents a more implicit, indirect means that often goes unnoticed.</p>
<h2>Persuasion through media, messages</h2>
<p>A key strategy in persuasion is to flood information ecosystems with desired messages. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/344428">If we fail to critically reflect on their content, our acceptance increases</a>. This is the same rationale behind <a href="https://doi.org/10.1362/146934712X13286274424271">product placement</a>.</p>
<p>When presented in ubiquitous media, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.547065/full?source=Snapzu">such as memes</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1179/caj.1985.22.2.125">or postage stamps</a>, an audience can begin to lose track of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.3">the credibility of the source</a>. While a map in a fluffy movie can be discounted, the repeated presentation of images, dialogue and values that support the goals of the Chinese regime is concerning.</p>
<p>Beyond film, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00377990903221905">history textbooks</a> and classrooms are the latest battleground for wars that continue to live in collective memory. Studies of Japanese textbooks, for example, have noted shifts in how the horrific crimes of Imperial Japan, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07393140802269021">including the Nanjing massacre, are represented</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X11000485">Publishers appear to engage in self-censorship to ensure a favourable position within the market</a>. </p>
<p>Hollywood also seems to have willingly adopted <a href="https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/">self-censorship</a>, with some <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/quentin-tarantino-wont-recut-once-a-time-china-1248720/">notable exceptions</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/">A 2020 PEN America report entitled “Made in Hollywood, Censored in Beijing</a>,” details how Hollywood decision-makers are increasingly making decisions about their films “based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials who control whether their films gain access to the booming Chinese market.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-bakery-to-wagashiya-a-textbook-case-of-moral-education-in-japan-75626">From bakery to wagashiya: a textbook case of 'moral education' in Japan</a>
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<h2>The power of pink persuasion</h2>
<p>Like <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00382-7">many movies</a>, <em>Barbie</em> is unlikely to have any lasting impact on society. Its brief moment in the spotlight will likely amuse audiences, but it also adds another small brick to the wall being built by China to expand its influence.</p>
<p>Once the context of cultural and territorial appropriation is appreciated, the action of Vietnam’s National Film Evaluation Council to ban the film shouldn’t be surprising. While a total ban might be excessive, the appearance of the map in the film disregards Vietnam’s autonomy and international agreements.</p>
<p>Hollywood — and other hubs of popular media and social media — are ultimately subject to the demands of <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/feature/movie-theaters-box-office-historical-data-trend-1235354702/">viewers</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/15/23683554/twitter-dying-elon-musk-x-company">users</a>. Regulations aimed at preventing Chinese influence won’t be sufficient as they might replicate the kind of censorship seen in China. </p>
<p>Instead, education systems need to teach <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1046525">media literacy that will help consumers be more critical about the content they’re watching and reading</a>, providing them with an understanding of history and the intellectual tools to challenge persuasion campaigns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Richard Schoenherr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Once the context of cultural and territorial appropriation by China in Southeast Asia are understood, Vietnam’s ban of the Barbie movie isn’t surprising.
Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Concordia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207033
2023-06-08T20:07:12Z
2023-06-08T20:07:12Z
What is the ‘splinternet’? Here’s why the internet is less whole than you might think
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530739/original/file-20230608-28-h3pjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C188%2C5712%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Splinternet” refers to the way the internet is <a href="https://theconversation.com/country-rules-the-splinternet-may-be-the-future-of-the-web-81939">being splintered</a> – broken up, divided, separated, locked down, boxed up, or otherwise segmented.</p>
<p>Whether for nation states or corporations, there’s money and control to be had by influencing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-the-internet-looks-brighter-thanks-to-an-eu-court-opinion-109721">what information people can access and share</a>, as well as the costs that are paid for this access. </p>
<p>The idea of a splinternet isn’t new, nor is the problem. But recent developments are likely to enhance segmentation, and have brought it back into new light. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meta-just-copped-a-a-1-9bn-fine-for-keeping-eu-data-in-the-us-but-why-should-users-care-where-data-are-stored-206186">Meta just copped a A$1.9bn fine for keeping EU data in the US. But why should users care where data are stored?</a>
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</p>
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<h2>The internet as a whole</h2>
<p>The core question is whether we have just one single internet for everyone, or whether we have many.</p>
<p>Think of how we refer to things like the sky, the sea, or the economy. Despite these conceptually being singular things, we’re often only seeing a perspective: a part of the whole that isn’t complete, but we still experience directly. This applies to the internet, too.</p>
<p>A large portion of the internet is what’s known as the “deep web”. These are the parts search engines and web crawlers generally don’t go to. Estimates vary, but a rule of thumb is that approximately 70% of the web is “deep”.</p>
<p>Despite the name and the anxious news reporting in some sectors, the deep web is mostly benign. It refers to the parts of the web to which access is restricted in some ways.</p>
<p>Your personal email is a part of the deep web – no matter how bad your password might be, it requires authorisation to access. So do your Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive accounts. If your work or school has its own servers, these are part of the deep web – they’re connected, but not publicly accessible by default (we hope).</p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/searching-deep-and-dark-building-a-google-for-the-less-visible-parts-of-the-web-58472">Searching deep and dark: Building a Google for the less visible parts of the web</a>
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<p>We can expand this to things like the experience of multiplayer videogames, most social media platforms, and much more. Yes, there are parts that live up to the ominous name, but most of the deep web is just the stuff that needs password access.</p>
<p>The internet changes, too – connections go live, cables get broken or satellites fail, people bring their new <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-things-every-consumer-should-know-about-the-internet-of-things-78765">Internet of Things devices</a> (like “smart” fridges and doorbells) online, or accidentally open their computer ports to the net.</p>
<p>But because such a huge portion of the web is shaped by our individual access, we all have our own perspectives on what it’s like to use the internet. Just like standing under “the sky”, our local experience is different to that of others. No one can see the full picture. </p>
<h2>A fractured internet poised to fracture even more</h2>
<p>Was there ever a single “Internet”? Certainly the US research computer network called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ARPANET">ARPANET</a> in the 1960s was clear, discrete, and unfractured.</p>
<p>Alongside this, in the ‘60s and '70s, governments in the Soviet Union and Chile also each worked on similar network projects called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGAS">OGAS</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn">CyberSyn</a>, respectively. These systems were proto-internets that could have expanded significantly, and had themes that resonate today – OGAS was heavily surveilled by the KGB, and CyberSyn was a social experiment destroyed during a far-right coup.</p>
<p>Each was very clearly separate, each was a fractured computer network that relied on government support to succeed, and ARPANET was the only one to succeed due to its significant government funding. It was the kernel that would become the basis of the internet, and it was <a href="https://home.cern/science/computing/where-web-was-born">Tim Berners-Lee’s work on HTML at CERN</a> that became the basis of the web we have today, and something he <a href="https://theconversation.com/snowden-and-berners-lees-campaign-for-an-open-internet-24329">seeks to protect</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pencil drawing on a stamp showing a smiling man next to two computer screens with www on them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530749/original/file-20230608-25-jdt55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Marshall Islands released a postal stamp in 1999 celebrating English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee as the inventor of the World Wide Web.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/marshall-islands-circa-2000-postage-stamp-150910184">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, we can see the unified “Internet” has given way to a fractured internet – one poised to fracture even more.</p>
<p>Many nations effectively have their own internets already. These are still technically connected to the rest of the internet, but are subject to such distinct policies, regulations and costs that they are distinctly different for the users.</p>
<p>For example, Russia maintains a Soviet-era-style surveillance of the internet, and is far from alone in doing so – thanks to Xi Jinping, there is now “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown">the great firewall of China</a>”.</p>
<p>Surveillance isn’t the only barrier to internet use, with harassment, abuse, censorship, taxation and pricing of access, and similar internet controls being a major issue <a href="https://rsf.org/sites/default/files/a4_predateur-en_final.pdf">across many countries</a>.</p>
<p>Content controls aren’t bad in themselves – it’s easy to think of content that most people would prefer didn’t exist. Nonetheless, these national regulations lead to a splintering of internet experience depending on which country you’re in.</p>
<p>Indeed, every single country has local factors that shape the internet experience, from language to law, from culture to censorship.</p>
<p>While this can be overcome by tools such as VPNs (virtual private networks) or shifting to blockchain networks, in practice these are individual solutions that only a small percentage of people use, and don’t represent a stable solution.</p>
<h2>We’re already on the splinternet</h2>
<p>In short, it doesn’t fix it for those who aren’t technically savvy and it doesn’t fix the issues with commercial services. Even without censorious governments, the problems remain. In 2021, Facebook <a href="https://theconversation.com/stuff-up-or-conspiracy-whistleblowers-claim-facebook-deliberately-le">shut down Australian news content</a> as a protest against the News Media Bargaining Code, leading to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wechat-model-how-facebooks-ban-could-change-the-business-of-news-155629">potential change in the industry</a>.</p>
<p>Before that, organisations such as Wikipedia and Google <a href="https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12/">protested the winding back of network neutrality provisions</a> in the US in 2017 following <a href="https://sopastrike.com/">earlier</a> <a href="https://www.battleforthenet.com/sept10th/">campaigns</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-news-blockade-in-australia-shows-how-tech-giants-are-swallowing-the-web-155832">Facebook's news blockade in Australia shows how tech giants are swallowing the web</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Facebook (now known as Meta) attempted to create a walled garden internet in India called Free Basics – this led to a massive outcry about corporate control in late 2015 and early 2016. Today, <a href="https://theconversation.com/meta-just-copped-a-a-1-9bn-fine-for-keeping-eu-data-in-the-us-but-why-should-users-care-where-data-are-stored-206186">Meta’s breaches of EU law</a> are placing its business model at risk in the territory.</p>
<p>This broad shift has been described in the past by my colleague Mark Andrejevic in 2007 as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714420701715365">digital enclosure</a> – where states and commercial interests increasingly segment, separate and restrict what is accessible on the internet.</p>
<p>The uneven overlapping of national regulations and economies will interact oddly with digital services that cut across multiple borders. Further reductions in network neutrality will open the doors to restrictive internet service provider deals, price-based discrimination, and lock-in contracts with content providers.</p>
<p>The existing diversity of experience on the internet will see users’ experiences and access continue to diverge. As internet-based companies increasingly rely on exclusive access to users for tracking and advertising, as services and ISPs overcome falling revenue with lock-in agreements, and as government policies change, we’ll see the splintering continue.</p>
<p>The splinternet isn’t that different from what we already have. But it does represent an internet that’s even less global, less deliberative, less fair and less unified than we have today.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tim-berners-lees-plan-to-save-the-internet-give-us-back-control-of-our-data-154130">Tim Berners-Lee's plan to save the internet: give us back control of our data</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robbie Fordyce is affiliated with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.</span></em></p>
There’s really no such thing as one global internet – it all depends on your perspective. But the internet is poised to fracturing even more.
Robbie Fordyce, Lecturer, Communications and Media Studies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205813
2023-06-05T12:08:48Z
2023-06-05T12:08:48Z
Saying that students embrace censorship on college campuses is incorrect – here’s how to discuss the issue more constructively
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528662/original/file-20230526-23-mtq53t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=68%2C43%2C5682%2C3785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's not true that college students reject challenging ideas wholesale and oppose conservative views.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/male-college-professor-gestures-during-lecture-royalty-free-image/1213738982?phrase=college+campus+class&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The claim that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/us/ut-austin-free-speech.html">college students censor</a> viewpoints with which they disagree is now common. Versions of this claim include the falsehoods that <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2023/04/13/shouting-down-speakers-who-offend">students “shut down</a>” most invited speakers to campuses, reject challenging ideas and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/08/19/the-growing-partisan-divide-in-views-of-higher-education-2/">oppose conservative views</a>. </p>
<p>Such cynical distortions dominate discussions of higher education today, misinform the public and threaten both democracy and higher education.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://firstamendmentwatch.org/deep-dive/classes-are-over-but-the-campus-free-speech-debate-still-rages/">politicians in states</a> such as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23574019-dec-28-2022-memo?responsive=1&title=1">Florida</a>, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/17/texas-free-speech-college-campus-legislation/">Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-05-17/republican-bill-free-speech-college-campuses-passes-ohio-senate">Ohio</a> argue that a so-called “free speech crisis” on college campuses justifies stronger government control over what gets taught in universities. </p>
<p>Since 2020, numerous state legislatures have attempted to censor forms of speech on campuses by citing exaggerations about students and their studies. Passing laws to ban certain kinds of speech or ideas from college campuses is no way to promote true free speech and intellectual diversity. <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/here-are-the-states-where-lawmakers-are-seeking-to-ban-colleges-dei-efforts">The most common targets of such censorship</a> are programs that discuss race, gender, sexuality and other forms of multiculturalism.</p>
<p>My concerns over public discourse about higher education extend from <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/campus-misinformation-9780197531273?cc=us&lang=en&">my book</a> on popular misinformation about universities and why it threatens democracy. In it, I show that many negative perceptions of students and universities rest on factual distortions and exaggerations.</p>
<p>The character of public debates about higher education is important. Millions of Americans rely on a healthy system of university education for professional and personal success. Rampant cynicism about higher education, leading to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/07/26/public-support-higher-education-wobbling">declines in public support</a> for it, only undermines their pursuits.</p>
<p>Based on my research, I offer alternative ways to frame debates about higher education. They can lead to discussions that are more constructive and accurate while better protecting fundamental American values such as free speech and democracy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark suit standing at a lectern with the sign 'Florida, the education state' on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528663/original/file-20230526-28782-m9kgkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One bill signed in May 2023 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, includes restrictions that bar public colleges in Florida from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/florida-governor-ron-desantis-takes-questions-from-the-news-photo/1255657321?adppopup=true">Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Avoid stereotypes about college students</h2>
<p>The idea that college students are hostile to opposing viewpoints is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/the-myth-of-the-free-speech-crisis">false</a>. Pundits and media personalities have promoted this falsehood aggressively. Such figures <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/free-speech-grifting">have benefited</a>, politically or financially, from sensationalism about a college “free speech crisis.”</p>
<p>In opinion polls, college students typically <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/03/16/the-campus-free-speech-crisis-is-a-myth-here-are-the-facts/">express stronger support</a> for free speech and diverse viewpoints than other groups. Partisan organizations often <a href="https://reason.com/2017/03/15/students-at-elite-colleges-are-the-most/">cherry-pick</a> that data to make it seem otherwise. But poll results tell only part of the story about college campuses today.</p>
<p><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1122">Several thousand institutions</a> make up U.S. higher education. The system includes hundreds of thousands of students from different backgrounds. College campuses are often more demographically and intellectually diverse than surrounding communities.</p>
<p>Judgments about higher education based on sweeping generalizations about college students conflict with the full realities of campus life. A wider range of perspectives, including from students themselves, can enrich debates about university education.</p>
<h2>2. Consider all forums for free speech in universities</h2>
<p>Universities protect free speech <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/free-speech-crisis-campus-isnt-real/591394/">more effectively</a> than do other parts of society. They don’t do so perfectly, but more effectively.</p>
<p>Universities are major centers for the study of the First Amendment, the free press, human rights, cultural differences, international diplomacy, conflict resolution and more. Many institutions require students to take basic speech and writing courses that enhance their skill in argument and debate.</p>
<p><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/142218/colleges-right-reject-hateful-speakers-like-ann-coulter">Manufactured outrage</a> about college students who protest invited speakers fuels sensationalism about free speech on campuses. Despite occasional disruptions over bigoted speakers, universities offer <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812250077/free-speech-on-campus/">numerous forums for free speech</a>, open debate and intellectual diversity.</p>
<p>Just one large university holds thousands of classes, meetings, performances and other events on a daily basis. People freely express their views and pursue new ideas in those settings. Now multiply that reality by several thousand different institutions.</p>
<p>Debates over free speech in higher education can be improved by acknowledging the many forums in which people speak freely every day.</p>
<h2>3. Recognize the true threats to free speech on campuses</h2>
<p>For the past several years, many state legislatures have promoted the falsehood that universities are hostile to various ideas. The most commonly cited examples are conservative ideas, traditional expressions of patriotism and great works of Western literature.</p>
<p>The notion of hostility to such ideas on college campuses has surfaced in numerous bills that create <a href="https://www.aaup.org/article/political-interference-academic-freedom-and-free-speech-public-universities#.ZGY-waXMI2z">new forms of state interference</a> in education. Thirty-five <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/here-are-the-states-where-lawmakers-are-seeking-to-ban-colleges-dei-efforts">pieces of legislation</a> banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in colleges have been introduced in state legislatures. So far, three of them have been signed into law, while four are pending final legislative approval.</p>
<p>Tenure for faculty members, which protects independent thought, is also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-colleges-and-universities-florida-state-government-texas-education-4f0fe0c5c18ed227fabae3744e8ff51d">under assault</a> in states such as Florida and Texas. Politicians in those states justify ending tenure protections by claiming that professors teach students to censor free speech.</p>
<p>Such rising government interference creates a genuine threat to free speech on college campuses and in society beyond. <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/3675842-banned-book-authors-say-new-wave-of-censorship-is-most-dangerous-yet/">A historic increase in state censorship</a>, which began with higher education, has spilled over into censorship of materials about race, gender, sexuality and multiculturalism in K-12 schools and public libraries.</p>
<p>Advocacy organizations like the <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/the-aclus-fight-against-classroom-censorship-state-by-state/">ACLU</a> and the <a href="https://www.aaup.org/issues/political-interference-higher-ed">American Association of University Professors</a> have condemned this censorship. So have <a href="https://pen.org/conservatives-oppose-educational-gag-orders-too/">numerous conservative leaders</a>.</p>
<p>Informed scrutiny of university policies and what faculty members teach is always welcome. But cynical distortions have fueled anti-democratic censorship of universities, not constructive efforts to improve them.</p>
<h2>4. Understand the role of academic freedom</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Many graduates in academic gowns walking past a huge crowd in a stadium." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528665/original/file-20230526-11640-dg7men.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Academic freedom isn’t a luxury found only in the Ivy League. It exists at community colleges such as Long Beach City College in California, whose June 9, 2022, graduation ceremony is seen here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/long-beach-city-college-graduation-ceremony-allowed-news-photo/1402026204?adppopup=true">Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ability of citizens to exercise academic freedom is not only vital in education. It’s also training for democracy.</p>
<p>Academic freedom includes the freedom to attend a university of one’s choice. The freedom to learn what one chooses in that university. The freedom of an institution to offer a wide range of subject matters to students. And the freedom to teach or conduct research without political interference.</p>
<p>These freedoms are not reserved for Ivy League universities. U.S. higher education includes state schools and <a href="https://educationusa.state.gov/your-5-steps-us-study/research-your-options/community-college">community colleges</a> that serve middle- and working-class communities. Those institutions are the backbone of many professions, from health care and technology to engineering and education.</p>
<p>The quality of public debate over free speech in higher education matters. Government interference with colleges does not punish elites. It rewards deeply cynical views of higher education and restricts a freedom that should be available to all Americans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradford Vivian does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The quality of public debate over free speech in higher education matters. And the debate right now gets the facts all wrong.
Bradford Vivian, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205657
2023-05-16T03:32:19Z
2023-05-16T03:32:19Z
Guess What? Mem Fox’s children’s book was banned in Florida over ‘nudity’ – but bathing is not a sexual act
<p><em>EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this article was published, officials in Duval County, Florida, have <a href="https://amp.abc.net.au/article/102355360">denied</a> the book was formally banned. The book does not appear among the 21 books listed as “not approved” on the <a href="https://dcps.duvalschools.org/Page/33197">Duval County Public Schools website</a>. However, it does feature on a list of books reported as having been removed from school libraries, on the grounds that it contravened a <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2022/847.012">state law</a> banning the distribution to children of material that “depicts nudity or sexual conduct”. The list, of which The Conversation has obtained a copy, was the result of a Florida Department of Education survey of school districts, as part of the state’s mandated review of school books. The Conversation acknowledges the work of the <a href="https://www.fftrp.org/">Florida Freedom to Read Project</a> in investigating this issue.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australian author Mem Fox’s 1988 picture book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1155071.Guess_What_?">Guess What?</a>, illustrated by Vivienne Goodman, has been banned in Duval County, Florida over allegations of “pornography”. Why? Because one illustration depicts the main character, “old witch” Daisy O'Grady, taking a bath.</p>
<p>The picture book, which invites children to guess Daisy’s witchy identity through a series of clues, joins a plethora of titles – mostly with LGBTQIA+ or culturally diverse themes – that have been removed from school libraries in the state. </p>
<p>Fox is one of Australia’s most beloved authors: her first book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977817.Possum_Magic">Possum Magic</a>, is one of Australia’s bestselling ever children’s books, with sales of over four million (and counting). Her agent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/15/mem-fox-book-guess-what-banned-in-florida-county-under-ron-desantis-bill">told the Guardian</a>, “We have nothing to say on this issue. Duval County is a county of 997,000 people in Florida. It is not important.”</p>
<p>The banning comes on the heels of new legislation, enacted in 2022, that has seen many Florida schools strip their library shelves and cover up books in classroom libraries for fear of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">breaching the law</a> – and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/florida-schools-directed-cover-remove-classroom-books-vetted/story?id=96884323">risking a prison sentence</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ron De Santis has presided over new Florida legislation that seen many Florida schools strip their library shelves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0847/Sections/0847.012.html">Section 847.012</a> of the Florida statutes, materials prohibited in schools include: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any picture […] or visual representation of a person or a portion of a human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Failure to comply is a third-degree felony, which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.</p>
<p>The full criteria can be found in the department’s <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20562/urlt/8-6.pdf">online training slideshow</a> but, simply put, all books must be age appropriate and “free of pornography”. However, what constitutes both “appropriate” and “pornography” – and how this is decided – remains unclear. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-sacked-for-reading-bum-book-to-students-the-latest-conservative-book-ban-179301">Teacher sacked for reading bum book to students: the latest conservative book ban</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bodies are not ‘inherently sexual’</h2>
<p>So how exactly does Guess What? fit these parameters? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daisy O'Grady in the bath, as depicted in Guess What?.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scholastic Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one illustration, Daisy sits across a double bowl sink (that she is comically too big to fit in) wearing a scuba mask. The bowls are filled with water, and she sits sideways in one with her feet splashing in the other. She is nude, but not exposed. Limbs cover her breasts and genitalia. The room is busy and pleasantly chaotic: soap on the floor, a frog on a towel, fish pegged to the clothesline that hangs over the sink. </p>
<p>It’s far from a sexual image. Unless you’re into that sort of thing. In which case, we are no longer talking about the “prevailing standards in the adult community”, but rather a personal sexual preference or “kink” (a word I never thought I would write in relation to a Mem Fox picture book). </p>
<p>What the issue comes down to is a blatant conflation between nudity and sexuality. The statute’s wording is highly problematic: nudity in and of itself is not a sexual act. Bathing is not a sexual act. It’s basic hygiene. By banning books with any form of nudity in a bid to rid school libraries of “<a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/">pornographic content</a>”, the statute situates all nudity as a form of pornography. </p>
<p>The irony, of course, is that by trying to shelter children from sex – and from material that “sexualises students” – the law itself is sexualising children’s bodies. By implying that nudity in a non-sexual context is “pornographic”, the Florida government and Department of Education is teaching children that their bodies are inherently sexual. </p>
<h2>Australian attempted book bans haven’t worked</h2>
<p>In some ways, this ban could be considered as an example of differing social standards between Australia and the United States. Earlier this year, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/is/book/show/42837514-gender-queer">Gender Queer</a> was pulled from a Queensland library after complaints by a <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/maia-kobabe-gender-queer-book-classified-as-m-mature-not-recommended-for-readers-under-15-years/0c95bfdd-7bab-4763-bdfc-5e503227da36">conservative activist</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the US, Gender Queer was 2021’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/books/maia-kobabe-gender-queer-book-ban.html">most banned book in the country</a>” and topped the American Library Association’s “<a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10">Most Challenged</a>” list in 2022 for “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/essentials/banned-books-the-10-most-commonly-challenged-books-in-the-u-s-and-where-to-buy-them/">sexually explicit</a>” content.
However, after <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/media-and-news/media-releases/media-release-classification-publication-gender-queer-memoir">review</a> here by the Australian Classification Board, the book was given an “unrestricted classification” and consumer advice that it is “not recommended for readers under 15 years”. </p>
<p>Australian Classification Board director Fiona Jolly said of Gender Queer: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The treatment of sex and nudity is […] not high in impact and is not exploitative, offensive, gratuitous or very detailed. Given the [book’s] literary, artistic and educational merits, the Board does not consider that the publication contains material that offends a reasonable adult to the extent that it should be restricted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Australian legislation <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-23/dangerous-and-deeply-disgusting-books-once-banned/11421108">still allows</a> books to be banned – and it does occur – book banning is much rarer here, and more likely to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-23/dangerous-and-deeply-disgusting-books-once-banned/11421108">focused on</a> topics like euthanasia and terrorism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-the-word-period-is-now-politicised-that-makes-judy-blumes-classic-ode-to-puberty-especially-relevant-202640">Even the word 'period' is now politicised. That makes Judy Blume's classic ode to puberty especially relevant</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Book banning as a presidential tactic</h2>
<p>The surge of book banning in Florida appears to be political. As <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">The New Yorker</a> has noted, the Florida law changes – and subsequent mass book removals in schools – have come in the wake of Florida governor <a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-gov-desantis-leads-the-gops-national-charge-against-public-education-that-includes-lessons-on-race-and-sexual-orientation-196369">Ron DeSantis</a>’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ron-desantis-set-jump-2024-presidential-fray-may-rcna81666">bid</a> for the US presidency. </p>
<p>DeSantis, a highly <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/">conservative</a> politician, is campaigning against “pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into [Florida] classrooms and libraries to <a href="https://theconversation.com/worried-about-the-sexualisation-of-children-teach-sex-ed-earlier-10311">sexualize</a> our students”. This crusade has given him considerable media coverage, as well as leverage among conservative voters.</p>
<p>The banning of Guess What? is part of a wider issue that affects the entire state of Florida. In order to comply with government requirements spearheaded by DeSantis, the Florida Department of Education has put together strict, somewhat “<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/theres-confusion-over-book-bans-in-florida-schools-heres-why/2023/03">confusing</a>” criteria for book selection that all schools must follow. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ss3pVTRwEqI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This official video by Duval County, Florida, is a guide to ensuring books are ‘age-appropriate’ and ‘free of pornography’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prison for violating book removal law</h2>
<p>Of course, Guess What? – and countless other banned books – do not actually fit the requirements for removal, but they are removed regardless. This is because the law is <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/theres-confusion-over-book-bans-in-florida-schools-heres-why/2023/03">vague</a> and the penalty for violating it – a potential prison sentence – is severe. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The Department of Education in Florid has instructed schools to “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">err on the side of caution</a>” when choosing and allowing books. </p>
<p>Understandably, the ambiguity over what is and isn’t okay has led to mass book removals across Florida schools. </p>
<p>The restrictions in Florida are part of a “<a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">deeply undemocratic</a>” book ban movement sweeping the US. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">2022 study</a> by PEN America, 32 states in the US have book bans in place in school libraries. This has culminated (so far) in 1,648 titles being removed across 5,049 schools, limiting access to books for nearly four million students.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Australia’s reading culture is very different, as the unsuccessful attempt to ban Gender Queer demonstrates.</p>
<p>But Guess What? is just one drop in an ocean of book censorship in America: one that’s seeing more and more schools, districts and states in the US removing and banning books. This is not an isolated problem, but one that is growing exponentially. </p>
<p>Which books will be next?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Mokrzycki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Book bans in Ron DeSantis’s Florida have censored beloved Australian author Mem Fox – for an illustrated character’s bath. But blanket nudity bans teach children bodies are ‘inherently sexual’.
Sarah Mokrzycki, Lecturer, Victoria University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/189688
2023-05-09T20:05:49Z
2023-05-09T20:05:49Z
Lolita: why this ‘vivid, illicit’ portrait of a pervert matters at a time of endless commodification of young girls
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523976/original/file-20230503-16-ulz43x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5168%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In an occasional series, our authors make the case for or against controversial books.</em></p>
<p>In his afterword “On a Book Entitled Lolita”, Vladimir Nabokov never mentions the word paedophile. He never mentions the word rape either. </p>
<p>In his mind, Lolita is not about a man sexually and mentally abusing a 12-year-old girl. The novel is about him getting at America. Which is about as damning an assessment of a culture as you’re ever going to get. </p>
<p>Nabokov explains that having “invented” Europe and his native Russia in many critically acclaimed books, he turned an outsider’s eye on the Land of the Free. In effect – though he says he didn’t mean to – he ripped it to shreds. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503533/original/file-20230109-14-bu5i59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cover of the first edition of Lolita.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some might find Nabokov’s self assessment deliberately evasive. We sense in his elegant desperation the desire not to have his masterwork reduced to a scandalous headline – to “the psychological urges of a pervert” – and thus to the very thing that drove the masses toward it. This is a sleight of hand that today would be advised by a shiny PR team and a coterie of lawyers wringing their hands (but not written nearly as well).</p>
<p>When Nabokov was writing Lolita, he and his wife Vera were crisscrossing the United States butterfly hunting. The specimens they collected, pinned and captured under cut glass are preserved in museums all over the country like a trail of breadcrumbs. </p>
<p>Nabokov wants you to see the novel as he does: as points on a map, literal and figurative. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And when I thus think of Lolita, I seem always to pick out for special delectation such images as Mr Taxovich, or that class list of Ramsdale school, or Charlotte saying “waterproof”, or Lolita in slow motion advancing toward Humbert’s gifts, or the pictures decorating the stylised garret of Gaston Godin, or the Kasbeam barber (who cost me a month of work), or Lolita playing tennis, or the hospital at Elphinstone, or pale pregnant, beloved, irretrievable Dolly Schiller dying in Gray Star […] or the tinkling sound of the valley town coming up the mountain trail […] these are the nerves of the novel. These are the secret points, the subliminal coordinates by means of which the book is plotted.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503528/original/file-20230109-18-qx6px8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vladimir Nabokov.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Giuseppe Pino/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His assessment rings true, though in my mind the sensations land differently. For Nabokov, the “hollows” and “byroads” of Lolita glow “like a pilot light somewhere in the basement”; the novel “throbs” in his “own private thermostat” as a constant comforting presence. For me, Lolita cracks open the mercury. </p>
<p>I have read Lolita every decade since I was a teenager. And in the roll call of memory the book unfurls in a cinematic wave: vivid, illicit, frightening. I too see Lolita advancing in slow motion toward Humbert’s gifts – and a shiver of recognition runs through me. </p>
<p>As a teenager, I wanted to be Lolita – just as so many good girls in the West in the late 20th century were effectively trained to do. I coveted the false power of the ingenue in secret. I imagined myself in the car with Humbert in the dead of night on those long empty highways, as he drives Lolita away from safety to those functional motels – the “clean, neat, safe nooks” where “they could make it up gently”. </p>
<p>Humbert’s male gaze is like a living thing, visible, hanging like a seductive shroud over everything, a terrible forcefield capable of creating a ruinous edge of competition and jealousy between mother and daughter and drawing Lolita closer and closer to him. </p>
<p>In my twenties, I wanted to save Lolita because, as Humbert observes, she has “nowhere else to go”. </p>
<p>In my thirties, I wanted to be Nabokov instead. The recognition of what he was able to conjure on the page ignited a wholly different sense of shock and awe. </p>
<p>In my forties, my only aim was not to get too political about it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523979/original/file-20230503-16-zlj6f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sue Lyon and James Mason in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Lolita (1962).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The problem with censorship</h2>
<p>Reconsidering Lolita in the 21st century raises interesting questions about the relation of literature to censorship, book banning, and the contemporary equivalent of expressive erasure, cancel culture. </p>
<p>The manuscript of Lolita was initially rejected by every American publisher who considered it. It was eventually published in France in 1955 by the notoriously fearless Maurice Girodias, who also published English language versions of books censored in Britain and America, including works by Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Samuel Beckett and William Burroughs, among others. </p>
<p>After its publication, Lolita was not officially banned by the US government, but it was banned by various local jurisdictions, schools and outlets. It was also banned as obscene for periods of time in France, England, New Zealand, Canada, Argentina and South Africa. In Australia – recognised by many literary researchers as one of the harshest regulators in the world – readers were denied access until 1965. </p>
<p>These bans were designed to protect morality and uphold national order. Researcher Nicole Moore suggests that, in the new millennium, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The idea of there being a nation state that can draw a border around itself to say, “we are like this, our reading public is like this, and different to this other reading public”, that is just a notion that has gone with the wind. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not so. Nation states don’t censor as much as they used to, if at all, but the machinations of censorship continue in arbitrary ways. In April 2022, PEN America released an <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hTs_PB7KuTMBtNMESFEGuK-0abzhNxVv4tgpI5-iKe8/edit#gid=1171606318">Index of School Book Bans</a> – the first time the organisation has conducted a formal count of this kind. It was compiled as a response to “rapidly expanding scope of censorship over the last ten months”, during which 98% of titles were deemed to have been banned in certain jurisdictions without due process (though what that process might be, exactly, remains unclear). </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503529/original/file-20230109-15-o9t9r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lolita features on the list only once. According to today’s arbiters of morality, the most dangerous books in American schools are not Lolita or the Marquis de Sade’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justine_(de_Sade_novel)">Justine</a> or Pauline Réage’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/story-of-o-9780552089302">Story of O</a>. In fact, risqué literary classics feature only rarely. </p>
<p>The index reads instead like a sad denial of contemporary adolescent identity, particularly in relation to race and sexuality. The majority are Young Adult titles which position LGBTQIA+ and multicultural characters front and centre. </p>
<p>George M. Johnson’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/all-boys-arent-blue-9780241515037">All Boys Aren’t Blue</a>, a book of essays about growing up Black and queer, is banned in over 29 jurisdictions. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Gender-Queer-A-Memoir/Maia-Kobabe/9781549304002">Gender Queer</a>, a graphic memoir written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe and celebrated for its coming of age exploration of non-binary identity, is banned in over 40 – from New York to Florida, Washington, Virginia and Texas. </p>
<p>This deliberate erasure of queer voices and stories highlights the problem with censorship of any kind. Which books get to go through to the keeper cannot depend on who is drawing the lines in the sand, yet this is ultimately how all censorship works. </p>
<p>If the power to ban an artwork on ideological grounds exists, then the capacity to do so cannot be limited. We cannot decry the banning of books in one arena yet cancel them in another – this is intellectually confused. No less importantly, the impulse to suppress challenging or disturbing art transfers the burden of reality onto the art rather than onto ourselves. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marguerite-duras-called-the-lover-a-load-of-shit-but-her-novel-about-her-affair-as-a-15-year-old-stuns-with-its-emotional-force-185779">Marguerite Duras called The Lover 'a load of shit', but her novel about her affair as a 15-year-old stuns with its emotional force</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The afterlife of Lolita</h2>
<p>In 2021, Jenny Minton Quigley, the daughter of Walter J. Minton, who first published Lolita in America in 1958, edited a collection of essays titled <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/lolita-in-the-afterlife-9781984898838">Lolita in the Afterlife</a>. A fierce advocate of unfiltered artistic expression, just as her father had been, Quigley grew up in “the house that Lolita built”. She wanted to test the enduring power of Lolita in the glare of the #MeToo movement and the fraught political climate of Trump’s America. </p>
<p>In Lolita in the Afterlife, Nabokov is critiqued and celebrated. The writers pick apart Lolita’s rendering in film, her appropriation by the fashion industry as a “paean to white femininity”, the limits and capacity of the empathetic imagination, and the ugly beauty of Nabokov’s prose. Roxane Gay describes him as a “tricky bastard”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523963/original/file-20230503-14-oc0x2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The volume also considers the experiences of reading Lolita in trigger-happy colleges, in the oppressive gloom of lockdown, and in Iraq, where “pleasure marriages” between men and girls as young as nine are still culturally sanctioned. </p>
<p>But it is the final essay, “I Cannot Get Out Said the Starling” by Mary Gaitskill, that best captures the distinction between reading a work of art and holding the work or the writer responsible for the real trespasses operating outside of its imaginative orbit. </p>
<p>Moral outrage over a book is a convenient deflection and does nothing to stem the tide of abhorrent behaviours. In fact, it fuels appetite for the works in question. Lolita has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. </p>
<p>Gaitskill gets this. Like Nabokov, she is a writer unafraid to commit to the page what others dare not say. In her short story collection <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/bad-behavior-9780241383100">Bad Behaviour</a>, she digs around remorselessly in the grey areas of human psyche and interaction. She turns a nonjudgmental eye on Lolita: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Truly, the darkness – the cruelty – of the story is not obscured but <em>heightened</em> by the beauty of the language through the force of artistic contrast, and that contrast is stunning, making the reader feel the wild, often terrible incongruity of human life on earth. This incongruity – the natural coexistence of beauty and destruction, goodness and predatory devouring, cruelty and tenderness, a world in which countless torturer’s horses scratch their “innocent behinds on countless trees” – is a core mystery of life. And that mystery is the true heart of Lolita.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What emerges in Lolita in the Afterlife is a recognition that outrage misdirected at the book or the writer does nothing to negate the realities aligned to it. </p>
<p>Despite all the noise and the banning, Nabokov’s novel still stands. It stands next to pornographic spin-offs and Lolita lollipops and the seemingly endless commodification and exploitation of young girls and women. It stands in the middle of a global rise in human sex trafficking in the 21st century, with American men as the biggest consumers.</p>
<p>It stands alongside alarmingly high rates of the abuse of children. A <a href="https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=186230">Child Maltreatment Study</a> recently released by the Queensland University of Technology suggests that 65% of Australians have experienced some form of abuse as minors. The monster is still in the room. </p>
<p>Almost 70 years since it was first published, Lolita continues to be read from Tokyo to Tibet to Tehran. Because it needs to be. Because books like Lolita are a reckoning. For Nabokov, Lolita wasn’t the butterfly – she was the pin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The outrage misdirected at Lolita – and its author – does nothing to negate the realities it reflects. Reading Nabokov’s novel now raises questions about censorship, book banning and human nature.
Sally Breen, Senior Lecturer in Writing and Publishing, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204669
2023-05-02T12:14:13Z
2023-05-02T12:14:13Z
Jerry Springer and the history of that [bleeping] bleep sound
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523632/original/file-20230501-344-ywvubi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C25%2C4234%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Security guards separate guests on an episode of 'The Jerry Springer Show' titled 'I am pregnant by my half-brother.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/security-guard-steve-wilkos-and-another-guard-separate-and-news-photo/534247502?adppopup=true">Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">Jerry Springer’s death</a> on April 27, 2023, writers have been working through the cultural significance of his eponymous daytime talk show. </p>
<p>For 27 years, Springer’s circus of sensationalism was a remarkably durable and bankable commodity. Helping to normalize outrageousness in culture, it taught content creators that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/04/jerry-springer-obituary/673885/">shamelessness is a lucrative industry</a>. </p>
<p>It’s been framed as a harbinger of “‘anything goes’ reality television” or “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/28/entertainment/jerry-springer-column/index.html">trash TV</a>” and decried for setting a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">new standard for tawdriness</a>” and for providing audiences with the “guilty pleasure” of “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jerry-springer-dead-79">chair-throwing</a>.” </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/people/individual/matthew-jordan">as a media historian</a> interested in the ways that sound structures our experience of TV shows and films, when I think of “The Jerry Springer Show,” I think of the sounds – the studio audience chanting “Jerry! Jerry!,” the boxing bell ringing when fists start flying, and the sonic dissonance between the <a href="https://youtu.be/h85gAOSmL9U">heavy metal-tinged theme song</a> and the soothing, paternal tone of its host.</p>
<p>But one of its most iconic sounds was added in post-production: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/1000Hz.ogg">the 1000 hertz censor bleep</a>, which became more prevalent as the behavior on the show grew more profane.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JDu5g-8xHJs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An episode of the ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ features all the sonic hallmarks of the program – a chanting crowd, the slap of hand to skin and a cascade of bleeps.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The origins of bleeping</h2>
<p>The history of broadcasters’ bleeping out profanity reveals a lot about our culture’s ongoing negotiation of a murky concept. </p>
<p>While the First Amendment protects political speech, <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1143/profanity">it does not protect profanity</a>, and in 1964 the Supreme Court gave the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/obscene-indecent-and-profane-broadcasts">Federal Communications Commission the authority to police language in broadcasting</a>. </p>
<p>Yet using sounds to mask offensive language predates the FCC and dates back to a 1921 radio speech on Newark, New Jersey’s WJZ by vaudeville actress <a href="https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-olga-petrova/">Olga Petrova</a>. Petrova was famous for her outspoken advocacy for feminism and birth control, and station managers worried that she might violate the 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibited the distribution of obscene materials, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/27/4545388/curses-the-birth-of-the-bleep-and-modern-american-censorship">including information about contraception</a>. So the radio engineers created a mechanism for masking her words with music from a phonograph when she dared speak her mind – and they ended up needing to use it <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Tower-in-Babel-Barnouw.pdf">several times</a>. </p>
<p>By the time <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1091/radio-act-of-1927">the FCC was established in 1934</a>, studio engineers were regularly masking profanity, as the industry was always trying to stay one step ahead of the censors and stay in the good graces of advertisers. Further innovations, like the seven-second delay, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_delay">aided the policing of live talk shows</a>, allowing engineers to cover dirty words before they reached the audience’s ears.</p>
<p>Just exactly who deployed the bleep tone first is unclear, but engineers had long used the 1000 hertz sine wave tone to test equipment connections, so it was at their fingertips. By the mid-1960s, the bleep tone was heard everywhere, so much so that bleeping was used in FCC deliberations as a verb <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b5179471&view=1up&seq=1581&q1=bleep">to define the practice of masking profanity</a>. </p>
<h2>Bleeping’s feedback loop</h2>
<p>Yet by 1970, bleeping out words on TV news was viewed as a potential problem, with some regulators wondering if it unnecessarily tempered the way people actually behaved.</p>
<p>FCC chairman Dean Burch, for example, thought the commission should reconsider its use: “If a man stands up and calls me a dirty son of a bitch, I wonder whether we are giving the viewer the full flavor of the news if we quote him as saying, ‘<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/12/archives/burch-backs-the-survival-principle-for-tv-fare-fcc-chairman.html">You’re a dirty bleep, bleep, bleep</a>.’” </p>
<p>Nonetheless, most broadcasters tended to err on the side of caution. <a href="https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/is-free-speech-possible-on-tv/docview/133441026/se-2">Bleeping out profanity became</a> so common in U.S. broadcasting that it inspired George Carlin to satirize the practice in his <a href="https://youtu.be/8dCIKqkIg1w">Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on TV</a> monologue. </p>
<p>After the FCC came down on Pacifica Radio for broadcasting the bit, Pacifica sued the FCC and the case made it to the Supreme Court, which, in its decision, <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/113/federal-communications-commission-v-pacifica-foundation">granted the FCC limited power</a> to protect the public from profanity, especially during the daytime when kids might be listening. </p>
<p>Afterward, bleeping became more commonplace on radio and television. </p>
<p>Yet for audiences yearning for counterculture programming that seemed more real, focusing attention on profanity by bleeping it created a feedback loop that made cursing – and the rebels who did it – more appealing to audiences, piquing their interest about what the bleep concealed. </p>
<p>At the same time, networks pushing for deregulation wanted to show that they could self-censor and that FCC oversight wasn’t necessary. By the early 1980s, a new radio format based on shocking public sensibilities, the “shock jock,” had emerged. Radio performers like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/arts/don-imus-dead.html">Don Imus</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Stern">Howard Stern</a> found that audiences would tune in to hear profane behavior <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Listening-In-Susan-Douglas-1999.pdf">and would return daily to see just how far the performers would go</a>. </p>
<p>Industry programming followed the ratings. </p>
<h2>Springer’s brand of profane realism</h2>
<p>By the time Springer’s show began in 1991, a paradoxical mix of deregulation and self-censoring had settled over the industry, producing edgy shows with lots of bleeps. </p>
<p>Audiences experienced bleeped performances as more authentic. Provocateurs like Madonna knew cursing drew attention, and she has repeatedly used the self-promotional technique ever since her <a href="https://youtu.be/iOwHJZtLgZ8">infamous spot on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1990</a>, when she talked about giving good [bleep]. It was <a href="https://ew.com/article/1990/07/27/arsenio-hall-stirs-trouble/">the highest-rated Arsenio show ever</a>. </p>
<p>Springer quickly learned that booking guests who required bleeps boosted ratings.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Man holding fist to face looking contemplative." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jerry Springer saw the show’s violence and profanity as ‘the price of reality.’ But the ratings boost certainly didn’t hurt, either.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/talk-show-host-jerry-springer-pauses-to-listen-to-his-news-photo/534247576?adppopup=true">Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As the show found its niche, it shifted so that it was no longer Springer confronting racists, deviants or polygamists. Instead, guests involved in relationship betrayals or with simmering resentments would confront one another. As the frequency of the bleeps and fights increased, the ratings began to soar. By 1997, it often <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/04/27/jerry-springer-tv-show-ratings/">matched “The Oprah Winfrey Show” at the top</a> of the ratings leaderboard.</p>
<p>In one “Final Thoughts” segment in 1995, Springer defended his fight-inducing exploitation of raw emotion, calling it “the price of reality, this loss of civility, as we take entertainment to the edge of real life and real people.” The bleeping became central to the aesthetic, a Pavlovian signal to audiences at home that the explosive behavior was “real.” </p>
<p>In fact, media researchers have shown that bleeping words actually draws attention to them and that audiences perceive the frequency of profanity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4804_3">to be higher when words are bleeped</a>. </p>
<h2>That [bleeping] reality TV sound</h2>
<p>By the turn of the century, the show’s sound mix was set, with audiences chanting “Jerry! Jerry!” whenever the bleeps started flying. By the show’s third decade, in episodes like “<a href="https://youtu.be/OX1fx9EflAo">You slept with my stripper sister</a>,” everyone seemed to be in on the pro wrestling nature of the spectacle. </p>
<p>In case they weren’t, the bleep sound was often accompanied by a boxing bell, cuing everyone that [bleep] was getting real.</p>
<p>Toward the end of the show’s run, the meaning of the bleep sound became more comedic. Where audience reaction shots once revealed them gasping, now they were laughing. </p>
<p>The bleep sound, a standard effect heard across the burgeoning reality TV format, had great comedic impact in shows like “The Osbournes,” where Ozzy would stumble around muttering profanity that had to be bleeped. It’s telling that the bleep <a href="https://www.academia.edu/79850481/Go_Bleep_Yourself_Why_Censorship_is_Funny">became a sound effect used in scripted comedy as well</a>, exploited in shows like “Arrested Development” and “South Park” for maximum effect. </p>
<p>Today, when broadcasters want to censor profanity on live shows, like they did during the Oscars after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, they tend <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sY-Lr5daIk">to mute the sound rather than bleep over it</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, even if what counts as profanity keeps shifting, the meaning of the bleep sound is universally understood: It means profanity is happening. And like <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1359/potter-stewart">the definition of obscenity</a> given by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart way back in 1964, people know it when they hear it.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to correct the year the FCC was created.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Jordan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ climbed the ratings ladder, the censorship bleep, which masked the slew of insults lobbed by warring guests, became a star of the show.
Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202640
2023-04-25T20:01:28Z
2023-04-25T20:01:28Z
Even the word ‘period’ is now politicised. That makes Judy Blume’s classic ode to puberty especially relevant
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522345/original/file-20230421-25-1juvvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C8%2C5667%2C3555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Author and producer Judy Blume and actors Abby Ryder Fortson and Rachel McAdams at the premiere of Are You There God It's Me Margaret in LA. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Pizello/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few years ago, my friends and I reminisced about our favourite novels as children. One of them was Judy Blume’s 1970 classic, <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781035028498/">Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret</a>, released this week (in the US, though not yet in Australia) as a film. </p>
<p>Blume’s novel centres on a year in the life of 11-year-old Margaret Simon, after she moves from New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey. Margaret was raised without religion: her mother was disowned by her Christian parents when she married Margaret’s Jewish father. </p>
<p>But Margaret secretly talks to God as she grapples with the challenges of puberty, friendship and finding her religious identity. Margaret and her friends, who dub themselves the Pre-Teen Sensations, are obsessed with growing breasts and getting their periods.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LzRzojHC3iE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Judy Blume’s 1970 classic is now a film for the first time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite Blume’s novels’ enduring legacies, there have been few screen adaptations of her work – and Blume has frequently <a href="https://ew.com/article/2013/05/13/judy-blume-hollywood-tiger-eyes/">been disappointed</a> by them. </p>
<p>But she was convinced by the <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/03/judy-blume-movie-deal-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret-lionsgate-kelly-fremon-craig-james-l-brooks-1202872233/">passion</a> of director Kelly Fremon Craig (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878870/">The Edge of Seventeen</a>) and producer James L. Brooks (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092699/">Broadcast News</a>, The Simpsons). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-and-other-reasons-why-we-ban-books-for-young-people-47514">Sex and other reasons why we ban books for young people</a>
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<h2>Speaking out against censorship</h2>
<p>Blume has spoken out against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/03/judy-blume-book-banning-now-much-worse-in-us-than-in-1980s">current movements to ban and censor books</a>, observing the climate is worse now than in the 1980s, “because it’s become political.”</p>
<p>Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781447281047/">Forever</a> (1975) – also slated for a screen adaptation, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/forever-judy-blume-show-announcement">by Netflix</a> – are Blume’s most controversial books, for their frank depictions of puberty and teen sexuality. </p>
<p>Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was listed in the American Library Association’s <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade1999">100 most challenged books</a> – books people were seeking to ban – from the 1990s (when the association first started tracking) until the 2010s. It was even banned in Blume’s children’s <a href="https://booksandbookskw.com/judy-blume-on-the-50th-anniversary-of-are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret/">school library</a>. </p>
<p>Forever, a no-holds-barred, sweet and funny account of first love and first sex, published in 1975, ranks number seven on the most challenged books list. Most recently, it was banned by <a href="https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/2023/03/16/list-florida-school-district-removes-books-sex-racial-content-martin-county/70009140007/">a school district in Florida</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522421/original/file-20230422-4069-21jh31.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was also controversial for its treatment of religion. Many of us might remember it for the Pre-Teen Sensations’ preoccupation with periods, breasts and boys. But Margaret’s search for a religious identity – and her understanding of how this shapes her family relationships – is at the heart of the novel. Ultimately, the book’s message seems to be that organised religion matters less than Margaret’s personal relationship to God.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">PEN America report</a> released late last year, there are currently 1,648 unique book titles affected by bans in the United States. </p>
<p>Of these, 49% of banned books are intended for a young adult audience, 22% of books are banned for sexual content – including depictions of puberty – and 4% are banned for featuring stories with religious minorities, including Judaism. But reading diverse and sometimes difficult stories is important for developing <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/judy-blume-roald-dahl-censorship-book-bans-queer-books-1235570001/">empathy and understanding</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-bans-reflect-outdated-beliefs-about-how-children-read-189938">Book bans reflect outdated beliefs about how children read</a>
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<h2>‘Don’t Say Period’ legislation</h2>
<p>In an era where so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/20/florida-considers-ban-on-discussion-of-periods-menstruation-before-sixth-grade">Don’t Say Period</a>” legislation is being debated in Florida, Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret’s focus on menstruation and puberty has renewed political and cultural significance. </p>
<p>The legislation seeks to ban instruction about menstruation in US schools before grade six – Margaret’s own age in the novel. </p>
<p>“Even if they don’t let them read books, their bodies are still going to change and their feelings about their bodies are going to change,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/03/judy-blume-book-banning-now-much-worse-in-us-than-in-1980s">says Blume</a> about the ban. “And you can’t control that. They have to be able to read, to question.”</p>
<p>Blume’s books are already on banned lists in Florida. So it’s perhaps overly optimistic to hope Florida school libraries will overlook copies of Margaret in the stacks to ensure this generation of readers can find an empathetic voice in this context. </p>
<p>Many young readers found a kindred spirit in Margaret. She helped normalise the confusing feelings of puberty and the complicated process of figuring out who you are for generations of readers, and still does.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522423/original/file-20230422-3345-rekxyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Margaret helped normalise the confusing feelings of puberty and the complicated process of figuring out who you are.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-i-looked-at-100-ads-for-menstrual-products-spanning-100-years-shame-and-secrecy-prevailed-152685">Friday essay: I looked at 100 ads for menstrual products spanning 100 years — shame and secrecy prevailed</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Menstrual belts and new-generation updates</h2>
<p>My friends and I howled with laughter about the confusion our adolescent selves had felt about the <a href="https://underpinningsmuseum.com/museum-collections/sanitary-belts-by-de-luxe-kleinert/">menstrual belt</a> described in the novel – a form of menstrual hygiene product already on its way out in the 1970s, let alone when we were reading the novel in the 1980s and early 1990s.</p>
<p>As Margaret awaits her period’s arrival, she practises wearing a menstrual belt and pad. So, she is well-prepared when her period finally does arrive on the last day of sixth grade. After reading the novel as a child, I remember rummaging through my mother’s bathroom supplies in search of such a contraption, finding only adhesive pads.</p>
<p>When I reread the novel as an adult, The Belt was nowhere to be found – Margaret uses adhesive pads instead. I wondered: did we misremember it?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522344/original/file-20230421-2128-u5xdn6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1022&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Australian Women’s Weekly advertisement.</span>
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<p>The answer is no: the novel itself was <a href="https://rewirenewsgroup.com/2007/08/16/honoring-teens-sexual-reality-judy-blume/">updated in 1998</a>. Other period (pardon the pun) details are unchanged. Margaret’s mother gives her a cream rinse and sets her hair in rollers before a party. The girls split into pairs to call each other nightly on the landline telephone (no group chat here!). And it only costs five dollars to have a neighbourhood kid mow the lawn.</p>
<p>Unlike the recent controversial changes <a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-rewrites-rather-than-bowdlerising-books-on-moral-grounds-we-should-help-children-to-navigate-history-200254">made to Roald Dahl’s children’s books</a>, the changes to Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret were made by Blume herself. </p>
<p>For Blume, it was more important to ensure that a new generation of readers were receiving useful health information than to capture in amber a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc-mEXEumy0">moment of menstrual history</a>. Similarly, revised editions for her 1975 novel, Forever, include a preface where Blume points out the outdated sexual health advice provided to the protagonist, and refers readers to services such as Planned Parenthood.</p>
<p>Older generations of nostalgic readers might miss The Belt (it can still be found in some e-book versions), but Blume’s attitude to revising her own work to benefit each generation of new readers highlights her sense of responsibility to them. </p>
<p>It also emphasises the important role literature plays in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-stories-matter-for-childrens-learning-52135">educating young readers</a>. Certainly, they might miss out on learning a historical fact about menstrual hygiene in the 1970s, but the revised versions might make them better equipped to deal with menstruation today.</p>
<h2>Enduring spirit</h2>
<p>Where the 1970s might be hard to interpret on page, it provides a vibrant visual setting <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/23/arts/getting-beyond-disco-double-knits/">on screen</a> that will engage newer generations in the visual and cultural details of the novel’s original context. (And help them learn <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnUufkkJRWw/">the definitive way of performing</a> the Pre-Teen Sensations’ iconic chant, “we must increase our bust”.)</p>
<p>Importantly, the spirit of the story and the characters remains the same. At its heart, Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret is a coming-of-age story about identity, relationships with others, and relationships with your own body. </p>
<p>The specifics of menstrual belts, tampons, or period underwear matter less than seeing the glorious, confusing awkwardness of puberty and girlhood taking up space on the big screen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Carniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret is a coming-of-age story about identity, relationships, and relationships with your own body. It’s frequently challenged – and enduringly loved.
Jess Carniel, Senior Lecturer in Humanities, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.