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The Weekly Takedown: 28 April 2018
It’s content takedown transparency week, as Facebook and YouTube release reports on how they enforce community guidelines.
...before this when content was removed from Facebook users got a notice saying it had been flagged as inappropriate or that it somehow violated terms of service, indicating that the takedown came from another user’s report. Location-based blocking of videos and content for political reasons has usually come from the government via DNS-based blocking or similar practices, never from social media companies themselves.
Marianne Diaz Hernandez
23 August 2017: The Weekly Takedown
After Charlottesville, debate over how companies should deal with hate speech is growing. Here are just a few of the pieces that addressed the topic this week.
17 August 2017: The Weekly Takedown
As white supremacists take to the streets, social media companies have begun to deny them a platform online.
19 July 2017: The Weekly Takedown
Winnie the Pooh, terrorist content, and sacred cows are among the content censored this week by social media platforms...
28 June 2017: The Weekly Takedown
In this week’s Takedown, major platforms form an anti-terrorism agreement, while Twitter gets heavy-handed on copyright infringement.
21 June 2017: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's Takedown: YouTube apologizes for censoring queer content, while Facebook mistakes anti-terror for terror.
31 May 2017: The Weekly Takedown
A leak of Facebook's internal rulebook is making waves; meanwhile, users continue to complain about YouTube's advertising policies.
31 March 2017: The Weekly Takedown
A look at Twitter's latest transparency report and YouTube's new "restricted" mode...and more in this week's Takedown.
24 March 2017: The Weekly Takedown
This week, we take a look at YouTube's latest restrictions and Twitter's takedown of more than half a million accounts.
25 January 2017: The Weekly Takedown
The censorship of a Russian media outlet, pirates posting porn, and more in this week's Takedown.
The Weekly Takedown: 7 December 2016
Silicon Valley companies join forces against terrorism, one Chinese's company's quest to take censorship abroad, and more.
Onlinecensorship.org launches second report, "Censorship in Context" (PDF)
Censorship in Context: Insights from Crowdsourced Data on Social Media Censorship
2 November 2016: The Weekly Takedown
Facebook dominates the headlines this week, with a new report on how executives are involved in content controversies and a letter from more than 70 rights grou...
26 October 2016: The Weekly Takedown
Will Facebook's new enforcement guidelines result in more freedom of expression on the platform?
28 September 2016: The Weekly Takedown
YouTube gamifies content moderation, Twitter refuses a takedown request, and more in this week's takedown.
Blocked and banned by social media: When is it censorship?
In the San Francisco Chronicle, Marissa Lang explores whether bans on social media platforms ever amount to censorship.
27 July 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's update, we look at new features at Twitter, Facebook's block of a Wikileaks link, and more.
29 June 2016: The Weekly Takedown
This week, we look at the relationship between art and social media, political censorship in the Philippines and Singapore, and whether companies are using auto...
European Commission's Hate Speech Deal With Companies Will Chill Speech
A new agreement between the European Commission and four major U.S. companies—Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft—went into effect yesterday.
The Secret Rules of the Internet
The murky history of moderation, and how it’s shaping the future of free speech
Onlinecensorship.org launches first report (PDF)
Unfriending Censorship: Insights from four months of crowdsourced data on social media censorship
March 3, 2016: At the intersection of corporations and governments
In this week's roundup: Facebook erases culture in Indonesia, and meetings between the US Justice Department and social media companies make headlines.
Censorship in the social media age
Social media platforms dominate today’s information ecosystem.
Facebook’s disappearing act
Takedowns in Venezuela suggest its link-blocking function is used for political speech
Privatizing censorship in fight against extremism is risk to press freedom
Allowing ill-defined "extremist" content to be removed without judicial oversight or due process can too easily be used by states interested in limiting indepen...