And it’s mostly our own fault.
Internet Censorship
Posted inArt
Artists Tell Instagram: We’re Done!
Artists are resorting to platforms like Onlyfans and Pornhub to show work that was banned from the social media network.
Posted inNews
Artists Concerned Over Instagram’s New “Sensitive Content” Controls
The social media giant defines sensitive content as “posts that don’t necessarily break our rules, but could potentially be upsetting to some people.”
Posted inArt
Bread and TikToks for the Masses
The recent government threats to TikTok raise questions about the future of the internet, which we once saw as free and democratic. Is that still the case?
Posted inNews
Artists and Authors Call on Israel to Release Palestinian Poet
Over 150 literary figures are calling for the release of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, who since last year has faced charges in Israel for sharing her poetry on Facebook and on YouTube.
Posted inArt
Your Concise Guide to Social Media’s Female Nipple Policies
What is it about women’s bare nipples that gets social media platforms so riled up? In the past months countless images have been removed from Instagram and Facebook because of their inclusion of female nipples while shirtless men and graphic violence remain uncensored.
Posted inArt
The New Digital Puritans: Social Network Censorship #NSFW
Reuben Negron, an artist who lives and works in Connecticut and New York, is best known for his realistic watercolor depictions of intimate moments, ranging from the raw to the vulnerable. His scenes often give me the impression of looking in a mirror. Negron’s series This House of Glass, “an intimate exposé on what we keep hidden from others – and in many cases, what we hide from ourselves,” and Dirty Dirty Love, an exploration of “sex, sexuality and identity as concepts … [through] interactions with individuals and couples in domestic and private settings,” were both shown as separate solo exhibitions at Like the Spice Gallery in Brooklyn.
Posted inNews
Moscow Court Censors Pussy Riot Videos, Calling Them “Extremist”
A Moscow court has ruled that four videos by punk-art-protest band Pussy Riot are “extremist,” and websites hosting the videos must remove them or pay fines.
Posted inArt
China’s Instant Messenger and Why New Media Types Need It
It’s a well-known truism that the internet in China is lousy. But business has to be done and file transfers have to be made. New media artists in particular, who can work with large complex files, would be at a loss if they relied on Western sites like YouSendIt (blocked), DropBox (blocked) and even Skype (routed through servers outside China). Any file over 50 MB can literally take hours to download from the web, if not longer. What’s a file-heavy new media artist or denizen to do? Enter Tencent QQ, China’s top instant messaging system.
Posted inNews
Chinese Twitter Bots Spam #AiWeiwei Hashtag
Internet users looking for information on Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s arrest will now find another roadblock put in their way, as Ai Weiwei-related hashtags are now being spammed by Chinese-language bots. Hashtags including #aiweiwei and #freeaiweiwei are being bombarded with semi-risque jokes and one-liners.
