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The Weekly Takedown: 26 May 2018
A new ruling in the US, overblocking on Reddit, Facebook censorship in Lebanon and more, in the latest Weekly Takedown.
The Weekly Takedown: 28 April 2018
It’s content takedown transparency week, as Facebook and YouTube release reports on how they enforce community guidelines.
Introducing Offline/Online: A Series of Infographics Demonstrating How Offline Inequities Are Replicated Online
People in marginalized communities who are targets of persecution and violence—from the Rohingya in Burma to Native Americans in North Dakota—are using social m...
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.
10 August 2017: The Weekly Takedown
Politicians censor, and accuse platforms of censorship...and more in the latest Weekly Takedown.
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...
12 July 2017: The Weekly Takedown
Criticism of Germany's hate speech law, Facebook's solutions to hate speech, and Twitter's policies...and more in the latest Weekly Takedown.
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.
27 April 2017: The Weekly Takedown
Thailand and Vietnam go after Facebook, Instagram goes after museums, and Twitter refuses to go after Trump...and more in this week's Takedown.
18 April 2017: The Weekly Takedown
Facebook is under fire this week after a murder was broadcast on its Live platform.
12 April 2017: The Weekly Takedown
This week's update shows how governments and corporate executives collaborate to limit access to content online.
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.
1 March 2017: The Weekly Takedown
In this latest edition of the Weekly Takedown, we look at Facebook's latest announcement, an apparent new policy at Twitter, and the effect of online censorship...
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: 11 January 2017
This year's starting off on a censorious foot, with Apple blocking a popular news app in China. Find out 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.
23 November 2016: The Weekly Takedown
After a brief hiatus, the Weekly Takedown is back...and just in time for mass suspensions on Twitter!
Onlinecensorship.org launches second report, "Censorship in Context" (PDF)
Censorship in Context: Insights from Crowdsourced Data on Social Media Censorship
12 October 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's roundup: the Brazilian government can't take a joke, Facebook's "mass purge" of Kashmiri accounts, and more...
5 October 2016: The Weekly Takedown
Why did a cat photo result in a takedown? ...and other important questions in this week's roundup.
28 September 2016: The Weekly Takedown
YouTube gamifies content moderation, Twitter refuses a takedown request, and more in this week's takedown.
7 September 2016: The Weekly Takedown
This week, we look at algorithmic models to fight extremism, the growth of white nationalism on Twitter, and the ever-increasing censorship of Facebook pages an...
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.
1 September 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's takedown, we look at censorship in Turkey, protest against Facebook in the US, and a censored hand.
24 August 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's takedown, we look at the various ways in which companies are silencing political speech around the world.
August 17, 2016: The Weekly Takedown
Twitter makes waves for political censorship and Israel attempts to police the internet.
August 11, 2016: The Weekly Takedown
This week we look into issues surrounding the power balance between users and their platforms (and in some cases, the state).
4 August 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's update, we look at how Instagram is dealing with harassment on its platform, two political crises for Facebook and Twitter's future use of corpor...
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.
21 July: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's update: Facebook is accused of censoring Kashmiris, Twitter bans a journalist's account for racist and sexist tweets, and a 14-year-old blog myst...
Onlinecensorship.org Launches in Spanish
We're thrilled to announce that as of today, our website is available in Spanish!
13 July 2016: The Weekly Takedown
This week's headlines are filled with news about censorship on Facebook. We take a deeper look.
22 June: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's edition: Pressure from Bangladesh to remove "inappropriate speech," and removal of speech with no prodding at all.
15 June 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's edition: Companies grapple with hate speech, and AI gets its day in the limelight.
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.
31 May 2016: The Weekly Takedown
In this week's roundup: Pirate Bay founder calls Facebook's Zuckerberg a "dictator" and YouTube attempts to redefine pornography.
Does social media have a censorship problem?
Index on Censorship spoke with team members Jillian C. York and Matthew Stender.
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 9, 2016: More transparency needed
In this week's roundup: The ACLU calls for more transparency, and Facebook censors a sexual health video.
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.
February 16, 2016: Facebook must face up to French censorship
Each week, we will share a roundup of notable news articles related to censorship on social networks.
February 9, 2016: Facebook thinks ice cream cones are too sexy
Each week, we will share a roundup of notable news articles related to censorship on social networks.
Twitter Has Censored Gory Images of the Paris Attacks
Over the past three days, Twitter has been preventing its users in France from viewing certain images and keywords related to the Paris attacks.
Social media, news, and the right to know
The idea for Onlinecensorship.org was born in 2011, when Facebook took down a link posted by popular band Coldplay.
Is Twitter censoring a report on drone assassinations?
“It seems clear that Twitter is now engaged in censorship,” Appelbaum wrote me in an email. “Censorship without transparency is a deceptive practice."
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...