Consumerist
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censorship
Giant Vagina Outlasts Consumer Watchdog Billboard
What's more offensive: a billboard criticizing an insurance company or a skyscraping vagina advertising vodka? If you're in the business of selling advertising space, it's no contest: criticism of a business, of course. More » -
protection, not censorship
AT&T Lifts 4Chan Block, Was To Stop DDos Attacks
AT&T released a statement about their temporary blocking this weekend of troll haven 4chan for its customers. The company said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks on one customer emanating from IP addresses associated with the site. After the threat was over, the block was lifted. Here's the official release: More » -
4chan
AT&T Reportedly Blocks Wildly Popular And Deeply Offensive Website
UPDATE: AT&T has a statement. They said the temporary block was to stop DDos attacks from IP addresses associated with img.4chan.org. After the threat was over, they lifted the block.
You may find 4chan weird, chaotic, or offensive, but you can't deny that the Internet wouldn't be the same without it. There would be no cat macros. There would be no Rickrolling. There would be no Anonymous protests against the Church of Scientology. Did I mention the cat macros?
AT&T has decided to discover what a world without 4chan would be like. They've reportedly blocked it. Specifically, the forums /b/ and /r9k/. More »
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censorship
No More Erections In Love Land: China Demolishes Sex Theme Park Filled With Giant Statues Of Genitalia
Bad news for those of you planning a trip to "Love Land", China's first sex theme park: it's been demolished before it could even open. Now the only giant balls the locals will see are government-administered wrecking balls. More » -
censorship
Trent Reznor Compares Apple To, Gasp, Walmart
NIN front man Trent Reznor is angry at Apple for rejecting the new Nine Inch Nails iPhone app update because it contains "objectionable content." The objectionable content referenced is the song 'The Downward Spiral,' which you can buy on iTunes. Reznor posted the rejection letter on NIN's forums, and then launched into a rant about censorship — comparing Apple to Walmart. (NSFW language inside) More » -
amazon
Amazon Deletes Reviews That Mention Pay For Play Review Schemes
After buying an anti-snoring mouthpiece from a third-party seller on Amazon, reader Bob received an email from the company offering him a free mouthpiece in exchange for a five-star review. He noted this attempted bribe in his Amazon review, and Amazon deleted it. Twice.
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Amazonfail
Amazon Apologizes For "Ham-Fisted" Catalog Error
Was it a hacker? Probably not. Was it a translation error? Who knows. Here's the official #Amazonfail apology email (again) for your reading pleasure. It is, apparently, the final word on the matter. More » -
silly
"Buy.com" Is Apparently A Curse Word On Best Buy's Forums
Reader Andrew was trying to post a question on Best Buy's forums, but he made the horrible, offensive mistake of putting a space between "Best" and "Buy.com." More » -
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cash4gold
Cash4Gold Offers Blogger $3,000 To Remove Negative Post
Want to get rich in blogging? Just write negative posts about sleazy companies and wait for them to bribe you to take your post down. That's what the Cockeyed blog learned after blogging about their experience in using Cash4Gold's servicess... More » -
jetblue
JetBlue Passenger Forced To Cover Arabic Shirt Gets $240k From JetBlue, TSA Employees
In 2006, Raed Jaer, an Iraqi-born U.S. resident, was forced by TSA officials and JetBlue to cover his t-shirt—it read, "We Will Not Be Silent" in both Arabic and English—before he could board a flight. The airline and the two TSA officials (TSA was not named in the suit) settled out of court last week for $240,000, although JetBlue still denies they did anything wrong, and the TSA says they don't "condone profiling in any way shape or form." More » -
spore
Amazon Pulls Negative Reviews Of 'Spore,' Then Reinstates Them
Earlier today, about 2200 reviews of the game Spore disappeared from the product page on Amazon.com, almost all of them negative. Did Amazon censor the reviews because of their anti-DRM nature? Amazon says no, that it was a technical glitch, and they restored the reviews by the end of today. An Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica, "Amazon doesn't censor or edit customer reviews based [on their content] and we'd only remove a review if it fell outside our guidelines." Spore's rating is back to a single star, and it's #5 on Amazon's video games chart. More » -
censorship
American Airlines, Cosi's Don't Want You To Watch South Park
Gil was stuck in an American Airlines Admiral's Club for 5 hours waiting for his flight back to L.A., so he tried to access the South Park website to help pass the time. What he got instead was the screen here, saying that the site had been blocked because it's considered "tasteless." We've seen the same message at a Cosi restaurant in NYC. Thanks, companies, for protecting our delicate sensibilities! We're going to go get the vapors now. More » -
censorship
Go Daddy Refutes Censorship Claim
The reader who sent Go Daddy an email asking why they shut down RateMyCop.com received a response in which they emphatically denied any censorship—this was all about a customer exceeding his contracted server usage limits and nothing else, they say. Read their full response after the jump. More » -
censorship
Go Daddy Shuts Down RateMyCop Watchdog Site
Yesterday, Go Daddy pulled the plug on RateMyCop.com, which has been criticized by law enforcement officials for allegedly putting police officers in danger by listing their names and in some cases badge numbers. Visitors can then add comments and post critiques or praise about specific cops in their area. The website collected its officer data via public information requests, and no personal information is used, nor are undercover agents revealed. Still, law enforcement officials are upset at the exposure. When the site's owner, Gino Sesto, called Go Daddy, he was first told it was removed due to "suspicious activity," but then the reason was changed by a supervisor to an exceeded bandwidth cap, which Sesto disputes. Update: Go Daddy responded to our reader's email and said taking the site offline had nothing to do with censorship. More » -
censorship
Uproar Over Tiny Illustration Of Naked Statue In Children's Book
A German author and her publisher were thrilled when a U.S. publisher inquired about putting out a North American edition of one of her bestselling children's books... until the U.S. publisher asked the author to airbrush some of her illustrations. More » -
complaints
The Problem With Using "Free" Online Services: Random Censorship
Laura used Picasa to share photographs of her mastectomy with members of her support group, as well as family and friends. Now they're gone, deleted without warning because some anonymous jackass flagged them as inappropriate. [Update: Pics are back up! Google apologized and reinstated the entire album, along with comments.] The first problem with this is that it's hard to figure out which category of "inappropriate" surgical pictures fall under: obscenity, pornography, promotions of hate, incitement of violence, spam, malicious code, or viruses? More »
censorship
New York, 12:15 PM
Tue Nov 10
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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