Tag: censorship

Neuroscience Professor Removed From APA Discussion After Saying There Are Only Two Genders

Aneuroscience professor was ousted from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) email discussion group by vote after suggesting that there are only two genders as well as past concerns over his posts, the College Fix reported Friday.

Psychology and neuroscience professor John Staddon at Duke University was removed from the APA’s Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology (SBNCP) Division 6 listserv and was notified via email by the group’s presidential trio who said use of the forum was a “privilege,” in the statements republished by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) on April 30.

“It is sad that an audience of supposed scientists is unable to take any dissenting view, such as the suggestion that there really are only two sexes,” Staddon said in reply to the notification of his removal from the division’s group before allowing NAS to publish the email exchange. “Incredible! I don’t mind having one less distraction, but I think you should really be concerned at Div 6’s unwillingness to tolerate divergent views.”

His post that “tipped the scale,” according to Staddon, was titled “Hmm… Binary view of sex false? What is the evidence? Is there a Z chromosome?” Staddon told Newsweek he created the post on April 15.

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Reporters have to get quotes approved by White House before publishing

White House reporters are ​seething over a policy that requires them to submit quotes from interviews with Biden administration officials to the communications team for approval, editing or veto, according to a report on Tuesday.  ​

The White House is demanding that reporters who conduct interviews with administration officials do so under conditions known as “background with ​quote approval,” Politico reported. ​

The information from the interview can be used in a story, but for a reporter to be able to attach a name to the quote, ​the reporter must transcribe the comments and send them to the communications team, the report said. ​

At that point, the White House can approve them, edit them or veto their use.

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At Vatican conference, Chelsea Clinton calls for global crackdown on anti-vaccine social media posts

Chelsea Clinton has spoken out against freedom of vaccine-critical speech at a Vatican conference dedicated to dialogue.

Speaking during a pre-recorded online meeting, Clinton, 41, responded to a question about so-called “vaccine hesitancy” regarding COVID-19 vaccines by saying that there must be a global effort to crack down on vaccine-critical social media posts.

“I personally very strongly believe there has to be more intensive and intentional and coordinated global regulation of the content on social media platforms,” she said.

“We know that the most popular video across all of Latin America for the last few weeks that now has tens of millions of views is just an anti-vax, anti-science screed that YouTube has just refused to take down.”

Clinton added that anti-vaccine content created in the United States “flourishes” across the world by way of social media platforms. Her attempts to convince the managers of these sites to remove the material has not worked, she said.

“We know that — because I have tried — that appealing to the leadership of these companies to do the right thing has just not worked, and so we need regulation.”

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Federal Gov’t Telling Facebook to Silence Those With Vaccine Safety Concerns Says Lawsuit

It is no longer a random act — Facebook censorship has become so blatant and massive that they have indefinitely silenced the former president of the United States. Many pro-censorship advocates cheer this on because they dislike the voices silenced by Facebook. They attempt to justify the censorship with the claims that Facebook is a private company and can do what they want, a lawsuit filed against the social media giant says that is not the case.

A lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the chairman of the non-profit group Children’s Health Defense (CHD) — claims Facebook conspires with the federal government to squelch speech which advocates for vaccine safety.

According to the lawsuit, overseen by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, Facebook started slapping warning labels on content posted on CHD’s Facebook page, including in September of 2020 when the social media giant posted a message directing users to seek “reliable, up-to-date information” about vaccines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facebook also started labeling some of CHD’s content as “false information” based on research by third-party fact checkers, including a link to an article claiming vaccinated children “are more likely to have adverse health outcomes” in May 2020.

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Twitter Will Now Call Out ‘Mean Tweets’ – Before They Are Even Sent

To combat toxicity on the platform, social media website Twitter is reportedly developing a feature to makes users reconsider sending messages that its system detects as “mean” or offensive. Initial tests show that 34 percent of users who received the warning chose to revise their message or not send it at all.

NPR reports that Twitter is attempting to make its users more conscientious about the language they use on the platform and is encouraging positivity by implementing a new feature that will detect “mean” replies on its service before a user presses send.

When Twitter detects that a user is about to post something that could be seen as offensive, an automatic prompt will be displayed that states: “Want to review this before tweeting?” The user is then offered three choices: tweet, edit, or delete.

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Psaki Says Biden Administration Wants MORE Social Media Censorship – While Also Claiming They Value First Amendment

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that the Biden administration wants more social media censorship — while also claiming to value the First Amendment.

Psaki’s comments came after Facebook announced their decision not to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s accounts.

The Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden believes that “major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation and misinformation, especially related to COVID-19, vaccinations and elections.”

Psaki went on to indicate that Biden believes Big Tech must do more to silence “life threatening” speech on social media.

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