The BBC removed 11 sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look on iPlayer, including content featuring blackface and other material deemed not to work today, sparking debate about censorship versus editorial responsibility in light of evolving social attitudes.
Meta blocked advertising for a Barcelona theatre's stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own on Instagram and Facebook, citing automatic filtering of content mentioning feminism and civil rights. The theatre challenged the decision as censorship of a cultural work central to feminist literature.
Spain's Intellectual Property Commission ordered the blocking of Archive.today and its mirror domains, redirecting Spanish users to a government page that accuses them of illegally facilitating access to copyright-protected content. The blocking page warns users they are contributing to criminal activity and risking their security.
OONI Probe is a tool that measures internet censorship by testing which websites and messaging apps are blocked in users' countries. Users can contribute test results to the world's largest open dataset on censorship, helping increase transparency about network blocking and circumvention tool availability.
The Trump administration's cancellation of a federal research grant studying Alzheimer's disease risk in two low-income Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh has forced researchers to shut down the study early without sharing cognitive test results with 600 participants, potentially delaying diagnosis of a disease where early treatment is critical. The grant cuts are part of a broader disruption affecting over 5,700 NIH-funded medical research projects, with researchers now suing the administration for allegedly censoring research based on political priorities rather than scientific merit.
US Rep. Darrell Issa proposed legislation requiring ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block foreign piracy websites through judicial orders, citing concerns about the speed of current copyright enforcement. The Motion Picture Association has sought such site-blocking measures, but advocacy groups warn the bill would create a broad censorship regime and harm legitimate businesses.
An opinion piece argues that AI alignment efforts, which aim to ensure AI systems behave responsibly, may constitute First Amendment violations by censoring or manipulating AI-generated content to promote specific viewpoints. The author contends that AI-generated prose should be protected speech belonging to users or companies.
A U.S. District Court dismissed 4chan and Lolcow's lawsuit against UK regulator Ofcom on sovereign immunity grounds rather than merits, preventing American courts from hearing constitutional challenges to Ofcom's orders. The court noted that while it declined to rule on whether Ofcom violated First Amendment rights, Congress could amend sovereign immunity law to allow such suits, with two proposed bills (GRANITE Act and HOMEFRONT Act) designed to address this gap.
Ed Sheeran removed opening act Macklemore from his Loop tour after pro-Palestine comments, citing pressure from venue owners including billionaire Robert Kraft. In solidarity, all four remaining supporting acts—Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Beoga, and Lukas Graham—withdrew from the tour to protest the silencing of Macklemore's speech.
Ed Sheeran removed opening act Macklemore from his Loop tour after venue owners, including billionaire Robert Kraft, objected to pro-Palestine comments made during performances. In response, all four remaining supporting acts—Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Beoga, and Lukas Graham—withdrew from the tour in solidarity, citing concerns about artist censorship and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
YouTube banned Dmitry Chernyshevsky, an analyst known for covering the Russia-Ukraine conflict. His Boosty account was also banned, suggesting coordinated action across multiple platforms.
Autistici/Inventati, an Italian activist collective, calls for decentralized server infrastructure to resist political repression and protect digital autonomy. They urge supporters to create autonomous online spaces and replicate their model of self-managed networks as a defense against authoritarian control and surveillance.