Authorities in nearly a dozen regions across Russian have refused to authorize protests in recent weeks over internet censorship and the blocking of Telegram, a popular messaging app. In most cases, they succeeded. Mindful of a crackdown on dissent since the 4-year-old invasion of Ukraine, many activists decided not to risk arrest by attending unauthorized rallies, even if they weren’t about the war. Some went to court to challenge government refusals to authorize pickets, while others scaled them back to smaller indoor gatherings. But the discontent over blocking the app remains and adds to a growing list of frustrations over various issues that plague the country.
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The Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman has won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over music videos that used home security footage to mock them over a 2022 raid of his home. The verdict Wednesday evening follows several hours of deliberations. The Adams County deputies say they were publicly harassed over the videos. They show rifle-wielding deputies busting down his door, searching his shoes and eyeing a cake on the kitchen table, inspiring the song, “Lemon Pound Cake.” The 51-year-old Afroman, born Joseph Foreman, says the verdict is a win for free speech rights. No charges were filed in the drug and kidnapping investigation.
A deluge of misrepresented or fabricated videos has spread widely online since the Iran war began last weekend, fueled in part by state-linked propaganda influence campaigns — particularly around who is winning the war and how bad casualties have been. Artificial intelligence has helped fuel misinformation in ways that weren’t possible during past conflicts, even just a few years ago. Coupled with state-linked disinformation and censorship, this creates an even wider vacuum in which the truth can get lost.
Jurors in a bellwether trial about the impacts of social media on children are studying a deposition from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Shown in a New Mexico courtroom on Wednesday, the video interview with Zuckerberg explores research and company discussions about negative experiences among young users of Instagram and other Meta social media platforms. Prosecutors say Meta failed to disclose what it knows about the harmful effects of its platforms, in violation of state consumer protection laws. Meta says the company discloses risks and makes efforts to weed out harmful content. Depositions from Zuckerberg and Instagram leader Adam Mosseri are centerpieces of the case.
A judge has ruled in Kentucky that some schools run by the Department of Defense must stop censoring classroom and library materials related to race and gender.
The survey asked more than 1,500 people in 30 major U.S. cities about their swearing habits.
Wire
The company said in a statement Thursday that it did not ask for any “homosexual content” to be removed from the films.