## 37 Censorship

Over the past week, there have been several controversies regarding censorship in general. For the world, it was about Macklemore who was banned from the Ed Sheeran's tour in USA...Banned by the owners of the stadium and the tour manager because he said Free Palestine. The main tour owner certainly doesn't realize that, acting like that, this further fuels the age-old anti-Semitic targeting Jews in the entertainment and finance industries. Macklemore may have behaved suspiciously in the past—wearing a strange disguise—but he merely expressed an opinion and stated a few truths about a genocide recognized by many international organizations. And the bad buzz is now for Ed Sheeran who only came up with lame excuses. 

But that same week, a similar incident occurred in France on public television during a program devoted to literature. Actress and writer Adele Haenel had a "Carte Blanche", minutes for free speech at the end of the TV-show. She talked about sexual violence and... Palestine with the argument that some subjects can't be addressed. Guess what...The Video of the program was deleted from the TV website. The president of the public television network mentioned complaints and said that, as a precautionary measure, they had pulled the program pending a decision from the regulatory authority. Complaints were from the Far-right and their friend from the Israeli government lobby (they also had actions during french local elections). That french TV broadcast illustrated what Adele Haenel just said !

But when it's about truth and lies on other networks, they are more quick to delete and cancel, especially from the far-right and Nazis. People convicted of racial slurs, hate speech, or acts of pedophilia are still on the air every week. Yes, it's a real censorship on some subjects, but not all. But their justifications are always about protecting someone—young ears—and never about the truth of the matter.

Today, in France, Europe, and other countries around the world, there is a push to protect children from social media. This seems like a good idea, but the way it’s being approached poses a real problem. The plan is to use ID cards or official documents, and when you consider how easy it has been to hack into certain official websites—such as those of the tax agency or the Ministry of Education—it’s easy to imagine how things could go wrong. It’s also a way to control freedom of expression if, for example, the far right were to come to power. The real issue is about parental guidance—specifically, the way parents “get rid of” their children by leaving them unsupervised with tablets or smartphones. Parental consent would actually be much more appropriate for registration, but there’s nothing to actually prevent someone from lying about their age… Countries that have implemented this type of measure are seeing children use VPNs to get around it. Don't underestimate the intelligence of these
 little devils.

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