or: how american purist morality and restrictive censorship laws get imposed all around the globe via the internet.
a few days ago i uploaded 3 screengrabs from clockwork orange to my moblog. 2 images showed alexander de large in the famous ceramic penis scene (where he attacks and eventually kills an older woman with on oversized clay penis) and 1 showed a topless woman (the temptress that was used to publically test alex’ transformation after his therapy).
which one got deleted?
you guessed it. the nipple one.
i was outraged as much about the way this was done (mat ninj4 just deleted it without informing me or giving me the chance to delete it myself, but only leaving this comment, that actually made it much worse, because he called it porn) as about the fact that it was done at all. i cleary think that this scene is artistic, the context is totally clear. it does show a female nipple, but my intention is artistic and its neither to arouse viewers nor to trivialize sexuality. so i started this discussion on the site.
moblog.co.uk is hosted on an american server based in texas that has a 2 mistakes and you’re out policy. they give exactly one warning and then they shut down the server in question. they consider any nudity (including nipples, except, of course, male ones) to be pornographic. so of course its understandable that mat is worried and deletes such content. but he also allows himself to be turned into the arm that imposes the censorship. a censorship that was imposed on him by the american owners, okay, but its still him doing the necessary clicks. the fact that he feels bad about this and that the content does not bother himself personally actually makes it worse, not better. its like the social worker who has to impose unfair state rules and does so by siding with the aid recepient. its part of the lie. unless its imposed by cops its always guys like that imposing unfair rules. thats part of the plan.
dont we see how in this way distinctions, that we fought for since the 60’s are made obsolete. for instance distinctions between pornography and erotic art on one hand versus distinctions between male and female nudity on the other. freedom of expression. artistic freedom.
and what kills me is to see how in this manner american purist morality and restrictive censorship laws get imposed all around the globe. at first we mocked the resurgence of these moral values from the 50’s, saying oh those silly puritans, but now they start to affect us more and more. and the internet is the tool. paypal operates in much the same way.
we clearly allow this to happen with our americo-dependency when i comes to the internet. and it makes my recently stated demand much more urgent: we need to build an alternative internet independent of the american economy.
It’s not american purist values.. its common social values.
American purist values would object to that picure, even wtith the black bars – and no swearing either. Hell it would object to the suggestion of naked flesh and sex. Violence would be ok tho.
Your point is against censorship, and common moral standards, but your argument that it is american is very very wrong.. and kind of funny.
Now if Mat had his own paid for server that was hosted somewhere that didn’t care, then he’d be able to do what he liked. But this is the real world, he can’t. Also the censorship in question has been a valid point for recorded history – women have breasts, these are “secondary sexual features” and as such are ‘rude’
Moblog is not only protecting itself it is acting responsibly – it doesn’t have any way for people to screen content for work or children.
Imagine if you were just looking at moblog in your lunchbreak at an office – and the boss see’s a bunch of breasts, hello disaplinary action.
What it does highlight is that you don’t understand the reasoning behind decisions like this. Calling them american though is just wrong. Way, way wrong.
Yes, Americans have a weird sense of “morality” – blood, violence and brutality are OK, nudity is not (despite their having the biggest Porn industry in the world).
However, this has nothing to do with censorship; policies are policies, and you probably agreed to the policy before you opened an account with them.
And I almost can’t read what I’m writing, it’s white on mauve!
I still maintain that the context was not clear in your post, but that’s a moot point.. (even allowing for the multitude of ways that the image can be seen /out/ of context on the site)
You do, however, make one very good point I didnt – Paypal. Paypal will freeze (no warning) accounts that violate *their* AUP (which means no, absolutely none, adult content – porn or ‘erotica’, they’re both adult), which would screw me over something awful (well, it would be my income frozen – doublePlusUngood!).
@ matthias: actually i did not agree to that policy, because when i started moblogging here such a policy did not even exist yet as i was one of the beta testers. but nevermind that: with my questions i am trying to challenge where the line gets drawn here at moblog.co.uk. what images will get deleted? in my opinion the image in question was perfectly harmless and not pornographic at all and should never ever have gotten deleted. mat disagrees. so there…
@ DarkCryst: with all due respect, but i am tempted to just ignore your comment. you obviously have not followed the discussion. it has EVERYTHING to do with american morality, because it is hosted on a texan server, that imposes this onto its customers. hate to burst your bubble there. i have created many websites here in switzerland and never once met a swiss web host, who imposes such a restrictive policy onto their customers. as far as family and work friendly i think everybody concerned at moblog.co.uk thinks that it should be both/and. generally family and work friendly, but with a log-in area for uncensored adult content.
@ mat: are you again calling this image pornographic? it is not! she wears panties, one can baerly make out her nipples. this is not porn and would never ever get a ban from paypal. there policy is: clear representation of genitals.
You’re crazy man, as you ever was and always be, and as we all wanted you to be… but working anarky is based on consensus, not on individuality…
write me if you want to discuss on the matter.
I’m just sad that we lost one of the FAMIGLIA!
my feelings on this discussion are irrelevant, but I will say, the site would not be the same if you stopped posting and commenting, so please don’t.
thanx so much, joe. and how could your feelings not be relevant???
Use another moblogservice, if it is that important to you. Try mobog.com, they dont care
I love mbUK and I can accept some rules, exist flickr to post nipples and mbUK to moblogging, anyway, on youtube no one can post copyrighted materials but most of the user do that, its youtube who have to delete these videos to respect the law and if in mbUK we can’t post pron, mat have to delete these shots.
I will thank Mat for this chance!
Respect.
Leonardo – Florence – Italy