UN Wants To Censor Internet To Protect Feminists

SoVi3t · September 27, 2015, 4:59pm

UN Women, the group behind last year’s risible “He for She” campaign, called on governments to use their “licensing prerogative” to ensure that “telecoms and search engines” are only “allowed to connect with the public” if they “supervise content and its dissemination.”

In other words, if search engines and ISPs don’t comply with a list of the UN’s censorship demands, the UN wants national governments to cut off their access to the public.

So, what sort of content does the UN want to censor? ISIS recruitment videos, perhaps, which lure women into lives of rape and servitude? Live-streamed executions from Syria? Revenge porn or snuff videos? There’s no shortage of dangerous and potentially traumatising content on the web, after all, much of it disproportionately affecting women.

Alas not. The UN is hung up on “cyber violence against women,” a Kafkaesque term that is apparently shorthand for “women being criticised on the internet.”

According to feminist culture critic Anita Sarkeesian, who spoke at the event, online “harassment” doesn’t simply consist of what is “legal and illegal,” but “also the day-to-day grind of ‘you’re a liar’ and ‘you suck,’ including all of these hate videos that attack us on a regular basis.”

Unable to prove that they are the victims of a wave of “misogynistic hate” – no bomb threat against a feminist critic of video games has ever been deemed credible and there are serious doubts about threats supposedly levelled at transsexual activist Brianna Wu – feminists are trying to redefine violence and harassment to include disobliging tweets and criticisms of their work.

In other words: someone said “you suck” to Anita Sarkeesian and now we have to censor the internet.

Sarkeesian’s comments were echoed by former video game developer, feminist activist and professional victim Zoe Quinn.

DANZAN · September 27, 2015, 5:03pm

so i won’t be able to call Sarkeesian or Quinn liars?

NickRocks · September 27, 2015, 5:33pm

“Professional victim” is this a parody

DiNyc3st · September 27, 2015, 6:18pm

Yes let’s censor the Internet for Thot’s like Zoe Quinn…

Brilliant

beesuit · September 27, 2015, 6:58pm

Women make up approx. 50% of the population. Surely there are other more marginalised and smaller minority groups out there!

Raz0r · September 27, 2015, 7:50pm

Can we get a credible news story to confirm this? Times, CNN, shit, even the Tahoe Times.

Pertho · September 27, 2015, 7:59pm

The Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender gathered at the United Nations yesterday to present its findings on what they consider to be a “rising tide of online violence against women and girls.”

The full briefing aired live on the UN’s streaming website. An archive of the footage is now available for on-demand viewing.

Present at the event were game developer Zoe Quinn and Feminist Frequency creator and industry critic Anita Sarkeesian, who took part in a panel discussion.

Both Quinn and Sarkeesian were among those called on to speak about their involvement with the UN Women’s coalition that was formed to reduce instances of gendered cyber violence. Each spoke of the systemic nature of the problem, while touching upon their personal experiences as a target of online harassment.

As one of the most prominent figures embroiled in GamerGate, a loosely organized crusade to rid of the video game world of progressive voices, Quinn mentioned having “sat for two weeks in a chatroom silently recording them plotting how they would [drive her to kill herself]” during the period in which her online antagonizers were most virulent.

Regarding her present involvement with the group, she stated, “We shouldn’t have to keep fighting when anyone can go take a look at my Twitter mentions right now, when people are impersonating my friends to … basically use gendered violence slurs against me. That’s my day-to-day. And it shouldn’t be on people like me to have to prove this.”

Through her work with Feminist Frequency as the star of a video series critiquing depictions of women in the media, including video games, Sarkeesian also found herself caught up in the GamerGate firestorm. “I have been a target for three years non-stop,” she told those in attendance, “of egregious online harassment in all levels.”

She defined this as not just the violence that the group has formed to combat, but also the “day-to-day grind of ‘You’re a liar,’ ‘You suck’ … making all of these hate videos on a regular basis to attack us and the mobs that come from those hate videos.”

After the briefing, the Broadband Commission published a detailed report on its research to its website. The 48-page document provides statistics on the rates at which women are harassed on the internet, analysis of the data, and a proposed plan of action to combat the issue.

pedoviejo · September 27, 2015, 8:48pm

There’s something hilarious about this.

IN any professional setting, anybody with dyed hair would be laughed right out.

Why is anybody listening to these whore’s? This needs to die like the cancer that it is. Thanks Feminism, this is why nobody likes you.l

Disciple_of_Ryu · September 27, 2015, 9:37pm

Raz0r asks for a credible source and Pertho uses Polygon. ><

SoVi3t · September 27, 2015, 9:44pm

Here is their press release: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/9/cyber-violence-report-press-release

JasonWalraven · September 27, 2015, 9:59pm

CNN credible?? lol too funny

po_pimpus · September 27, 2015, 10:03pm

Hey guys… remember that “GamerGate” thing none of you bothered to research, and almost got half of GD banned over, and several threads closed because no one was smart enough to put Ass Crimson on ignore?

Then, that Iantothemax idiot made that stupid ass front page story condemning the entire FGC because one trans-jabroni got their confused feelings hurt?

These are the people it was created to stand against, and now they’re trying to police not just games and movies, but the entire intenet…

Iduno · September 27, 2015, 10:11pm

Cyber violence?

Cyber, fucking, violence?

Is this really the fucking world we live in, where pointing out the lies of a basic ass bitch trying to destroy your fucking hobby is harassment?

Fuck everyone involved in this meeting.

kAb · September 27, 2015, 10:21pm

Tyler the creator said it best…

BB_Hoody · September 27, 2015, 10:45pm

You shouldn’t honor that bastard who shall not be named by remembering him. And this sums out everyone who shitted on gamergate calling it a waste of time, or nerds crying because they want to keep T&A in videogames etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8XJEeOpyA

Hawkingbird · September 27, 2015, 11:57pm

How the hell these these bitches get an audience with the UN? I doubt this will amount to a anything. Every plan to regulate the internet in any fashion has always resulted in failure.

Tensho · September 28, 2015, 12:06am

Lol

NAP · September 28, 2015, 12:06am

How would anyone possibly enforce this?

po_pimpus · September 28, 2015, 12:11am

Money… Lots and lots of money.

Emil · September 28, 2015, 12:15am

Why do people always have to greatly exaggerate the statements of feminists in order to counter them? I didn’t see much wrong with what was quoted in the OP’s post, until they tried to denounce everything as simply being criticism.

Ever wondered that perhaps feminism exists because of the kind of reaction here towards anything that defends women’s rights?