• As dissed on Fox NewS •

Shooting the Messenger

online reporting by INDependent journalist Dean Sterling Jones

Tag: WordPress

  • WordPress Rejects Second Legal Request to Remove Photoshopped Image Mocking Indian PM

    Mumbai’s cyber police department seeks to remove content hosted on this blog, BuzzFeed, Google Blogger, Amazon CloudFront, Tumblr, and Flickr In August, my hosting provider, WordPress, rejected a legal request by Mumbai cyber police to censor a clearly photoshopped image I republished from BuzzFeed last year. The image, which depicted Indian prime minister Narendra Modi…

    Read more: WordPress Rejects Second Legal Request to Remove Photoshopped Image Mocking Indian PM

  • Fair Use and Copyright Abuse: WordPress Dismisses Abusive DMCA Complaint About My Story on DMCA Abuse

    Automattic, the Californian tech company behind blogging platform WordPress, has dismissed a copyright complaint about this blog by conservative writer Michael Moates, citing fair use protections In February, I published a story about frivolous attempts to suppress sexual harassment claims against conservative writer Michael Moates. As I wrote in that story, since October someone has been filing…

    Read more: Fair Use and Copyright Abuse: WordPress Dismisses Abusive DMCA Complaint About My Story on DMCA Abuse

  • Erdoğan Censorship Demand Links Him to ISIS

    Turkey’s authoritarian president demands U.S. social media giants censor critical posts, tweets, and satirical cartoons linking him to Islamic terrorism. In 2016 and 2017, I blogged about takedown demands sent by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, targeting satirical cartoons and “humiliating” news reports comparing him to Hitler. Turkey’s censorial circus continues with yet another round…

    Read more: Erdoğan Censorship Demand Links Him to ISIS

  • Stockholmies

    Charity for self-exiled Turkish journalists living in Stockholm cites my blog post re: legal efforts by Turkey’s First Lady to scrub negative news stories about herself from the web Earlier this week I blogged about legal efforts by Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdoğan to scrub negative news stories about herself from the web. The story has…

    Read more: Stockholmies

  • First Lady of Lumen

    First Lady of Turkey Emine Erdoğan demands takedown of negative news reports That’s according to the Lumen Database, a website that collects and analyses online takedown requests. In April, the site uploaded a Turkish court order complaint Erdoğan sent to Google and WordPress demanding the removal of news reports described as “damaging” to the “personality…

    Read more: First Lady of Lumen

  • Arif Trumps WordPress

    WordPress blocks critical blog about Trump’s inner circle after Turkish court order from Trump’s Bayrock business partner Tevfik Arif Earlier this week I blogged about Bayrock Group CEO Tevfik Arif’s attempts to get news reports about his 2010 arrest for human trafficking removed from the Internet. Arif, a former Soviet commerce official, is best known for…

    Read more: Arif Trumps WordPress

  • Bad Day at Bayrock

    Trump’s Bayrock Group business partner Tevfik Arif demands takedown of news reports that he was arrested and charged with human trafficking According to the Lumen Database, which collects and analyses takedown requests of online content, Arif recently sent Turkish court orders to Google and Automattic (WordPress’ parent company) demanding the removal of a number of…

    Read more: Bad Day at Bayrock

  • WordPress Yields to Erdoğan

    WordPress updates its takedown policy to reflect that it now complies with Turkish censorship demands – four months after I blogged the story Last year, I reported about a Turkish political blog that was geo-blocked by WordPress following a takedown request from tyrannical Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In a series of tweets, the Turkish journalist and noted…

    Read more: WordPress Yields to Erdoğan

  • The Year in Blog – 2016 Edition

    Although 2016 was by most accounts the worst year in living memory, for me it was also a lot of fun. There were yuge cultural and political upsets – right (or should I say “alt-right”?) – but there were also a couple of inspiring victories for the good guys. Across the pond, my Atlanta, GA blogging buddy, independent investigative…

    Read more: The Year in Blog – 2016 Edition

  • Free Speech: No Lines Drawn

    The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund runs article based on my blog post re: WordPress censorship of Turkish political blog featuring satirical cartoons following court order by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Last month, I blogged about WordPress, the San Francisco-based blogging platform which earlier this year said that, without a U.S. court order, it refuses to honour…

    Read more: Free Speech: No Lines Drawn