Two interesting cases about online censorship and about privacy (Week 11)

Two interesting cases about online censorship and about privacy

"Back to the Future" banned in China

To start with, China is the second largest movie market outside of the United States, so if a studio wants a movie to be a box office hit around the globe, it’s important to secure a release date in China. However, the country’s government only allows exact amount of foreign films to be released there each year, and there are very strict guidelines about what they will and will not allow in theaters. If a film doesn’t get approval, it’s officially banned throughout Mainland China. And unfortunately, there are some legendary films that sufferred this fate. 

There are films that are banned in China for reasons that some readers may find confusing. For example, the Chinese government banned "Back to the Future" because of its use of time travel and “disrespectful portrayal of history.” In 2011, China’s censorship board banned any entertainment that is connected with time travel, when the theme was becoming very popular in TV shows and films throughout the country.

Picture 1: Back to the Future [3]

It is understandable that some films in China are banned based on political reasoning, however, there’s a long list of odd rulings. The Babe films are banned because they depict live-action talking animals.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest got the ban because of ghosts and portrayal of spirits. As you can guess Ghostbusters suffered the same fate.

Cupcakes vs terrorists

Certainly, in most of the cases where hackers abuse their power using modern technologies is considered to be a violation of privacy. But when it comes to criminals or terrorists, the violation of privacy may not be seen as an abuse all the time, is it?

This story is about smart folks with humour, who did a little more than hacking into a terrorist-affiliated website. The result wasn’t exactly devastating unless you’re someone who hates cupcakes.

Picture 2: Cupcakes [4]

In 2011, the UK’s external intelligence service was in an all-out information war with al-Qaeda and the terrorist organization’s affiliate groups. In particular, Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was looking to disrupt the activities of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its effort to recruit “lone wolf” through the use of its online magazine, called “Inspire.”

When readers went to download 67 pages of instructions for how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” from Inspire Magazine, the terrorists were instead greeted with garbled code that was a page of recipes from the Ellen Degeneres Show’s Best Cupcakes in America. MI6 dubbed the cyberattack operation “Operation Cupcake”.

On top of removing the bomb-making instructions, intelligence analysts replaced articles by Osama bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, on “What to Expect in Jihad.” 

Al-Qaeda was anyway able to reissue the magazine two weeks after the cyberattack, but British intelligence informed that they will continue targeting the magazine, which is seen as a dangerous source of propaganda.

References:

1) https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/83136/10-movies-were-banned-china [1]

2) https://www.mindbounce.com/trivia/the-film-back-to-the-future-is-banned-in-china-because-it-features/ [2]

3) https://purpleclover.littlethings.com/entertainment/8671-20-behind-scenes-facts-about-back-future/item/back-future-clock/ [3]

4) https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/british-intelligence-hacked-al-qaeda/ [4]

5) https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/operation-cupcake-mi6-replaces-al-qaeda-bomb-making-instructions-with-cupcake-recipes/2011/06/03/AGFUP2HH_blog.html [5]