censorship

India Orders Online Photos Critical of Pandemic Response Removed

India is in the midst of what is being described as a "devastating" wave of Covid-19 cases across the country which caused a large influx of social media posts critical of the government's response. Hundreds of posts were ordered to be removed by India's government, which are now blocked in the country.

This Iranian Music Streaming Site is Photoshopping Women Out of Their Own Album Covers

Iranian music streaming website Melovaz is under fire today after it was discovered that, in accordance with the country's strict censorship policies, the site is forced to Photoshop out women out of album cover art. The policy means that women are being scrubbed—often very poorly—out of their own cover art, resulting in some very strange, almost comical album covers.

This Leica Video Just Got ‘Leica’ Banned in China

Leica has sparked a huge backlash in China over a short film released by its ad agency in Brazil. The video (warning: strong language) depicts a news photographer covering the Chinese government's crackdown during pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.

Trump Volunteer Blocks Photographer’s Camera, Plan Backfires

A volunteer at a rally for President Donald Trump reached out his arm last night to block a photojournalist's camera as he tried to photograph a protester. Another photographer caught the move on camera, and today that photo-blocking volunteer has unintentionally become a viral news story.

How Photoshop is Used to Censor Ads and Album Covers in the Middle East

I admit, the first time I saw these images I though they were fake. Someone probably added their clothes on as a joke. But when I realized the context and saw the source of the images, it made sense. The fact that the execution was bad made it hilarious.

Copyright & Censorship on Instagram: How Marie Claire Stole My Photo

Yesterday I found out that one of my photos was misused, stolen if you ask me, by a major international company. Sadly this type of thing is so common that it’s almost not worth writing about. However, it’s what happened during my quest to call-out the company that really captured my attention.

Photographer Says Texas Rep. Blocked Him from Photographing Protesters

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert is being accused of a very rudimentary style of censorship by photojournalist Jim Lo Scalzo. According to Lo Scalzo, Gohmert got up and physically blocked his view so that he couldn't photograph protesters during attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearings earlier this week.

Photographer Joey L.’s Photos of Kurdish PKK Fighters Deleted by Instagram

Back in June, we shared a series of photos by Joey L., who made a dangerous trip to Kurdistan to point his camera at the Kurdish guerrilla groups fighting in the Syrian civil war.

It turns out that many of the photos violate Instagram's policies, not because they show violence or graphic scenes, but because they show members of PKK, a group that's listed on "terrorist" lists. Joey L. isn't pleased with the policy.

Instagram Censors Photo of Fully Clothed Woman on Period, Causes Uproar

Instagram sparked controversy this week after deleting this photograph of a woman lying on a bed with menstruation blood seen on her clothing and on her sheets. She's now demanding to know why other more graphic or risqué photos are allowed on the service while images of a fully clothed woman on her period are not.

Cameras Don’t Break Rules, People Break Rules

A portrait session that results in the death of the subject should be called a failure.

As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, a group of photographers and onlookers experienced precisely that level of catastrophic botchery last week in Grand Teton National Park when crowding too close to a moose (not a good idea).

The moose, already agitated by the presence of a nearby bull moose, was scared by the approaching park-visitors and bolted before stumbling over a picnic table and landing on a fire grate. With its hoof caught in the grate, the half-ton animal collapsed and broke its leg so badly that park rangers were forced to put it down.

China Blocks Instagram as Hong Kong Protest Photos Roll In

In the wake of the pro-democracy Occupy Central protests rocking Hong Kong, the Chinese government has tightened its already short censorship leash, adding photo sharing site Instagram to the list of sites now unusable in mainland China.

Reality Show President: An Exposé on the Battle Between the Press and White House

Since late 2013, the White House and the White House Press Corps have clashed several times over. We've covered this briefly in the past, but if you're still not sure what's going on, how it came to be and why exactly members of the press have gone so far as to call the administration's policies regarding press access "Orwellian," this exposé by ReasonTV may help clear things up for you.

Iran Temporarily Shut Down Instagram this Weekend, Then Denied it Ever Happened

#اینستاگرم فیلتر شد - #ایران #فیلترینگ #iran @ListenToUs @HassanRouhani pic.twitter.com/NnIDry4jsf— Soheil Gonzalez (@soheilr7) December 28, 2013

In most countries around the world, it's taken for granted that if you'd like to share a photo of your lunch or cat (even if, just maybe, you shouldn't) Instagram is ready and able to help you accomplish your goal. Of course, that's not true everywhere, as the people of Iran found out yesterday.

New South Wales Government Criticized for Censoring Photojournalism Exhibition

The Reportage Festival in Sydney, Australia is a well-known Vivid exhibition that displays the powerful work of some of the world's best photojournalists and documentary photographers. But this year, the New South Wales government has gotten involved by telling the curators what they can and cannot display, stirring up many photographers and anti-censorship advocates in the process.

A Blurry Double Standard? A Photo from the Boston Marathon Bombing

Before I begin with an observation of a photo that emerged from yesterday’s horrific bombings, I’d like to first take a moment to acknowledge the insignificance of my thoughts vis a vis the tragedy that has unfolded. There have been many great pieces that have already emerged in the first 24 hours like this one from Bruce Schneier of The Atlantic. That said, I blog about salient issues in photography, and there is no better time to discuss an issue than when it is in our collective consciousness.