censorship

Samantha Mills repudiates 2023 Hugo

This entry was posted in News and tagged censorship China conventions fandom science fiction on by

Samantha Mills, winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for “best short story,” has repudiated her award in the light of the censorship scandal. She wrote:

Looking at the information we currently have, it’s hard for me to conclude anything other than: I shouldn’t have been on that ballot. …
 
I spent this morning logging into my various accounts and taking “Hugo” out of my bio. There are almost certainly going to be places it was printed that I miss, so my apologies for that. Here’s the most embarrassing one: my novel already went to the printer and it has “Hugo winner” on the cover. Fucking mortifying!

Update, Feb. 23, 2024: Adrian Tchaikovsky has repudiated his Hugo. “I cannot consider myself a Hugo winner and will not be citing the 2023 award result in my biographical details, or on this site.”

Book burying under White House pressure 3

This entry was posted in Censorship News and tagged Amazon books censorship on by

According to a New York Post article, the White House successfully pressured Amazon to put some books under a “do not promote” order. The books remained available but presumably are less discoverable than comparable books not under the order. The order was issued “the same day Amazon officials met with the White House.”

The order covers “anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective.” The article doesn’t mention any titles, so I can’t judge their worth. Would a book that called attention to legitimate risks or exaggerated claims of effectiveness fall under that category? Biden said, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” a claim whose inaccuracy many people have learned firsthand.
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The Tianwen project

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged censorship China science fiction on by

File 770 has a fascinating article, “Decoding the Tianwen Project”, about the Chinese government’s aims to achieve a dominant position in the science fiction world. The piece is “posted anonymously to protect the author’s identity, as the author is part of the Chinese diaspora who occasionally travels to China.”

China has already engaged in censorship outside its borders through its print shops. It pressured Disney into killing nearly all the distribution of Kundun, which presents the Dalai Lama favorably and Mao unfavorably. A CNN article says China has “the world’s largest known online disinformation operation.”
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New Hampshire bill seeks to mandate book rating system

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary News and tagged censorship education libraries New Hampshire on by

A bill before the New Hampshire legislature, Senate Bill 523, is a frontal attack on school libraries in the state and the vendors that provide books to them. The bill is sponsored by State Senator Kevin Avard. It’s the kind of lunacy you’d expect in Kansas or Texas, not New Hampshire.

It would set up a bounty system for bringing complaints against material which is allegedly “harmful to minors.” Anyone claiming to be aggrieved under the bill’s terms would be able to sue for damages. A person bringing a successful suit would be guaranteed a minimum payout of $1,000. What Avard is trying to set up isn’t just a way to remove inappropriate books but a way to incentivize gratuitous challenges.
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A disturbing cease & desist order in New Hampshire

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship New Hampshire politics on by

A few weeks ago, the New Hampshire Attorney General issued a cease and desist order to the National Democratic Committee, claiming that it had made “false, deceptive, and misleading” statements in violation of New Hampshire law. The statements in question noted that any delegates chosen in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary won’t be accepted at the party’s national convention, and therefore the primary is “meaningless.” Violation of the cited law is a felony.

This is disturbing in at least two ways. First, the Democratic National Committee isn’t a New Hampshire organization. It isn’t subject to New Hampshire law. The AG’s office seems to be saying it can enforce its law anywhere in the country, maybe anywhere in the world.
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