5: Protesters Are Holding a ‘Squirting Water Fight’ to Combat a Worrying New Internet Bill
On Monday the 17th of October, civil liberties campaigners, porn producers and protesters will stage a demonstration over the Digital Economy Bill – currently past its second reading in parliament – which has serious implications for internet freedom. The event has been organised by feminist pornographer Pandora Blake and obscenity lawyer Myles Jackman, and isn’t going to look much like your average protest.
Joining forces with Open Rights Group, Privacy International, Index on Censorship, NO2ID and Big Brother Watch, Blake and Jackman are holding the “Backlash Kink Olympixxx”, featuring games as yet absent from the mainstream sporting arena, including Fisting Volleyball, a Spanking Relay Race and a Squirting Water Fight.
The event will be reminiscent of last year’s “face-sitting protest” and will, as that event did, draw attention to the bizarre list of sexual acts that are legal to perform in real life, but illegal to represent, possess or publish under UK law.
Vice News
4: Russia: UN Syria resolution protected “terrorists”
The Russian foreign ministry says a draft French UN Security Council resolution on Syria would have helped “terrorists” in the Aleppo area by protecting them from aerial bombing.
In a statement published on Sunday, as Syrian government forces pressed on with their offensive against rebel fighters in the city, the Russians said the French text was “politicised and one-sided”.
“An explicit attempt was made, by banning flights in the Aleppo area, to provide cover for the terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra and associated militants,” the ministry said.
Aljazeera
3: Facebook revenge pornography trial ‘could open floodgates’
A legal case against Facebook, which will involve a 14-year-old taking the company to court in Belfast over naked images published on the social network, could open the floodgates for other civil claims, according to lawyers who work with victims of revenge pornography.
Facebook’s forthcoming trial, which centres on the claim that it is liable for the publication of a naked picture of the girl posted repeatedly on a “shame page” as an act of revenge, has alarmed the tech world and could have a seismic impact on how social media companies deal with explicit images.
The case has already resulted in victims of revenge pornography seeking advice about whether they too could have grounds for legal action, according to Paul Tweed, media lawyer and senior partner at the law firm Johnsons.
“A case like this risks opening the floodgates for other civil cases to be taken against Facebook and other social media sites,” he said. “We’ve already seen an increase in the number of people calling to find out more. I can see it being a very real problem for all the social media sites going forward.”
The Guardian
2: Edwidge Danticat Predicts “Ongoing Disaster” in Impoverished Haiti After Hurricane Matthew
As the death toll from Hurricane Matthew continues to rise to more 330, across the country some 15,000 have been displaced and 350,000 more are in need of assistance. The storm knocked out most electricity and phone service across the country. It also washed out a major bridge connecting southern Haiti to the rest of the country. Aid organizations are warning that food and water is scarce. We get reaction from Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat, who says the storm has caused what will be an “ongoing disaster” in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake six years ago that left more than 300,000 dead and twice as many people displaced.
Democracy Now
1: EXCLUSIVE: New Email Leak Reveals Clinton Campaign’s Cozy Press Relationship
INTERNAL STRATEGY DOCUMENTS and emails among Clinton staffers shed light on friendly and highly useful relationships between the campaign and various members of the U.S. media, as well as the campaign’s strategies for manipulating those relationships.
The emails were provided to The Intercept by the source identifying himself as Guccifer 2.0, who was reportedly responsible for prior significant hacks, including one that targeted the Democratic National Committee and resulted in the resignations of its top four officials. On Friday, Obama administration officials claimed that Russia’s “senior-most officials” were responsible for that hack and others, although they provided no evidence for that assertion.
As these internal documents demonstrate, a central component of the Clinton campaign strategy is ensuring that journalists they believe favorable to Clinton are tasked to report the stories which the campaign wants circulated.
The Intercept
