Joe Rogan admits censorship by Spotify

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As part of the $100m deal to be a 100% Spotify guy, Rogan agreed to have the streaming platform not republish some early episodes, including interviews with Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, and Alex Jones.

Rogan later did a new interview with Jones on Spotify, but the old eps remain unavailable.

Rogan also gave a public apology in regards to correcting false information about left-wing anarchists setting fires in Oregon, which many believe was also part of the Spotify deal.

The JRE host said that when Spotify didn’t want a few episodes on their platform, he was like, “Okay, I don’t care,” and that there won’t be any further editorial control over what he does.

By Sid Douglas

Reporters from Myanmar Now news agency escape military arrest

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YANGON, Myanmar – Their office was raided Feb. 8, but staff had already fled the scene. Instead, authorities took their computers and office equipment.

Last week, security forces arrested reporter Kay Zan Nway of Myanmar Now while she was reporting news during a protest.

Myanmar’s state-run media announced Feb. 8 at night that the military had revoked the licenses of five media outlets working in Myanmar. They are Myanmar Now, Kit Thit, Mizzima, DVB and 7 days media.

By Htay Win
Photo credit- Shine

Facebook to restore news feeds in Australia after government agrees to change its approach to force tech companies to pay for news content

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Reversing a decision to block all news in Australia which was broadly seen as a heavy-handed move and which ended up taking down health and emergency services along with government pages, the technology giant said the government had agreed to change a proposed Media Bargaining Code that would have dictated compensation for linking to news.

In comparison to Facebook’s reaction to Australia’s recent new law, Google struck a deal in which it would provide news publishers with some money for the links Google Search used.

By Milan Sime Martinić

Facebook deletes main page of Myanmar military

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Under a policy not to allow the platform to be used to incite violence, Facebook announced that the Myanmar military’s “continued spread of misinformation” violated its use policies and that Facebook was “treating the situation in Myanmar as an emergency” and acting to “significantly reduce the distribution of all content” on pages and profiles run by the that military.

By Milan Sime Martinić

Bolivian town wants to charge woman for calling town “ugly”

Uyuni Salts
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Authorities in the tourist town of Uyuni, famous for its salt flats, are demanding the extradition (from one department to another) and prosecution of a Bolivian singer who goes by the pseudonym Frances P. The musician in a social media post said the town was so ugly she would not move there even for $3,000,000.

Bolivian law has a “duties of tourists” clause that prohibits “discriminatory comments.” Bolivia has in the past arrested a newscaster for making derogatory comments about another city.

By Milan Sime Martinić

Scottish Police Jail Man For Funny YouTube Video … of Teaching Pet Dog Nazi Salute

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A Scottish man was arrested and put in jail for “suspicion of hate crime” after police saw a video the man had uploaded to YouTube of Meechan joking that he had trained his girlfriend’s dog, Buddha, to respond to phrases reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

The two-and-a-half minute video begins with an intruduction of a joking Meechan explaining that he was going to teach his girlfriend’s “cute” dog the “least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi.”

He repeats the phrase excitedly, “Gas the Jews?” and “Seig Heil” while the dog tries to lift a paw.

The video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYslEzHbpus

Meechan was released from jail. A report was sent to the procurator fiscal about the possibility of a breach of the electronic communications act of 2003.

Police commented on the arrest, saying, ‘This arrest should serve as a warning to anyone posting such material online, or in any other capacity, that such views will not be tolerated.”

Detective Inspector David Cockburn also commented, “I would ask anyone who has had the misfortune to have viewed it to think about the pain and hurt the narrative has caused a minority of people in our community.

“The clip is deeply offensive and no reasonable person can possibly find the content acceptable in today’s society.”

“This clip has been shared and viewed online, which ultimately has caused offence and hurt to many people in our community.”

“There is no place for hate crime in Scotland and police take all reports of incidents seriously.”

Meechan later posted another video where he expressed concern that the accusations would make people think he was actually a racist, while his friends and small YouTube following generally know him for his sense of humor, and the video had just unexpectedly gone viral. The video included lengthy apologies and explanations by both Meechan and his girlfriend that the video was not intended to offend, and Meechan was not racist.