The Fight to End 'Cyberflashing'

Payton Iheme, the head of public policy for Bumble in the Americas, is working to advance legislation that penalizes the act of sending unwanted sexual images. Viktorya Vilk, the program director for digital safety and free expression at PEN America, said that cyberflashing and other online abuse tactics “are part of a deliberate effort to push women and marginalized voices off the internet, and to make people feel unsafe in public, at home, on their phone, on their laptops.”
 
A YouGov poll in Britain found that 40 percent of millennial women have received an unsolicited photo of male genitalia. For girls aged 12 to 18, that share is even higher, according to an academic report funded by several universities and organizations in Britain. Three-quarters of the girls surveyed said they had received lewd photos from men, and the majority described them as unwanted.

Lizzo changes “Grrrls” lyric after outcry
Lizzo, a Grammy-winning singer and rapper seen by many fans as a champion of inclusivity, changed a lyric on a new song within days of its release after it was criticized for containing a word considered derogatory toward people with disabilities. In the original version of the song “Grrrls” released on Friday, Lizzo used the word “spaz” to indicate that she was going to lose control. The word is based on spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, a condition that causes motor impairments in the legs or arms.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Moving past free expression theater
According to new research, students have a strong desire for constructive engagement across political divides—but are most afraid of blowback for their views from fellow students. Over the past year, a team of UNC researchers surveyed more than 3,400 students at eight public universities in North Carolina, including UNC Greensboro, in an effort to get beneath the tired tropes of campus speech controversies.
INSIDE HIGHER ED

Catholic group launches ‘Hide the Pride’ anti-LGBTQ library campaign
A controversial conservative Catholic organization is urging parents to “Hide the Pride” during Pride Month—by checking out any LBGTQ-related books they see at their local libraries so that no children will see them. The group says parents can inconspicuously check out materials and place them away from children at home.
THE HILL

Arron Banks loses libel action against reporter Carole Cadwalladr
The multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has lost his libel action against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr, in a significant decision for public interest journalism. Banks, who funded the pro-Brexit Leave.EU campaign group, sued Cadwalladr personally over two instances in which she said the businessman was lying about his relationship with the Russian state – one in a Ted Talk and the other in a tweet.
THE GUARDIAN

Suspect admits killing missing pair in Brazilian Amazon, authorities say
A suspect held over the disappearance of a British journalist and Brazilian indigenous affairs expert has admitted to killing the pair in a remote region of the Amazon, Brazilian authorities said at a news conference Wednesday. Brazilian Federal Police identified the suspect as Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira. Police said he confessed on Tuesday night and indicated where the bodies of veteran correspondent Dom Phillips and researcher Bruno Araújo Pereira had been buried.
CNN

The Lady of Heaven film: Morocco bans ‘blasphemous’ British film
Moroccan cinema authorities have banned the controversial British film Lady of Heaven, after it was condemned by the country's religious council. The film claims to tell the story of Lady Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad. The Supreme Ulema Council said the movie was a "flagrant falsification of the established facts" of Islam. There have been protests against the film in the UK. Government figures in Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq have also denounced it.
BBC WORLD NEWS

Russia seeks to militarize schoolchildren and censor textbooks amid war
Schools have been ordered to conduct “patriotic” classes parroting the Kremlin line on the war, and teachers who refuse have been fired. Textbooks are being purged of almost all references to Ukraine and its capital, Kyiv. The powerful chief of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally, has demanded sweeping changes to education, as part of a whole-of-government effort to shape loyal citizens from cradle to grave.
THE WASHINGTON POST

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