{"id":12754,"date":"2019-06-24T08:52:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T08:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/womenandmedia.org\/?p=12754"},"modified":"2019-06-24T08:52:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T08:52:25","slug":"private-parts-obscenity-and-censorship-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/womenandmedia.org\/ta\/private-parts-obscenity-and-censorship-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Private Parts: Obscenity and Censorship in the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:\u00a0GenderIT.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Blog: eroticslka.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

By Subha Wijesiriwardena<\/p>\n

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\u201cSexuality could indeed be spoken of, spoken of a great deal, but only in order to forbid it.\u201d<\/em>
\nMichel Foucault (as interviewed by Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy in 1977)<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the telecommunications minister of\u00a0Bangladesh declared a \u2018war on pornography\u2019<\/a>, blocking access to around 20,000 websites and banning TikTok, the Chinese-owned video production and sharing app. The move came after a petition citing \u2018obscenity\u2019 was filed by a civil society organization with the Bangladeshi High Court in November 2018.\u00a0India followed suit<\/a>, calling for a ban on TikTok over \u2018pornography concerns\u2019 in April this year, though the ban\u00a0has now been lifted<\/a>. In Indonesia,\u00a0TikTok ran into major trouble\u00a0<\/a>when the government accused it of disseminating \u2018pornographic\u2019 and \u2018blasphemous\u2019 content.<\/p>\n

But researchers in Sri Lanka have recently pointed to how TikTok is being used as a platform for performance and play by women[1]<\/a>. Of course, it\u2019s not the first time something that is being instrumentalized in the service of women\u2019s expression, particularly women\u2019s sexual expression, has been black-marked as dangerous and obscene. In fact, this is exactly how it goes.<\/p>\n

Historically, content which expresses women\u2019s desires or sexualities, or indeed any expression of desire and sexuality considered non-normative, has been first-up on the chopping block, labelled \u2018obscene\u2019. And it is not just governments who justify censorship by claiming \u2018obscenity\u2019. YouTube is just one of the major internet corporations who have come under fire for the\u00a0censorship of LGBTQ+ content<\/a>under restrictions meant to curb content considered pornographic or offensive. Restrictions on such platforms, which are meant to curtail material considered \u2018sexual\u2019 and therefore deemed harmful, have categorically been shown to unfairly affect LGBTQ+ content and content by women[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Historically, content which expresses women\u2019s desires or sexualities, or indeed any expression of desire and sexuality considered non-normative, has been first-up on the chopping block, labelled \u2018obscene\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The link between anything considered \u2018pornography\u2019 and \u2018harm\u2019 has been made time and again. Indeed, the debate about pornography has been raging for decades in our own backyard \u2014 it remains at the root of a major feminist faultline.<\/p>\n

In 1983, in the United States, feminist scholars Catharine Mackinnon and Andrea Dworkin were brought in to draft amendments to the Minneapolis city civil rights ordinance, as a response to growing concern about the city\u2019s adult entertainment district. They wrote an amendment that opponents saw as a de-facto ban, articulating sexually explicit material and its production and sale, as a violation of women\u2019s rights: \u201cthe sexually explicit subordination of women, graphically depicted\u201d as \u201ca form of discrimination on the basis of sex.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

It remains at the root of a major feminist faultline<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though the ordinance was struck down and later declared unconstitutional, this heralded the gathering of momentum of an anti-pornography movement.[4]<\/a>\u00a0On the other side, \u2018sex-positive\u2019 feminists tried to problematize the reductive narratives of \u2018violence\u2019, \u2018harm\u2019 and \u2018exploitation\u2019, claiming anti-pornography arguments authorized a censorial state to prohibit the expression of female sexuality, fundamentally ignored the fact of women\u2019s agency and diminished the political significance of women\u2019s sexual pleasure in a patriarchal world[5]<\/a>. Largely, feminists still remain divided on how feminists should assess porn and how we understand it.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

In India, in a pre-internet era, where the Hindu right-wing and the secular women\u2019s movement agreed on almost nothing, they came together in their fight against \u2018obscenity\u2019, when the release of the film Khalanayak (1993) and the film\u2019s most popular song \u2018Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai?\u2019 (translating to \u2018What\u2019s behind the blouse?\u2019) caught everyone\u2019s attention[7]<\/a>. A petition filed at the Delhi High Court which called for the deletion of the song from the film as well as a ban on audio cassette sales, stated the song was \u2018vulgar, against public morality and decency\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obscenity: a Colonial Legal Framework<\/h3>\n

The language around \u2018obscenity\u2019 forms one of the key legal bases for censorship in many countries; the idea seems to originate from colonial-era laws around obscenity which aimed to criminalize sexual expression and sexuality-related material (which could include sexuality-related educational information) as it was considered \u2018harmful\u2019 to society. In many contexts, as we know, colonial criminal law went further, criminalizing aspects of sexual behaviour, even if done in private, deemed \u2018unnatural\u2019.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Sexual expression is still widely considered \u2018harmful\u2019 to society, with no real proof, but not for a lack of investigation. With pornography, for example, innumerable studies have been done since the 1970s to investigate links between the consumption of pornography and harm.\u00a0It turns out there is, to date, no conclusive evidence to show that this link can be made.\u00a0<\/a>Trying to make a causal link between pornorgraphy and harm has proven problematic not just empirically but methodologically as well, primarily because of a continuing lack of clarity and agreement on what is meant by \u2018pornography\u2019 and \u2018harm\u2019.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Trying to make a causal link between pornorgraphy and harm has proven problematic not just empirically but methodologically as well<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we want to understand the real reach of these laws \u2014 that is to say, their ideological reach \u2014 they have to be considered as a sort of whole, a part of the same project, fundamentally underpinned by their shared goals to surveil, regulate and control sexuality, through censorship and criminalization, under the guise of \u2018protection\u2019, typically, of women and children. Women and children are still widely considered in need of protection from sexuality, particularly their own.<\/p>\n

The State Still Cares<\/h3>\n

Governments continue to care a great deal about the internet being a medium through which sexual and erotic material can be made and shared. This has become a common justification for state regulation of the internet.<\/p>\n

For example, India\u2019s IT Act of 2008 has several clauses pertaining to obscenity and sexual material. Sections 67 and 67A both outlaw the electronic publishing of \u2018obscene\u2019 material or any material recording \u2018sexual acts\u2019 respectively (with no reference to consent), though Section 66E interestingly explicitly draws on the language of \u2018consent\u2019: \u201cIf a person captures, transmits or publishes images of a person\u2019s private parts without his\/her consent or knowledge\u2026\u201d Richa Kaul Padte writes, \u201cIn this respect, section 66E is a progressive clause that places the absence of consent at the heart of criminalising an act.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the principle of consent embedded in this particular provision does not, unfortunately, give us an accurate understanding of the Act as a whole. The Act remains protectionist in its approach at best, and operates on the premise that \u2014 as Padte writes \u2014 \u201cif female sexuality is the culprit, public morality is the victim\u201d.<\/p>\n

As Padte writes \u2014 \u201cif female sexuality is the culprit, public morality is the victim\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Guardians of \u2018Free Speech\u2019<\/h3>\n

Governments of countries like China and Russia have gained notoriety for their sweeping internet censorship policies[11]<\/a>, while other forms of internet regulation, particularly by private actors, are relatively less talked about. As noted before, corporations and governments are seemingly equal partners in a crusade against sexual content. And yet corporations often seem above reproach.<\/p>\n

Slowly, the tide may be shifting.\u00a0Facebook has come under fire<\/a>\u00a0in a series of highly publicized Senate hearings in the US, which has led to increased scrutiny and debate about tech corporations responsibilities to users\u2019 rights and human rights more broadly.<\/p>\n

But it should come as no surprise that conversations about corporate internet regulation are slow to get airtime. A large part of the regular person\u2019s internet experience is shaped predominantly by about four or five US-based social media platforms, owned more or less by about two or three US-based corporations. It has become almost habit for many of us to point to governments of Global South \/ non-Western nations as purveyors of censorship, rather than turn to the corporate giants who regulate our internet experiences every minute.<\/p>\n

A large part of the regular person\u2019s internet experience is shaped predominantly by about four or five US-based social media platforms, owned more or less by about two or three US-based corporations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The crackdown on TikTok yields many interesting revelations in this regard: what is the role of geopolitics at play here, where a Chinese-owned app has come under censure for not conforming to the mostly West-determined ideas of what constitutes acceptable content? In addition, it raises the question of class and how class-based morality also finds its way into censorship policies: \u2018Tiktok has found particular popularity in smaller cities and towns among first-time internet users who don\u2019t speak English\u2019 says an Indian commentator[12]<\/a>. Sachini Perera and Minoli Wijetunge in their paper also address class, noting that Sri Lankan women users of TikTok were using the platform to subvert assumptions and \u2018shifts norms around women\u2019s sexuality, behaviour and class\u2019.[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Facebook, Instagram (owned by Facebook), Twitter and YouTube (owned by Google) all have their own user guidelines (used by the thousands of content moderators), which form the bases for content moderation. Though titled things like \u2018Community Standards\u2019[14]<\/a>, these guidelines are but frameworks for censorship.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, all content moderation, across all platforms, depends on reports from other users. Reporting objectionable content is encouraged. This exercise both cultivates a culture of community surveillance as well as exacts unpaid labour from platform users, a practice which\u00a0commentators have come to call \u2018outsourced content moderation\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Private Actors, Private Parts<\/h3>\n

Unsurprisingly, all major platforms have shown great concern over what they consider sexually explicit material.\u00a0YouTube\u2019s policy<\/a>\u00a0states, \u2018Explicit content meant to be sexually gratifying (like pornography) is not allowed on YouTube\u2019.\u00a0The Twitter Rules<\/a>\u00a0define adult content (which is disallowed) as \u2018any media that is pornographic and\/or may be intended to cause sexual arousal\u2019. So, sexual arousal and gratification are unacceptable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Facebook disallows adult nudity and sexual activity, the \u2018sexual exploitation\u2019 of both children and adults which includes but isn\u2019t limited to breaches of consent, and explicitly disallows sexual solicitation between adults. Facebook also elaborately describes what parts of the body (genitalia, buttocks etc.) it considers sexually explicit by default. Though many of these policies seem to draw from the logic of the colonial arguments of \u2018obscenity\u2019, their language is deliberately different. But it\u2019s important to remember that they are effectively setting out to perform the same function as those colonial-era laws, in the digital age.<\/p>\n

These online platforms are effectively setting out to perform the same function as those colonial-era laws, in the digital age.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All major platforms have come under some scrutiny in relation to how these policies are affecting the lives of real people. The\u00a0Free the Nipple campaign<\/a>\u00a0and its social media incarnation shone a light on the hypocrisy and sexism embedded in the blanket censure hich\u00a0 women\u2019s breasts online. But\u00a0if the changes in some of the social media policies on nudity<\/a>\u00a0are a reflection of the nipple debate, then we can conclude that even when breasts emerged victorious in the struggle, they were only acceptable in non-sexual contexts[15]<\/a>. Who\u2019s fighting for our right to bear our breasts, with all their sexual connotations?<\/p>\n

Instagram\u00a0came under considerable scrutiny after it took down a series of photographs shared by now popular poet Rupi Kaur, the first of which showed her sleeping in pants stained by menstrual blood<\/a>. These images did not, in effect, violate\u00a0its policy on nudity<\/a>\u00a0at all. This was just one illustration of how women\u2019s bodies, in general, and conversations about our sexual and reproductive health, are considered \u2018sexual in nature\u2019 and therefore \u2018harmful\u2019 by default.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Tumblr was for awhile seen as one of the mainstream internet\u2019s most open spaces. Late last year, Tumblr came out with\u00a0new rules<\/a>\u00a0which meant that \u201cPosts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr\u201d. \u2018Adult content\u2019 once again, includes genitalia and \u2018female-presenting nipples\u2019. Tumblr\u2019s new policies were met with outrage from many users, and\u00a0pushed sex-workers to other platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sex-workers have frequently raised the problem of structural inequality within social media platforms.\u00a0Sex-workers are outraged at the \u2018verified\u2019 status granted by Twitter to the account of the fictional sex-worker\/dominatrix<\/a>, a marketing tool for the new Netflix show \u2018Bonding\u2019 \u2014 a blue tick they say is difficult to come by if you\u2019re a real-life sex-worker. Instagram sparked outrage from sex-workers when it\u00a0censored the hashtag #Stripper<\/a>\u00a0and related hashtags, which were being used by sex-workers, dancers and adult entertainers to organize, share work and gain new employment.<\/p>\n

And who knows censure better than queers and\/or trans folks? The Electronic Frontier Foundation has written in its report about LGBTQ+ communities and the corporate web, \u201cpolicy restrictions on \u2018adult\u2019 content have an outsized impact on LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities.\u201d[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

And who knows censure better than queers and\/or trans folks?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clarity Haynes, a queer feminist artist,\u00a0wrote extensively about the censure of her work and information about her work<\/a>\u00a0from multiple platforms including Facebook and Instragram. She wrote, \u201cWhose nipples get censored? The rule is: women\u2019s do, men\u2019s don\u2019t. But there is a spectrum of breasts, just like there is a spectrum of gender. There are infinite possibilities of what breasts can look like, and they can belong to men, women, and nonbinary people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many saw the changes in Tumblr\u2019s policies as a part of a chain of events compelled by the passing of FOSTA\/SESTA[17]<\/a>\u00a0in the US last year: legislation which explicitly governs online sexual content under the \u2018anti-trafficking\u2019 umbrella[18]<\/a>\u00a0[19]<\/a>. And because of the immense concentration of internet governance power in a few US-based corporations, laws passed in the US shape internet activity in most countries.<\/p>\n

Increasing corporatization is also cited as a major reason<\/a>\u00a0behind the restrictions on \u2018adult content\u2019, such as what we have seen with Tumblr (now owned by Verizon). Queer and\/or trans folks, kink communities, queer and other sex-workers and adult entertainers, sexual health educators (many are overlapping categories) across the United States are facing profound difficulties staying online\u00a0amidst a growing trend of queer erasure online.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A luta continua (the struggle continues)<\/h3>\n

Rosa Luz is a trans activist and YouTuber in Brazil, who quite frankly states, \u201cThere are no other options. Once I disclose that I\u2019m transgender, I can\u2019t get any work. For me,\u00a0my YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0was the last option\u201d. Rosa and queer artists in Brazil are struggling under the foot of an extremely conservative regime led by Bolsanaro (elected last year), but\u00a0are not willing to give up the spaces they occupy online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Agents of Ishq\u00a0<\/a>is a Mumbai-based project designed to \u2018give sex a good name\u2019. Agents of Ishq employ Bollywood-style imagery and symbolism in their courageous and frank takes on desire, sex, consent, queerness and more, in the form of music videos, podcasts and blog posts, shared via YouTube and other social media.<\/p>\n

LGBTQ+ activists from Mexic<\/a>o to Bahrain<\/a>\u00a0are fighting at the frontlines of the struggle for digital rights, against repressive governments and disingenuous corporations, asserting the political importance of tools and methods such as anonymity and \u2018fake profiles\u2019, so that queer and\/or trans folks can continue being online.<\/p>\n

Around the world, LGBTQ+ activists, queer \u2018sex-positive\u2019 feminists, sex-workers, artists and educators are leading the charge against the increasingly complex webs of regulation and censorship of sexuality online, where corporate policies intersect with restrictive state law.<\/p>\n

Between the increasing conservatism meted out by right-wing governments and leaders, and the near-complete corporate capture of our governments and our societies, we see interesting shifts in the power structure when it comes to the censorship and regulation of sexuality online and offline; at times, reinforcing the power-bases of some of the more traditional players (such as political leaders and lawmakers), and at other times, giving more control to new players (such as internet corporations). This kind of regulation has to then be placed within the context of ongoing attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including on the rights of those of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and those born with variations in sex characteristics.<\/p>\n

We see interesting shifts in the power structure when it comes to the censorship and regulation of sexuality online and offline; at times, reinforcing the power-bases of some of the more traditional players (such as political leaders and lawmakers), and at other times, giving more control to new players (such as internet corporations).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It becomes increasingly important therefore to shift and realign our own focus in some ways \u2014 whether in activism and\/or research, we have to now hold more than one kind of actor accountable, both independently of each other but also in how they work together. We have to be especially vigilant about attempts to regulate sexual expression because it may be framed in a language different from the language of censorship we are used to. We have to critically interrogate laws and policies, by state and private actors, equally, allegedly meant to \u2018protect\u2019. Similarly, we have to sharpen our focus on who is most adversely affected by these attempts to \u2018protect\u2019. We have to substantively examine where the harmful effects of censorship are most keenly felt.<\/p>\n

The good news is that it is clear that, despite continuing double-standards being used in the service of the censure and regulation of women\u2019s sexualities, queer and non-normative sexualities and sexual expression, many internet users continue to subvert existing frameworks. After all, various forms of sexual expression have survived many centuries and several \u2018wars\u2019, ideological and legal. In reality, censorship has never really won, but especially not in its battle against sex.<\/p>\n

In reality, censorship has never really won, but especially not in its battle against sex.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:\u00a0GenderIT.org Blog: eroticslka.wordpress.com By Subha Wijesiriwardena \u201cSexuality could indeed be spoken of, spoken of a great deal, but only in order to forbid it.\u201d Michel Foucault (as interviewed by Bernard-Henri L\u00e9vy in 1977) Earlier this year, the telecommunications minister of\u00a0Bangladesh declared a \u2018war on pornography\u2019, blocking access to around 20,000 websites and banning TikTok, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,14,15,13,18,140,19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-gender-sexuality","category-gender-and-the-internet","category-internet-rights","category-new-media","category-sexuality","category-sexuality-sexuality","category-sogi","category-srhr"],"yoast_head":"\nPrivate Parts: Obscenity and Censorship in the Digital Age - 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