THEGAYUK

Tag: Sex Censorship

  • British gay film, Gods Own Country had its sex scenes removed on Amazon Prime

    British gay film, Gods Own Country had its sex scenes removed on Amazon Prime

    One of Britain’s most touching gay movies, God’s Own Country was gutted of its sex scenes and now some people are calling on Amazon Prime to be boycotted, however, it turns out that the cuts were made by the film’s distributor, not the streaming giant.

    The film’s creator Francis Lee raised the alarm on Twitter, when it was noted by reviewers on the Amazon website that some of the sex scenes had been removed.

    According to one of the reviews, at least two key scenes had been cut, one which included an oral sex scene and another which included an encounter with a third person.

    Embed from Getty Images

    Filmmaker Francis Lee initially took to Twitter to call for a boycott of Amazon Prime until he was given answers as to why the scenes were cut and that they weren’t showing the fil that he intended or made. He wrote,

    Francis Lee@strawhousefilms Dear friends in USA, God’s Own Country appears to have been censored on @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime). Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon Prime. It is not the film I intended or made. I will report back

    A few hours later he reported back, telling fans that after an investigation his film was not censored by Amazon Prime but by, he alleges, the US distributor, Samuel Goldwyn Films.

    He claims that the distributor “butchered” the streaming version without consultation “to get more revenue”.

    He added that Amazon Prime had been “incredibly supportive” in rectifying the issue.

    Samuel Goldwyn films are responsible for distributing hit films such as Fisherman’s Friends and Supersize Me.

    THEGAYUK.com reached out to Samuel Goldwyn films for comment.

  • Why are so many sites now banning adult content?

    Why are so many sites now banning adult content?

    With the announcement of Facebook’s new sexual content policy, we look at other internet platforms that have banned adult content.

    It was revealed last month that Facebook’s new sexual solicitation policy was hitting right at the heart of sexual interactions between people. Many critics believe that the move will hurt the LGBT+ community the most with the shocking revelation that people will no longer be able to discuss their preferred sexual roles, such as whether they are tops or bottoms.
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    But Facebook isn’t the first.

    Scruff, the gay dating app has had to ban various photos from being shown as profile pictures, including any pictures of guys in jockstraps, pictures with pubic hair on show or pictures which are sexual in nature.

    Grindr, also operates a similar photo policy.

    Instagram Users have long blasted the service for deleting their content. In 2018 gay pin-up magazine Meat‘s account was deleted twice, various celebs have hit out saying that the Facebook-owned entity had banned or blocked content.

    Tumblr Earlier in December blogging site, Tumblr announced that it was going to remove all adult content. It is believed that Apple forced the company to make the policy when it temporarily kicked the blogging site from its app store.

    Starbucks Also in December coffeeshop chain, Starbucks said that it had “identified a solution to prevent” porn from being viewed on its WIFI systems. It said would start blocking all sites from 2019.

    Craigslist shut down its personals listings, 2018 after US Congress passed a Sex Trafficking Bill. The personals had run since 1995. The Bill could subject websites found to be unknowingly hosting ads for sex trafficking to criminal and civil liabilities. As a result, Craigslist made the decision to remove all the personals from its site, saying, “Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline”.

    Google Drive Sex workers have allegedly seen files deleted or removed from their Google Drives. Numerous adult performers and sex workers have found that content hosted on Google Drive was no longer accessible. The service does have a policy which bans the hosting of “sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos”.

    Patreon, a payment collection site for content creators starting banning adult performers because its payment partners, Stripe and PayPal were refusing service.

    Reddit has banned all sex-work groups and in 2007 LiveJournal made headlines after removing a picture of a mother breastfeeding saying it went against their content policy. 

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  • LGBT Charity calendar banned from Facebook for “sexual activity” despite none

    LGBT Charity calendar banned from Facebook for “sexual activity” despite none

    Facebook’s over-eager censorship tools have caused the Naked Rugby Players page to be banned from Facebook.

    One of the UK’s top 5 charity calendars, has been banned from the social media giant, Facebook. The owners of the Naked Rugby Players charity calendar were banned this morning (16th December) and given the explanation that the picture uploaded to the platform contained genitals, sexual activity, explicit language or female nipples, despite the picture cleverly hiding every player’s genitals.

    The Naked Rugby Players calendar is a national calendar which aims to raise money for cancer charity, Balls To Cancer and LGBT+ inclusive rugby as well as bring awareness to testicle cancer and LGBT sports.

    However, the “offending” picture that was uploaded does not contain genitals, female nipples, sexual activity or sexually explicit language.

    In an explanation, Facebook told the page’s owners that the post went against their community standards and banned the page from commenting or posting for 24 hours.

    However, in a cruel double standard, Facebook hasn’t decided to delete other user’s content. Kim Kardashian-West’s page, which has over 27 million fans has dozens of naked women, which displays at least one fully naked frontal picture of a woman.

    The calendar’s Creative Director, Jake Hook said, “We take a huge amount of time on photo shoot days to ensure that everybody is comfortable and making absolutely 100 per cent sure that nobody’s genitals are on show. In fact, it is in our agreement with the clubs that take part that we make sure that no one’s genitals will be visible.

    “Facebook’s ban is obviously disappointing. We are so proud of this calendar and the message that it gives. Be proud of your body, be proud of your sexuality and be comfortable in your own skin”.

    Facebook’s Sexual Purge

    Facebook has come under fire recently for its brand new community standard’s policy. The policy which is named the “sexual solicitation” policy has been branded as “horrifying” by critics and it could adversely effect LGBT+ users on the platform.

    The policy could potentially ban gay, bisexual and transgender users from discussing whether they are top or bottoms on the site as it seeks to ban “sexual hints such as (the) mention of sexual roles, positions or fetish scenarios”.

    The platform says it is now “drawing a line” when any conversation leads to a “sexual encounter between adults”.

     

    Support the players

    If you’d like to support the players and buy the 2019 calendar you can visit their website where they are offering free shipping on calendars.

  • Celeb deletes his 4 million strong Facebook account for “demonising sexuality”

    Celeb deletes his 4 million strong Facebook account for “demonising sexuality”

    Chris “Leave her Alone” Crocker has deleted his Facebook social media profile following on from the news that the social media platform has introduced a raft of puritanical bans on sexual talk.

    By Chris Cunningham (Email (transferred from the English Wikipedia)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
    Chris Crocker has deleted his Facebook page, which had 4 million people following it, after the news that Facebook had enacted a brand new “sexual solicitation” policy.

    The policy could potentially ban gay, bisexual and transgender users from discussing whether they are top or bottoms on the site as it seeks to ban “sexual hints such as (the) mention of sexual roles, positions or fetish scenarios”.

    “Demonizes sexuality”

    Chris, who is an internet star, turned adult performer took to Twitter to say that despite the fact he had 4 million followers on Facebook, he would no longer “contribute content to a site that demonizes sexuality”.

    Facebook’s community standards say, “Do not post content that engages in implicit sexual solicitation, which can be identified by… using sexual hints such as mentioning sexual roles, sex positions, fetish scenarios, sexual preference/sexual partner preference, state of arousal, act of sexual intercourse or activity (sexual penetration or self-pleasuring), commonly sexualized areas of the body such as the breasts, groin, or buttocks, state of hygiene of genitalia or buttocks.”

    The policy change comes just a day after blogging site Tumblr said it was going to remove all adult content from its site.

    In a separate Twitter post, Chris wrote:

    The internet is becoming Anti-Sex.

    A long list of bans

    Facebook isn’t the first platform to take a stand on sexualised content. Earlier in December,

    Tumblr announced it was purging itself of sexualised content.

    Sex workers have seen files deleted or removed from their Google Drives

    Starbucks said it would be enacted a censorship tool for porn on its in-store WIFI

    Craigslist had its personals shutdown

    Reddit has banned all sex-work groups and

    Escorting sites such as Rentboys.com has been shuttered.

    What you can do

    Well, THEGAYUK.com has a social network where you are welcome to upload and talk about whatever you want – as long as it’s legal. Join today for free.

  • Starbucks is going to start blocking porn in 2019

    Starbucks is going to start blocking porn in 2019

    To become even more “welcoming” Starbucks is going to start blocking porn from its WIFI

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    Your ability to watch a creampie and eat a creampie at Starbucks is going to be halted in 2019 after the mega coffee chain claims to have to sourced a “solution” that will “prevent this content (porn) from being viewed” at its US locations from next year.

    A spokesperson for the company said, “To ensure the Third Place [Starbucks’ coffee shops] remains safe and welcoming to all, we have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our US locations in 2019”.

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    While we think this is probably a good idea, Jake Hook, THEGAYUK‘s editor warned that Starbuck must make sure it doesn’t block safe content from LGBT sites, saying, “Starbuck must ensure that it doesn’t inadvertently block LGBT content from valid news sources such as ours”, Jake Hook editor of THEGAYUK.com said today.

    However, speaking on CNN a Starbuck spokesperson said that it was working to ensure that the censoring tool doesn’t “block unintended content.”