• Stack of Roald Dahl books

    The Roald Dahl ‘Problem’: “A Clash Of The Culture War”

    Last week, Puffin Books and the Roald Dahl Story Company announced that they would be producing modern versions of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books, which would contain alterations to the language in order to bring his stories up-to-date with modern vernacular and remove potentially offensive language. Maria Sadek looks...
  • Real vs Virtual Crime: Illinois Senator Wants to Ban Violent Video Games

    Cora-Laine Moynihan TW: Discussion of video-game violence and sexual assault Violent video games have been under scrutiny ever since the release of Death Race in 1976. Their depictions of murder, maiming, dismemberment or sexual assault fuelled many campaigns for regulation. As graphics become ever more realistic, fears over the...
  • How US Presidential Power Has Gone Too Far

    With Trump engaging in a fact checking war with Twitter and stating on the Black Lives Matter protests that ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’, questions are being raised over whether presidential power in the US has gone too far. Last week when Trump claimed that Mail-In ballots...
  • Game Publisher Censors For China

    Game publisher Activision Blizzard are the masterminds behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch. They also enforce censorship for the Chinese government. You probably know about the situation in Hong Kong, where protesters are violently clashing with police over their rights to democracy. You’re probably not aware of Hearthstone, a...
  • YouTube: A Haven for Creators or a Platform Driven Only by Profit?

    YouTube has clearly evolved since it was first introduced to the world in 2005, though many believe that it was not for the better. Initially created by a group of friends hoping to help people share videos, it was later sold to Google, and has since become increasingly focused...
  • Censorship Is Never Acceptable

    Doing a sociolinguistics module last semester made me well aware of the power of language. We use the words we do to construct our own identities, and therefore language contributes to the shaping of society. This means that it can be used in harmful ways. Yet the beauty of...
  • ‘Politically Correct Students are Killing Free Speech’

    Sir David Greenaway has weighed in on the debate regarding censorship at universities stating that politically correct students are killing free speech. The Vice Chancellor of the University of Nottingham has argued that it is the role of universities to defend free speech and stand up against the Students’...