How This Trans Woman Is Making #FreeTheNipple As Inclusive As Possible

“Courtney Demone is a trans woman currently undergoing hormone replacement therapy and, as such, is starting to grow breasts. This experience, she wrote in a Mashable essay published Wednesday, has led her to realize the power of #FreeTheNipple in a new way — and how it can truly benefit others.

“‘When people start to consistently see me as a woman, my privilege to be comfortably topless in public will be gone for good,’ she writes. ‘We can challenge that.’

Demone’s solution? She’s launching the hashtag #DoIHaveBoobsNow and will post topless images of herself on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. She will do so, she writes, “until those networks decide that my breasts have developed enough to be sexualized and worthy of censorship” or, ideally, change their policies.

More at Mic

First Library to Support Anonymous Internet Browsing Effort Stops After DHS Email

“Used in repressive regimes by dissidents and journalists, Tor is considered a crucial tool for freedom of expression and counts the State Department among its top donors. But Tor has been a thorn in the side of law enforcement; National Security Agency documents made public by Snowden have revealed the agency’s frustration that it could only identify a “very small fraction” of Tor users….”

“Faced with police and city concerns, library director Fleming agreed to turn off the Tor relay temporarily until the board could reconsider. “We need to find out what the community thinks,” he said. “The only groups that have been represented so far are the Police Department and City Hall.”

More at ProPublica

Facebook’s Lack of Integrity

“…there are many people who have been using Facebook for building up communities, for sharing important information, and for starting businesses based around their professional persona — and some don’t use their legal names. And many of these — including drag performers, trans people, Native Americans, and domestic violence survivors — have very good reasons for not using their legal or birth names on Facebook.”

More at East Bay Express and at #MyNameIs Campaign

Art Display Pulled From Maryland School After Complaints

“Honors students at Oxon Hill High School were given an assignment to create a display that shows what social justice means to them. The exhibit was in the school’s lobby for weeks. It was taken down on Monday.

The display featured a white police officer reading an obituary section. Next to that was a figure of a black man in a blood-stained shirt with his hands up.”

More at Fox 5

Facebook Overhauls Its Inmate Account Takedown Process

“I believe connectivity is a human right, and that if we work together we can make it a reality.” – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, August 2013

“Here’s a dose of reality: for more than four years, Facebook has been cooperating with state and federal prisons to block inmates from connecting to the networking site without reporting that cooperation in its transparency report.”

More at Electronic Frontier Foundation