Easiest thing is to look at lists of banned books
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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We've already seen books being rewritten to remove certain (offensive) words or sections being removed from re-editions, ebooks being removed from our reading device entirely and, obviously, we've all seen books being censored in some (school) libraries. Ditto for some comics. It's a bit less known (?) but a few movies have already been edited too (removing scenes that today's audience would consider offensive, or adding scenes (like in the original trilogy of Star Wars: all new releases includes those added scenes). With IA there would be no difficulty to edit a single scene, or even just some part of it, say to remove something/someone now considered offensive. We're now really into Orwell's 1984.
Imho, the only way to fight against that trend is in owning physical copies of whatever content you want to preserve. That's why I quit watching streaming platforms and reading 'purchased' ebooks and went back to DVDs/physical books that I fully own and that can't be remotely edited/removed from my home by anyone.
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This is exactly what I'm talking about.
Can you think of any media that has been edited or will be edited?
I love archiving stuff and whether it's the aired only once episode of Rocco's modern Life, several episodes of it's always Sunny in Philadelphia, the TNG episode "Ensign Ro", or anything else!
I'm wondering what is on your list of stuff you know to have been or will be censored?
I can't tell the future. So, I don't have a list of what will edited/censored tomorrow ;)
I don't have a list of what have been edited either, sorry. Out of my mind, I think I can recall a few.
Most of us have at least heard about Amazon deleting t one edition of the '1984' novel from some of their customers device (one doesn't make that up—if you don't know what that book is about, it tells the story of fascist-like society in which the main characters works at the Truth Ministry, or something like that, and is charged with editing newspapers clips and change them (remove faces from pictures and change the text of the articles) so they always fit whatever the new and constantly changing narrative of that government is. I would encourage anyone to read it, as well as Huxley's 'Brave New World' which is at least as interesting as a way to question our own society).
But it should be really easy to find (many) other occurrences. Some about books or movies or series that were edited or completely suppressed because they're considered offensive to some audience, others because they're considered unhealthy (like removing the cigarette they were smoking, from some character's mouth). Others because the publisher did not like something in it or because the author wanted to—try to find a recent edition of the first trilogy of Star Wars without the added extra scenes Lucas so much wanted to put in.
And then there are the endless list of books, movies, series (and probably music too) that are not streamed at all or not re-printed. Either because they're not considered worth it, or because someone is afraid of the audience's reaction.
I won't list the one I have I can remember because I know very well some people are only waiting for that kind of excuse to jump in the conversation, without any other desire than to get offended and to create some polemic.
In any case, I consider the ever rising call to censorship, no matter the motivation, a good reason to own a copy of whatever I want to be able to read, listen to or watch, no matter what anyone could think about it.
And for all the content for which there is no print, DVD or CD available, no physical media at all, well, too bad for them I suppose because... they won't get my money. Simple as that. I already have access to enough offline/physical content to last me more than the time I have left to live, and I really don't think I will lose much by not being able to read the latest best-sellers, or watch the latest series or movies.
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