Month: March 2021

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News Briefs

Catholic Connect suspended from Instagram for apparent copyright infringement

March 1, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Denver Newsroom, Mar 1, 2021 / 06:19 pm (CNA).- Instagram this week suspended a popular Catholic account for apparent copyright violations.

Catholic Connect, an account sharing Catholic-themed content with a traditional bent aimed at young adults, was shut down Feb. 28 after Instagram notified its CEO of two copyright violations, the second of which did not appear to be related to anything Catholic Connect had shared.

Richy Orozco, CEO of Catholic Connect, told CNA that the first of the two copyright infringement complaints came from an Instagram account that had asked Catholic Connect to share one of its videos of a procession outside a Catholic church.

Orozco said he reached out to the account that owned the video immediately, but received no response.

A few hours later, Orozco says he got a second copyright infringement notification from Instagram, which showed him a small “preview” of the apparent offending material.

Orozco said he did not recognize the content, which appeared to be a video, in the preview provided by Instagram. He says his team also did not recognize the content.

Soon after, Orozco got an email from Instagram saying Catholic Connect had violated copyright and that “you are no longer permitted to use Instagram.”

“Your account has been reported multiple times for violating someone else’s rights. We previously warned you that if you continued to infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties, your account would be disabled,” the Feb. 28 notification email from Instagram, which Orozco shared with CNA, reads.

Instagram’s terms of use state that “We can refuse to provide or stop providing all or part of the Service to you…if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights.”

Catholic Connect had shared some 5,000 posts while it was active, including many memes and videos, generally with attribution.

Orozco said Catholic Connect has received copyright infringement claims before, but the last one was “over a year ago.”

“That’s why I wanted clarification from Instagram…it might not even be our content,” he said.

“If that’s so, then the account can be reinstated.”

Catholic Connect’s account had some 273,000 followers when it was suspended, the organization says. Orozco and the account’s team have appealed the suspension to Instagram.

Catholic Connect has created a new account under the name of @CatholicConnect2.0, which is active as of March 1.


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No Picture
News Briefs

Senate confirms nominee who supported transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports

March 1, 2021 CNA Daily News 0

Washington D.C., Mar 1, 2021 / 04:20 pm (CNA).- The Senate on Monday voted to confirm President Biden’s nominee for education secretary, who had supported males identifying as transgender females to participate in girls’ athletics.

Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s education commissioner, was confirmed on Monday by a vote of 64 to 33. At his Feb. 4 confirmation hearing, he said that male athletes identifying as transgender females should be allowed to play girls’ sports.

Questioned by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kent.) about the matter at his confirmation hearing, Cardona repeatedly stated that it “is the legal responsibility of schools to provide opportunities for students to participate in activities, and this includes students who are transgender.”

Several female athletes had sued the state of Connecticut in 2019, over the state’s policy of allowing student-athletes to compete in sports based on their “preferred gender identity” and not their biological sex. The girls alleged that they were discriminated against by having to compete against biological males.

The Trump-era Education Department issued a letter in 2019 stating that “boys can’t compete with girls in sports.” The agency also sided with the girls in the Connecticut transgender athletics case, saying that the state had violated Title IX through its policy.

However, last week the agency reversed course and withdrew its findings in the case. President Biden has already issued an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The order stated that part of the policy of his administration would be to allow students to play sports based on their gender identity.

When asked about the Education Department’s 2019 letter, Cardona would not say if he would continue to enforce the policy.  He answered that he would uphold “the civil rights of all students, and that includes activities they may engage in, in high school or in athletics.”

He later told Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) that it was “non-negotiable to make sure that our learning environments are places that are free of discrimination and harassment for all learners, including our LGBTQ students.” 

The White House has made a number of other appointments to the Education Department including Suzanne Goldberg, a former attorney with the pro-LGBT group Lambda Legal.

Goldberg, appointed to serve as assistant secretary in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, was the founding director of the Columbia Law School’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic, and co-director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law. Her university bio lists her as “a leading advocate and attorney for the LGBTQ+ community.”

At Columbia, Goldberg “reaffirmed” policies for students identifying as transgender in 2018, clarifying that students could access bathrooms based on their gender identity and students

She told the New York Times in 2020 that the Supreme Court’s Bostock ruling—which extended employment discrimination protections to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity—was “a simple and profound victory for L.G.B.T. civil rights.”


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