title: The Haunted Mansion

text: After Disney's death in December 1966, the project evolved significantly. The Museum of the Weird restaurant idea was abandoned. The Imagineers objected to a walk-through attraction's low capacity, going so far as suggesting building two identical attractions to accommodate twice as many guests. A solution appeared with the development of the Omnimover system for Adventure Thru Inner Space. Renamed the Doom Buggy, the system's continuous chain of semi-enclosed vehicles offered high capacity. The cars could be set to rotate in any direction at any point, allowing the Imagineers to control what guests saw and heard. Because each car held from one to three people, it was a convenient way to divide guests into smaller groups—a better fit with the story of people wandering "alone" through a haunted house.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Employee previews of the Mansion were held August 6, 7, and the 8th, followed by "soft" openings on August 9 and 10 where limited numbers of park guests were allowed to ride. A "Midnight" Press Event was held on the evening of August 11. The Mansion opened to all guests on August 12, 1969, announced in full-page newspaper ads. It was an immediate success, attracting record crowds and helping the Disney Company recover from Walt's untimely death.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In around 1977, WDI considered utilizing the unused designs, creatures and effects that Rolly Crump had originally created for the Haunted Mansion and the Museum of the Weird as part of Professor Marvel's Gallery—"a tent show of mysteries and delights, a carousel of magic and wonder," to be built as part of Disneyland's Discovery Bay expansion area. The idea was dropped when the expansion's plans fell through.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The attraction opened at Magic Kingdom in 1971 and Tokyo Disneyland in 1983. In 1999, a retrospective, "Art of The Haunted Mansion", was featured at The Disney Gallery above the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. When the 2003 film "The Haunted Mansion" was released, a retrospective of its art was featured in the gallery.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In 1994, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion was updated. A phantom piano player sat at a run-down piano in the attic scene, just like the music room at Walt Disney World's Mansion. However, instead of the sinister Rachmaninoff-esque version of "Grim Grinning Ghosts", a dark version of Richard Wagner's "Bridal March" plays.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In 2001, a newer, more detailed safety spiel was added to the Doom Buggies' onboard audio as they left the loading area. Recorded by voice-over artist Joe Leahy recreating the character of original actor Paul Frees' Ghost Host, the bilingual spiel was part of a park-wide campaign to increase safety at attractions. The seasonal overlay Haunted Mansion Holiday also premiered that October in Disneyland, featuring characters from the 1993 film "The Nightmare Before Christmas".


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In 2004, the Seance Room was updated so the crystal ball with the talking head of Madame Leota floated above its table rather than sitting stationary on it, with the original projection-mapped effect replaced by a rear-projection effect within the ball.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In 2006, the unnamed bride with a visibly beating heart in the Attic was replaced by the bride character Constance Hatchaway, a villainess who married wealthy men and killed them for their wealth. The character was added to Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion in 2007.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In 2007, the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World was reopened to the public. Included in the update was a more elaborate transformation of the foyer portrait; new visual and audio effects in the Stretching Room; and a new M.C. Escher-inspired Endless Staircase scene, replacing the two rubber spiders seen just before the Endless Hallway.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: In March 2011, a new "interactive queue" debuted at the Walt Disney World location, with new crypts and tombstones honoring Imagineers; a murder mystery for guests to solve featuring the sinister Dread Family; the Composer Crypt, which features musical instruments that play variations of "Grim Grinning Ghosts" when touched; the Mariner's brine-filled sepulcher, whose ghost sings and sneezes from within, and a crypt for Prudence Pock the poetess, which features haunted moving books & Prudence's ghost writing invisibly in her poem book. Guests can solve the unfinished poems by speaking into microphones located on the crypt. The FastPass+ line skips the queue altogether and leads guests straight to the Foyer doors. There is also an extended queue line that uses the former Mike Fink Keel Boats dock.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: On April 10, 2015, it was officially confirmed that an iconic Haunted Mansion character, The Hatbox Ghost, would return to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. The character returned on May 9, 2015. The Hatbox Ghost was originally a part of the attraction when it opened in 1969, but was removed when the illusion involving the specter's head was not convincing enough. The character wll be added to Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion in 2023.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: On April 2, 2019, PhotoPass ride photography was added to the attraction at Magic Kingdom. A hidden camera takes pictures of the riders as the doom buggy passes the final portrait in the portrait gallery, with the flash disguised as flickering lightning. A black and white photo featuring the riders framed by several of the ghosts surrounding the photo is automatically added to the guests' PhotoPass account by reading the RFID data from the guest's second-generation MagicBand.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: On January 21, 2020, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion was closed for an extensive refurbishment to add lighted steel panels, improved lighting, mechanical touch ups, and new paint and trims to the exterior of the attraction. The changes were originally scheduled for completion in Spring 2020, but an extended park closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic created uncertainty. It was later confirmed that the refurbished attraction would reopen with the park on April 30, 2021. This refurbishment came with a refreshed pet cemetery, now with new greenery and plants. The portrait gallery was given new drapes curtains and the loading area is much more decorative with wallpaper and the return of one of the Haunted Mansion's original portraits being "April to December". Also featuring a statue of the one-eyed cat. The rest of the attraction was given repairs and new lighting. In addition, new secret entrance was added to the ride by using the chicken exit. Once the crypt door opened, visitors would be directed down a flight of stairs and through a utility passageway usually used by cast members.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Guests enter the queuing area through a garden containing a pet cemetery and a carriage led by an invisible horse, which occasionally nickers. This leads into the Haunted Mansion, where the deep voice of the invisible Ghost Host (Paul Frees) delivers a short opening monologue. After that, guests enter the elevator room: a portrait gallery containing four paintings, each depicting a person from the chest up. While the Ghost Host challenges guests to find a way out, the room "stretches" vertically, and the portrait frames appear to elongate, revealing how three of the characters died and suggesting that the fourth is an axe murderer. As the Ghost Host states that the guests can take "his way" out, the room goes dark, the ceiling vanishes, and lightning flashes to reveal the cupola, in which hangs the Ghost Host's skeletal corpse from the rafters by a noose, implying that he committed suicide to try to escape. A shriek is then heard, falling from the ceiling to the floor, ending with the sound of the corpse hitting the floor. This prompts the Ghost Host to apologize to the guests. A wall opens, exposing a long portrait corridor leading to the Loading Area, where black carriages called Doom Buggies descend one staircase and ascend another to the second floor. The corridor contains portraits on the right whose subjects change into horror-themed versions of themselves as lighting flashes from the windows on the left. At the end of the corridor are two busts who appear to "follow" the guests with their gazes.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The Doom Buggies pass by a candelabra floating down an endless hallway. Near the hallway's entrance is a moving suit of armor and a chair with an abstract face. The Doom Buggies then turn to view a glass conservatory filled with dead, withered plants and flowers. A casket is also seen, and its occupant is heard calling out for help to escape. The Doom Buggies then travel down the Corridor of Doors. The sounds of pounding, shrieking, calls for help, screams, knocking, and maniacal laughter can be heard from behind the doors. Knockers and handles move independently, and some doors appear to be "breathing." Guests then pass by a demonic grandfather clock striking thirteen as the big hand turn backwards with devil's tail swings back and forth as a pendulum, while the shadow of a claw passes over it.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Guests enter a dark Séance Room full of floating objects. Madame Leota, a blue-haired witch/medium whose disembodied head appears within a misty crystal ball, summons the Mansion's spirits. Floating objects and instruments respond in turn.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: After leaving the Séance Circle, guests move onto a ballroom where ghosts are enjoying a party. Ghosts fly in and out of the room via the walls and windows. Several ghosts have a tea party where one blows out the candles of a deathday cake. Six ghost couples waltz to the wedding music. One ghost is seen playing a pipe organ.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Guests enter the attic, an irregularly-shaped room with gifts, items, mementos, and wedding portraits. In each portrait, the same bride is seen with a different groom, whose heads disappear only to reappear a moment later. They then see the bride, Constance Hatchaway, reciting wedding vows. As she raises her arms, a hatchet appears and disappears in her hands between vows.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The Doom Buggies drift out of an attic window and onto the balcony towards the Hatbox Ghost amidst a starry night sky. Reaching the ground, they turn towards the gate of the Graveyard, where guests see a frightened caretaker and his dog. Around the corner, the spirits of the dead have risen from their graves and are partying enthusiastically. Ghouls also pop up from behind the gravestones, some of which appear to move. Guests also pass by a group of five busts singing the song "Grim, Grinning Ghosts". As the Doom Buggies approach the entrance of a large crypt, the Ghost Host warns them about hitchhiking ghosts as the Doom Buggies pass a group of three ghosts thumbing for a ride. Around the corner, in large mirrors, the guests see that one of the ghosts from the trio is in the buggy with them. The guests then disembark their Doom Buggies and ascend back to the "living world." A small version of the Ghost Hostess encourages them to return.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The Haunted Mansion was an opening-day attraction at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, where it is part of Liberty Square. During the production and assembly of the props and audio-animatronics for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, duplicates of everything were being made for Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion. It was decided that the Florida version of the attraction would be slightly longer and more elaborate than its California counterpart featuring a Library stocked with "ghost stories" and staring marble busts of great ghost writers, a Music Room where the shadow of the invisible pianist can be seen in the floor, and an Endless Staircase inspired by M. C. Escher's "Relativity". Paul Frees recorded additional voice-overs, including the "Ghost Host" to accompany the extra scenes in the ride. Because of the ample space within the park, the attraction's show building is much larger and not restricted by any railroad berm. When passing the graveyard gates on line, six head busts, two on one stand, that contain the Dread Family: a family that killed each other for wealth. The members are Uncle Jacob, Bertie, Aunt Florence Dread (née McGriffin), twins Wellington and Forsythia, and Cousin Maude. Bertie killed Jacob with poison from his snake, Florence killed Bertie for revenge with her gun, Wellington and Forsythia killed Florence as revenge for Florence doing a rogue shot and killing their pet canary, and Maude killed the twins with her croquet mallet. Maude accidentally killed herself by forgetting that she put matches in her hair to hold her bun together and setting a fire that killed her.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The Haunted Mansion was an opening day attraction at Tokyo Disneyland, where it is part of Fantasyland. The Tokyo Disneyland version is largely a duplicate of the Magic Kingdom version, although it features some updated lighting, and did not receive the changes made in the 2007 refurbishment of the Magic Kingdom version.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Due to the success of attractions that feature holiday overlays such as The Country Bear Christmas Special and It's a Small World Holiday, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland is transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday during the Halloween and Christmas seasons and has been since 2001, inspired by Tim Burton's 1993 film "The Nightmare Before Christmas". The Haunted Mansion is closed in mid to late August for a few weeks as they revamp the attraction before opening again in September, replacing many of the props and Audio-Animatronics with characters and themes from the movie. The Haunted Mansion Holiday closes in early January to restore the attraction back to the original Haunted Mansion and reopens late January.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: The Magic Kingdom does not have its own holiday edition of the Haunted Mansion and the regular ride operates continuously through the holiday season. The Magic Kingdom was initially supposed to have the overlay as sets, props, and animatronics were created for Magic Kingdom, but they rejected the overlay because Walt Disney World gains more tourists than Disneyland due to being a vacation destination unlike Disneyland being more of a regional theme park with reoccurring guests, so keeping the original ride year-round felt more appropriate. The sets, and props were sent to Tokyo Disneyland as their Haunted Mansion is a duplicate of Magic Kingdom's version.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Disneyland Paris features Phantom Manor, a "re-imagined" version of the Haunted Mansion. The house is a Western Victorian, in the Second Empire architectural style, based on the look of the Fourth Ward School House in Virginia City, Nevada. Along with the Western architectural style, the attraction uses a Western plot to fit in with the Thunder Mesa and Frontierland backdrop.


title: The Haunted Mansion

text: Mystic Manor, spiritually inspired by the Haunted Mansion, opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in spring 2013. Unlike the Haunted Mansion, however, it does not include references to departed spirits or the afterlife, due to differences in traditional Chinese culture. Continuing the Society of Explorers and Adventurers theme of Tokyo DisneySea, the attraction tells the story of Lord Henry Mystic and his monkey Albert. Having recently acquired an enchanted music box with the power to bring inanimate objects to life, Albert opens the box and brings all of the house's artifacts to life. The attraction's exterior is that of a large Victorian mansion in an elaborate Queen Anne architectural style, and the experience features a trackless "ride" system and a musical score by Danny Elfman.


title: Colonial colleges

text: The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the United States of America became a sovereign nation after the American Revolution. These nine have long been considered together, notably since the survey of their origins in the 1907 "The Cambridge History of English and American Literature".


title: Colonial colleges

text: Seven of the nine colonial colleges became seven of the eight Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Dartmouth. (The remaining Ivy League institution, Cornell University, was founded in 1865). These are all private universities.


title: Colonial colleges

text: The two colonial colleges not in the Ivy League are now both public universities — The College of William & Mary in Virginia and Rutgers University in New Jersey. William & Mary was a royal institution from 1693 until the American Revolution. Between the Revolution and the American Civil War, it was a private institution, but it suffered significant damage during the Civil War and began to receive public support in the 1880s. William & Mary officially became a public college in 1906.


title: Colonial colleges

text: Rutgers was founded in 1766 as Queen's College, named for Queen Charlotte, and was for much of its history privately affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church. It changed its name to Rutgers University in 1825 and was designated as the State University of New Jersey after World War II.


title: Colonial colleges

text: Seven of the nine colonial colleges began their histories as institutions of higher learning, while two were developed by existing preparatory schools. Dartmouth College began operating in 1768 as the collegiate department of Moor's Charity School, a secondary school started in 1754 by Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock. Dartmouth considers its founding date to be 1769, when it was granted a collegiate charter. The University of Pennsylvania began operating in 1751 as a secondary school, the Academy of Philadelphia, and added an institution of higher education in 1755 with the granting of a charter to the College of Philadelphia.


title: Colonial colleges

text: Several other colleges and universities can be traced to colonial-era "academies" or "schools", but are not considered colonial colleges because they were not formally chartered as colleges with degree-granting powers until after the formation of the United States in 1776. Listed below are the founding dates of the schools which served as predecessor entities and the years in which they were chartered to operate an institution of higher learning.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard AG is an insolvent German payment processor and financial services provider whose former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company announced that €1.9 billion in cash was missing. It owed €3.2 billion in debt. The company is being dismantled after it sold the assets of its main business unit to Santander Bank for €100 million in November 2020. Other assets, including its North American, UK and Brazilian units had been previously sold at nondisclosed prices. The company offered electronic payment transaction services and risk management, and issued and processed physical and virtual cards. As of 2017, the company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was a part of the DAX stock index from September 2018 to August 2020.


title: Wirecard

text: The company is at the center of an international financial scandal. Allegations of accounting malpractices had trailed the company since the early days of its incorporation, reaching a peak in 2019 after the "Financial Times" published a series of investigations along with whistleblower complaints and internal documents. On 25 June 2020, Wirecard filed for insolvency following revelations that an amount of €1.9 billion was "missing". Long-time CEO Markus Braun subsequently resigned and was later arrested. Former COO Jan Marsalek disappeared, after being fired from his position and board seat, and remains a fugitive wanted by the German police.


title: Wirecard

text: On 25 August 2020, the court-appointed insolvency administrator issued a statement that "under the preliminary insolvency administration, it has since been possible to stabilize the ongoing business and create a basis for its continuation." The statement mentioned how "far-reaching cuts are therefore necessary in order to make any kind of continuation possible" and announced the impending layoff of around 730 employees, in addition to all members of the management board.


title: Wirecard

text: In March 2022, Munich public prosecutors charged former CEO, Markus Braun, with fraud, breach of trust and accounting manipulation. If found guilty on all these charges, he could face up to 15 years in prison. Braun was held in the Stadelheim prison as a pre-trial custody until the trial began.


title: Wirecard

text: The company was founded in 1999. In 2002, when it was close to folding at the end of the dot-com bubble, Markus Braun injected capital and joined as CEO. He consolidated the company and focused the business model on providing internet payment services, initially mainly to porn and gambling websites.


title: Wirecard

text: The predecessor company of Wirecard regarding the IPO was InfoGenie AG based in Berlin, whose shares had been listed in the "Neuer Markt" stock market segment since October 2000. This company was active as an information service provider offering telephone advice hotlines on various topics. When the shares became penny stocks following price losses, the stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse wanted to exclude InfoGenie from the "Neuer Markt", which was prohibited by court in April 2002. In mid-December 2004, an extraordinary general meeting of InfoGenie decided to transfer the non-listed Wirecard, whose core business was real-time payment processing on the Internet including risk assessment, to InfoGenie AG by way of a capital increase against investment in kind on 1 January 2005, and to rename InfoGenie to Wire Card. Thus, Wire Card became a stock corporation listed in the Prime Standard stock market segment through a reverse IPO. In 2006, Wirecard was included in the TecDAX and in September 2018 in the DAX.


title: Wirecard

text: "Wirecard Asia Pacific" was founded in Singapore in 2007. In 2008, Wirecard introduced virtual prepaid credit cards for online payments and in the following year a fraud prevention suite for fraud detection. In 2014, Wirecard expanded to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Turkey. With the purchase of "Prepaid Card Services" from Citigroup, Wirecard has also been represented in USA since 2016. In the same year, the company acquired a South American Internet payment service provider in Brazil. In 2019, SoftBank invested in Wirecard. With the acquisition of "AllScore Payment Services" from Beijing, Wirecard has also been represented in China since November 2019.


title: Wirecard

text: Beginning in April 2015, the "Financial Times" blog FT Alphaville wrote a series of blog posts that questioned Wirecard's business model and criticised the company's accounting practices.


title: Wirecard

text: In February 2016, the 101-page "Zatarra Report" appeared, documenting alleged fraud and money laundering at Wirecard. It was co-written by British short sellers Fraser Perring of Viceroy Research and Matthew Earl of ShadowFall, who sent the report to the German financial agency Bafin. On the urging of Wirecard, Bafin and Bavarian prosecutors then initiated criminal investigations against Perring and other short sellers for market manipulation. The cases were dropped in March 2020. In February 2017, the German "Manager Magazin" published a lengthy article about Wirecard in which it alleged misleading reporting practices.


title: Wirecard

text: On 30 January 2019, Wirecard shares plunged after the "Financial Times" reported that a senior executive was suspected of "falsification of accounts" and "money laundering" and round-tripping in the company's Asia-Pacific operations. Wirecard issued a statement calling the report "false, inaccurate, misleading and defamatory". Wirecard also announced a lawsuit against the "Financial Times" for "unethical reporting" and a lawsuit for market manipulation.


title: Wirecard

text: The public prosecutor's office Munich I in February 2019 launched criminal investigations against "Financial Times" journalist Dan McCrum because of alleged violations of the German Securities Trading Act ("Wertpapierhandelsgesetz", "WpHG"). The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority BaFin banned short selling Wirecard shares on 18 February 2019 until 18 April 2019. According to BaFin, the measure is not meant to take sides in the controversy between Wirecard and the "Financial Times". On 15 October 2019, "Financial Times" published documents which it claimed to be Wirecard's internal accounting spreadsheets.


title: Wirecard

text: In 2019, the accounting firm KPMG was hired by Wirecard for an independent audit to address the mentioned allegations. In March 2020, Wirecard claimed that KPMG concluded that no discrepancy was determined during the audit. London Based Hedge-Fund TCI and others shortsellers like Armin S. filed criminal charges against Wirecard.


title: Wirecard

text: However, on 28 April 2020, Wirecard shares tumbled 26% when the auditor announced that it had not received sufficient documentation to address all allegations of accounting irregularities. Later on 5 June, Wirecard's headquarters were searched by police as part of a criminal investigation into potentially misleading statements to investors by CEO Markus Braun and three other board members regarding the audit. The company then reported on 18 June 2020 that €1.9 billion was missing in cash from the company's accounts following an audit by Ernst & Young. Braun resigned as CEO the following day to be replaced by James Freis. Over the two days, the company's stock fell 72%. On 22 June 2020, Braun was arrested by German police under accusations of "inflating Wirecard AG's sales volume with fake income". On 11 September 2020, Freis announced in an email that he had stepped down from the CEO position after 85 days, with immediate effect.


title: Wirecard

text: In January 2020, Wirecard announced that a contract extension would be offered to chief executive Markus Braun. But its long-time chairman stepped aside, and in April an auditor found questionable accounting practices. According to auditing firm Ernst & Young, a trustee of Wirecard tried to "deceive the auditor", resulting in the bank processor being unable to release the share results for 2019. In a statement, Wirecard announced that it is "working intensively together with the auditor towards a clarification of the situation".


title: Wirecard

text: In June 2020, it was revealed that €1.9 billion was "missing". As a result, Wirecard's share value decreased by over 72%, and its CEO Markus Braun resigned. Wirecard appointed James Freis to the position on an interim basis. Freis had only joined the company the evening before. A few days later, the management board stated that the €1.9 billion amount likely did not exist. Two banks in the Philippines who were allegedly holding the money said that they did not have the sum and never did. The firm's Moodys credit rating was demoted to B3 on 19 June 2020 before this rating was removed entirely 3 days later.


title: Wirecard

text: A criminal investigation began on 22 June 2020 and Wirecard's recently resigned CEO, Markus Braun, was arrested the same day. On 25 June, Wirecard filed for bankruptcy citing "over-indebtedness". On 25 August 2020, the firm's administration axed the contracts of its chief executive manager and additional two other managers. Furthermore, 730 company staff were also cut. In September 2020, the German parliament announced that it would organize an inquiry in order to fully investigate the reasons why the government failed to prevent corporate fraud.


title: Wirecard

text: The UK Financial Conduct Authority froze the activities of Wirecard's British subsidiary, Wirecard Card Solutions Limited, between 26 June 2020 and 30 June 2020, after which Wirecard UK operations were allowed to resume with relaxed restrictions. Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), announced in September 2020 that it has directed Wirecard's Singapore branch to stop their payment services there and return all funds owed in light of the company's insolvent business and inability to continue providing payment services in Singapore.


title: Wirecard

text: A report published in June 2020 by the interdisciplinary journalism laboratory Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto stated that persons and organisations publicly critical of Wirecard had been the target of sustained hacking and phishing attempts by a hackers-for-hire group dubbed Dark Basin. According to the report, some of the critical entities, which included hedge funds, short sellers, investigators, and journalists, were "targeted almost daily for months, and continued to receive messages for years". The report linked the attacks "with high confidence" to the Indian company "BellTroX InfoTech" which has a history of other hacking-for-hire operations. U.S. prosecutors in New York and the FBI have reportedly started an investigation into the hacker-for-hire allegations. Wirecard denied any wrongdoing.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard was an international supplier of electronic payment and risk management services. Wirecard offered products and services in the areas of mobile payments, e-commerce, digitisation and finance technology. This comprised the integration of payment methods, payment transactions via e-commerce as well as payment transactions at the stationary checkout (POS). In these areas, Wirecard claimed working in cooperation with 280,000 companies (as of December 2018), including Allianz, KLM, Qatar Airways, Rakuten.com and Transport for London, among others. The transaction volume in 2018 was US$125 billion and in the first half of 2019 the transaction volume grew by 37.5 per cent to EUR 77.3 billion.


title: Wirecard

text: Starting in 2015, Wirecard offered consumers the fully digitalised, mobile payment-app Boon, which works independently of banks or network operators. Boon is based on a virtual Mastercard and runs on mobile devices with the Android or iOS operating systems. The Android version is currently available in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. In addition, Boon can be used via Apple Pay in France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Germany. Google Pay supports Boon in France. Boon offers contactless payments via smartphone and tablet through NFC as well as online payments and peer-to-peer transactions.


title: Wirecard

text: In the mobile payments sector, Wirecard negotiated several contracts with telecommunications providers for technical services with regard to mobile smartphone payments based on near-field communication (NFC). The payment processor offers its partners a mobile card reader as a white label programme for the acceptance of card payments via smartphones or tablets.


title: Wirecard

text: In terms of acquiring, one focus is travel and transport. Already in 2007, Wirecard took over payments and credit control for the tour operator TUI, and in 2014 for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The product Supplier and Commission Payments (SCP) by Wirecard is also made to measure the travel sector. It is based on the automatic output of virtual credit cards and enables electronic payments to partners and suppliers, for instance for commission payments. In this way international payments can be made via electronic transfer of virtual credit card numbers.


title: Wirecard

text: Since 2014, Wirecard has offered its Checkout Portal – a fully automated application for easily connecting different payment methods in online shops, with a focus on SMEs and virtual marketplaces.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard also supports high-street retail with digitisation; an example of this is the collaborative project with T-Systems. In 2016, together with the WMF Group, Wirecard developed a mobile app which connects store purchases with online sales.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard has been collaborating with Alipay since 2015, to offer Chinese tourists a familiar payment method during their travels in Europe. As part of this, Wirecard has integrated this alternative payment method into the till systems of retailers such as Printemps, The Body Shop and The National Bank of Greece. The payment procedure has also been integrated with retailers at Munich Airport.


title: Wirecard

text: Many companies worked with Wirecard to issue their own payment cards of various kinds. Some well-known partnerships include: Curve; start-up banks such as Atom and money apps including Revolut and Pokit, and spending management apps such as Loot.


title: Wirecard

text: On June 22, 2020, Wirecard announced that financial data for the previous years might be incorrect. According to a report by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the public prosecutor's office assumes that the company has manipulated balance sheets since 2014.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard is a global company founded in 1999, which operates across all continents worldwide since 2017.


title: Wirecard

text: Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd. (WDCS) is a wholly owned subsidiary headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, with an e-money licence that allows it to issue virtual cards. It provided numerous mobile payment applications and Wirecard's own mobile payment app, Boon.


title: Wirecard

text: It entered the U.S. market in 2017 following completion of the takeover of Citi Prepaid Services. Wirecard took over the Brazilian company MOIP in 2016. The previous year, in 2015, it entered the Indian market with the acquisition of the Great Indian Retail Group's payment business. Wirecard has been strengthening its operations in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa since 2014.


title: Wirecard

text: In August 2020, it was announced that Railsbank, a start-up sponsored by Visa, is set to buy the Wirecard's UK-based businesses. No financial information was disclosed and the deal is set to be finished in November 2020. Additionally, the Brazilian business of the company was sold to PagSeguro Digital, a firm based in New York City.


title: Raft (video game)

text: Raft is an open world survival video game developed by Swedish developer Redbeet Interactive, and published by Axolot Games. The game was released as an early access title on 23 May 2018 on Steam, after initial release as a free download on indie platform Itch.io in 2016. The game was taken out of early access and its full version was released on 20 June 2022 with the release of the game's final chapter.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The game is played from the first-person and third-person perspective and can be played either in the single-player or multiplayer mode. With the latter, the server is automatically provided by the game and the game takes place in co-op mode.


title: Raft (video game)

text: After a world is created, the player starts on a 2x2 raft in the middle of an ocean. The player starts only with a hook that they can aim and throw to catch barrels, wood, palm fronds, plastic, crates, and other objects out of the water. The player can leave the raft and collect things while swimming, but must be careful as the raft is always moving due to the continuous ocean current. The player can also be attacked or killed by sharks that are always swimming around the raft. These sharks will also occasionally attack corners of the raft, destroying parts of it. Using a crafting system, the player can use the collected materials to assemble and research new items and to expand and improve the raft. For example, tools, weapons and nets can be manufactured steering wheel can be made. These can be used control and guide the raft, increase the size and stability of the raft, and defend the raft from the sharks.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The player also needs to manage basic needs like hunger and thirst by catching or growing food and purifying water to drink, but when growing food, the player must shelter the food they're growing due to sea gulls swooping down and eating the seeds. During the game, the raft may pass by islands which the player can explore to get special items and resources. The player can also dive in coastal regions and collect special items.


title: Raft (video game)

text: With the help of a two-way radio, the player unveils the game's storyline, in which the world has been deserted, while the player character is searching for her husband and daughter. On her journey, she discovers various locations, such as an crashed yacht, a large land-mass which seems to be a wildlife reserve, a shantytown built out of scrap metal, and a large dome-like structure floating in the ocean that served as a haven for civilization. The notebook the player acquires at the start tracks story progression, with each major location visited marked with separate entries.


title: Raft (video game)

text: In the near future, climate change and rising temperatures have caused the polar ice caps to melt, flooding the entire planet and leaving almost no dry land to settle on. Civilization collapsed as desperate plans to reverse the flooding failed or were abandoned. Eventually, the world's elite decided to abandon dry land altogether to live on floating cities, while the rest of the population are left to fend for themselves in a flooded world.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The player takes on the role of a Forward Scout, a survivor who ventures out into the open sea in search of habitable land and resources.


title: Raft (video game)

text: With nothing but a simple raft, the Forward Scout sets out into the open ocean in search of a rumored "Utopia" where there it is said there is still dry land to live on. Using a radio receiver, the Forward Scout follows a trail of radio signals. Their first location is a Radio Tower that used to be a nuclear reactor testing site. The Forward Scout then comes across a derelict luxury yacht called the "Vasagatan", once owned by Olof Wilkstrom, a government official who was in charge of preventing Sweden from being flooded. However, instead of working on anything meaningful, he built the "Vasagatan" and fled the country. Despite this, the lack of supplies and a potential mutiny forced Olof to abandon ship and leave the crew to their fate. The Forward Scout is then led to the uninhabited Balboa Island and then to Caravan Town, which was once a bustling island town until its residents were forced to abandon it due to a salmonella outbreak.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The Forward Scout continues to follow the trail of the survivors until they find the abandoned floating city of Tangaroa. Upon searching the city, the Forward Scout learns that the Caravan Town survivors attempted to board Tangaroa, forcing the city's captain to open fire on them. However, the violence sparked violent riots among Tangaroa's population, while at the same time the city's food supplies were destroyed by a beetle infestation and the reactor failed due to stress caused by the captain burning out the engines in an attempt to outrun the Caravan Town survivors. With Tangaroa a lost cause, the entire surviving population abandoned the city.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The Forward Scout continues on their journey, stopping by an unfinished construction site called Varuna Point and eventually reaching a polar research station on Temperance Island. A search of the research station reveals the location of a major survivor settlement called Utopia, where the Caravan Town and Tangaroa survivors fled to. The Forward Scout heads there, only to find Olof has already reached the city and put it under martial law, locking up all of the residents and setting loose his army of mutated hyenas. The Forward Scout is able to defeat Olof and his hyenas and imprison him. The Utopia residents are freed, and inspired by the Forward Scout, declare that they will do their best to rebuild human civilization.


title: Raft (video game)

text: "Raft "was developed by three Swedish students from Uppsala University. Development started in 2016 and is still ongoing. On 23 May 2018, Raft was released as a Steam early access game. Raft had previously been distributed on the indie platform Itch.io, where it is still available as a free download for Windows, Linux, and macOS. The Linux and Mac versions were discontinued after version 1.05 due to time constraints. Two weeks after launch the game was the number 3 most played game on Steam and had sold over 400,000 copies. The game updates frequently and new functions are regularly added.


title: Raft (video game)

text: Until the end of May 2017 the developer version was downloaded over seven million times. The website "Polygon" called the game one of the most successful games on Steam of 2018 and praised the mix of exploring, collecting, managing and learning. The game gained fame through numerous Lets Plays on the YouTube video platform, among other events.


title: Raft (video game)

text: The developers told "PC Gamer" that one reason for the success compared to other survival games that are played in an open world could be the limited area. Due to the sandbox system and the setting on the open sea, the game is also compared with "Subnautica".


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many crucial contributions to the early development of all-electronic television. He is best known for his 1927 invention of the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the image dissector, as well as the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. Farnsworth developed a television system complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Like many fusion devices, it was not a practical device for generating nuclear power, although it provides a viable source of neutrons. The design of this device has been the inspiration for other fusion approaches, including the Polywell reactor concept. Farnsworth held 300 patents, mostly in radio and television.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth was born August 19, 1906, the eldest of five children of Lewis Edwin Farnsworth and Serena Amanda Bastian, a Latter-day Saint couple living in a small log cabin built by Lewis' father near Beaver, Utah. In 1918, the family moved to a relative's ranch near Rigby, Idaho, where his father supplemented his farming income by hauling freight with his horse-drawn wagon. Philo was excited to find that his new home was wired for electricity, with a Delco generator providing power for lighting and farm machinery. He was a quick student in mechanical and electrical technology, repairing the troublesome generator. He found a burned-out electric motor among some items discarded by the previous tenants and rewound the armature; he converted his mother's hand-powered washing machine into an electric-powered one. He developed an early interest in electronics after his first telephone conversation with a distant relative, and he discovered a large cache of technology magazines in the attic of their new home. He won $25 in a pulp-magazine contest for inventing a magnetized car lock. Farnsworth was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth excelled in chemistry and physics at Rigby High School. He asked science teacher Justin Tolman for advice about an electronic television system that he was contemplating; he provided the teacher with sketches and diagrams covering several blackboards to show how it might be accomplished electronically, and Tolman encouraged him to develop his ideas.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: One of the drawings that he did on a blackboard for his chemistry teacher was recalled and reproduced for a patent interference case between Farnsworth and RCA.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1923, the family moved to Provo, Utah, and Farnsworth attended Brigham Young High School that fall. His father died of pneumonia in January 1924 at age 58, and Farnsworth assumed responsibility for sustaining the family while finishing high school. After graduating BYHS in June 1924, he applied to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he earned the nation's second-highest score on academy recruiting tests. However, he was already thinking ahead to his television projects; he learned that the government would own his patents if he stayed in the military, so he obtained an honorable discharge within months of joining under a provision in which the eldest child in a fatherless family could be excused from military service to provide for his family. He returned to Provo and enrolled at Brigham Young University, but he was not allowed by the faculty to attend their advanced science classes based upon policy considerations. He attended anyway and made use of the university's research labs, and he earned a Junior Radio-Trician certification from the National Radio Institute, and full certification in 1925. While attending college, he met Provo High School student Elma "Pem" Gardner (1908–2006), whom he eventually married.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth worked while his sister Agnes took charge of the family home and the second-floor boarding house, with the help of a cousin living with the family. The Farnsworths later moved into half of a duplex, with family friends the Gardners moving into the other side when it became vacant. He developed a close friendship with Pem's brother Cliff Gardner, who shared his interest in electronics, and the two moved to Salt Lake City to start a radio repair business. The business failed, and Gardner returned to Provo.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth remained in Salt Lake City and became acquainted with Leslie Gorrell and George Everson, a pair of San Francisco philanthropists who were then conducting a Salt Lake City Community Chest fund-raising campaign. They agreed to fund his early television research with an initial $6,000 in backing, and set up a laboratory in Los Angeles for Farnsworth to carry out his experiments.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth married Pem on May 27, 1926, and the two traveled to Berkeley, California, in a Pullman coach. They rented a house at 2910 Derby Street, from which he applied for his first television patent, which was granted on August 26, 1930. By that time they had moved across the bay to San Francisco, where Farnsworth set up his new lab at 202 Green Street.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: A few months after arriving in California, Farnsworth was prepared to show his models and drawings to a patent attorney who was nationally recognized as an authority on electrophysics. Everson and Gorrell agreed that Farnsworth should apply for patents for his designs, a decision that proved crucial in later disputes with RCA. Most television systems in use at the time used image scanning devices ("rasterizers") employing rotating "Nipkow disks" comprising a spinning disk with holes arranged in spiral patterns such that they swept across an image in a succession of short arcs while focusing the light they captured on photosensitive elements, thus producing a varying electrical signal corresponding to the variations in light intensity. Farnsworth recognized the limitations of the mechanical systems, and that an all-electronic scanning system could produce a superior image for transmission to a receiving device.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth's image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, to a receiver in another room of his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. Pem Farnsworth recalled in 1985 that her husband broke the stunned silence of his lab assistants by saying, "There you are – electronic television!" The source of the image was a glass slide, backlit by an arc lamp. An extremely bright source was required because of the low light sensitivity of the design. By 1928, Farnsworth had developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press. His backers had demanded to know when they would see dollars from the invention; so the first image shown was, appropriately, a dollar sign. In 1929, the design was further improved by elimination of a motor-generator; so the television system now had no mechanical parts. That year Farnsworth transmitted the first live human images using his television system, including a three and a half-inch image of his wife Pem.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Many inventors had built electromechanical television systems before Farnsworth's seminal contribution, but Farnsworth designed and built the world's first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices. He first demonstrated his system to the press on September 3, 1928, and to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1930, RCA recruited Vladimir Zworykin—who had tried, unsuccessfully, to develop his own all-electronic television system at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh since 1923—to lead its television development department. Before leaving his old employer, Zworykin visited Farnsworth's laboratory, and was sufficiently impressed with the performance of the Image Dissector that he reportedly had his team at Westinghouse make several copies of the device for experimentation. Zworykin later abandoned research on the Image Dissector, which at the time required extremely bright illumination of its subjects, and turned his attention to what became the Iconoscope. In a 1970s series of videotaped interviews, Zworykin recalled that, "Farnsworth was closer to this thing you're using now [i.e., a video camera] than anybody, because he used the cathode-ray tube for transmission. But, Farnsworth didn't have the mosaic [of discrete light elements], he didn't have storage. Therefore, [picture] definition was very low... But he was very proud, and he stuck to his method." Contrary to Zworykin's statement, Farnsworth's patent number 2,087,683 for the Image Dissector (filed April 26, 1933) features the "charge storage plate" invented by Tihanyi in 1928 and a "low velocity" method of electron scanning, also describes "discrete particles" whose "potential" is manipulated and "saturated" to varying degrees depending on their velocity. Farnsworth's patent numbers 2,140,695 and 2,233,888 are for a "charge storage dissector" and "charge storage amplifier," respectively.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1931, David Sarnoff of RCA offered to buy Farnsworth's patents for US$100,000, with the stipulation that he become an employee of RCA, but Farnsworth refused. In June of that year, Farnsworth joined the Philco company and moved to Philadelphia along with his wife and two children. RCA later filed an interference suit against Farnsworth, claiming Zworykin's 1923 patent had priority over Farnsworth's design, despite the fact it could present no evidence that Zworykin had actually produced a functioning transmitter tube before 1931. Farnsworth had lost two interference claims to Zworykin in 1928, but this time he prevailed and the U.S. Patent Office rendered a decision in 1934 awarding priority of the invention of the image dissector to Farnsworth. RCA lost a subsequent appeal, but litigation over a variety of issues continued for several years with Sarnoff finally agreeing to pay Farnsworth royalties. Zworykin received a patent in 1928 for a color transmission version of his 1923 patent application; he also divided his original application in 1931, receiving a patent in 1935, while a second one was eventually issued in 1938 by the Court of Appeals on a non-Farnsworth-related interference case, and over the objection of the Patent Office.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1932, while in England to raise money for his legal battles with RCA, Farnsworth met with John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor who had given the world's first public demonstration of a working television system in London in 1926, using an electro-mechanical imaging system, and who was seeking to develop electronic television receivers. Baird demonstrated his mechanical system for Farnsworth.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In May 1933, Philco severed its relationship with Farnsworth because, said Everson, "it [had] become apparent that Philo's aim at establishing a broad patent structure through research [was] not identical with the production program of Philco." In Everson's view the decision was mutual and amicable. Farnsworth set up shop at 127 East Mermaid Lane in Philadelphia, and in 1934 held the first public exhibition of his device at the Franklin Institute in that city.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: After sailing to Europe in 1934, Farnsworth secured an agreement with Goerz-Bosch-Fernseh in Germany. Some image dissector cameras were used to broadcast the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth returned to his laboratory, and by 1936 his company was regularly transmitting entertainment programs on an experimental basis. That same year, while working with University of Pennsylvania biologists, Farnsworth developed a process to sterilize milk using radio waves. He also invented a fog-penetrating beam for ships and airplanes.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1936, he attracted the attention of "Collier's Weekly", which described his work in glowing terms. "One of those amazing facts of modern life that just don't seem possible—namely, electrically scanned television that seems destined to reach your home next year, was largely given to the world by a nineteen-year-old boy from Utah ... Today, barely thirty years old he is setting the specialized world of science on its ears."


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1938, Farnsworth established the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with E. A. Nicholas as president and himself as director of research. In September 1939, after a more than decade-long legal battle, RCA finally conceded to a multi-year licensing agreement concerning Farnsworth's 1927 patent for television totaling $1 million. RCA was then free, after showcasing electronic television at New York World's Fair on April 20, 1939, to sell electronic television cameras to the public.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation was purchased by International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) in 1951. During his time at ITT, Farnsworth worked in a basement laboratory known as "the cave" on Pontiac Street in Fort Wayne. From there he introduced a number of breakthrough concepts, including a defense early warning signal, submarine detection devices, radar calibration equipment and an infrared telescope. "Philo was a very deep person—tough to engage in conversation, because he was always thinking about what he could do next", said Art Resler, an ITT photographer who documented Farnsworth's work in pictures. One of Farnsworth's most significant contributions at ITT was the PPI Projector, an enhancement on the iconic "circular sweep" radar display, which allowed safe air traffic control from the ground. This system developed in the 1950s was the forerunner of today's air traffic control systems.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In addition to his electronics research, ITT management agreed to nominally fund Farnsworth's nuclear fusion research. He and staff members invented and refined a series of fusion reaction tubes called "fusors". For scientific reasons unknown to Farnsworth and his staff, the necessary reactions lasted no longer than thirty seconds. In December 1965, ITT came under pressure from its board of directors to terminate the expensive project and sell the Farnsworth subsidiary. It was only due to the urging of president Harold Geneen that the 1966 budget was accepted, extending ITT's fusion research for an additional year. The stress associated with this managerial ultimatum, however, caused Farnsworth to suffer a relapse. A year later he was terminated and eventually allowed medical retirement.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 1967, Farnsworth and his family moved back to Utah to continue his fusion research at Brigham Young University, which presented him with an honorary doctorate. The university also offered him office space and an underground concrete bunker for the project. Realizing ITT would dismantle its fusion lab, Farnsworth invited staff members to accompany him to Salt Lake City, as team members in Philo T. Farnsworth Associates (PTFA). By late 1968, the associates began holding regular business meetings and PTFA was underway. They promptly secured a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and more possibilities were within reach—but financing stalled for the $24,000 a month required for salaries and equipment rental.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: By Christmas 1970, PTFA had failed to secure the necessary financing, and the Farnsworths had sold all their own ITT stock and cashed in Philo's life insurance policy to maintain organizational stability. The underwriter had failed to provide the financial backing that was to have supported the organization during its critical first year. The banks called in all outstanding loans, repossession notices were placed on anything not previously sold, and the Internal Revenue Service put a lock on the laboratory door until delinquent taxes were paid. In January 1971, PTFA disbanded. Farnsworth had begun abusing alcohol in his later years, and as a result became seriously ill with pneumonia, and died on March 11, 1971, at his home in Holladay, Utah.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth's wife Elma Gardner "Pem" Farnsworth fought for decades after his death to assure his place in history. Farnsworth always gave her equal credit for creating television, saying, "my wife and I started this TV." She died on April 27, 2006, at age 98. The inventor and wife were survived by two sons, Russell (then living in New York City), and Kent (then living in Fort Wayne, Indiana).


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth worked out the principle of the image dissector in the summer of 1921, not long before his 15th birthday, and demonstrated the first working version on September 7, 1927, having turned 21 the previous August. A farm boy, his inspiration for scanning an image as a series of lines came from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field. In the course of a patent interference suit brought by the Radio Corporation of America in 1934 and decided in February 1935, his high school chemistry teacher, Justin Tolman, produced a sketch he had made of a blackboard drawing Farnsworth had shown him in spring 1922. Farnsworth won the suit; RCA appealed the decision in 1936 and lost. Farnsworth received royalties from RCA, but he never became wealthy. The video camera tube that evolved from the combined work of Farnsworth, Zworykin, and many others was used in all television cameras until the late 20th century, when alternate technologies such as charge-coupled devices began to appear.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth also developed the "image oscillite", a cathode ray tube that displayed the images captured by the image dissector.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth called his device an image dissector because it converted individual elements of the image into electricity one at a time. He replaced the spinning disks with caesium, an element that emits electrons when exposed to light.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: The Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor is an apparatus designed by Farnsworth to create nuclear fusion. Unlike most controlled fusion systems, which slowly heat a magnetically confined plasma, the fusor injects high-temperature ions directly into a reaction chamber, thereby avoiding a considerable amount of complexity.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: When the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor was first introduced to the fusion research world in the late 1960s, the fusor was the first device that could clearly demonstrate it was producing fusion reactions at all. Hopes at the time were high that it could be quickly developed into a practical power source. However, as with other fusion experiments, development into a power source has proven difficult. Nevertheless, the fusor has since become a practical neutron source and is produced commercially for this role.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: At the time he died, Farnsworth held 300 U.S. and foreign patents. His inventions contributed to the development of radar, infra-red night vision devices, the electron microscope, the baby incubator, the gastroscope, and the astronomical telescope.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Although he was the man responsible for its technology, Farnsworth appeared only once on a television program. On July 3, 1957, he was a mystery guest ("Doctor X") on the CBS quiz show "I've Got A Secret". He fielded questions from the panel as they unsuccessfully tried to guess his secret ("I invented electronic television."). For stumping the panel, he received $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Host Garry Moore then spent a few minutes discussing with Farnsworth his research on such projects as an early analog high-definition television system, flat-screen receivers, and fusion power. Farnsworth said, "There had been attempts to devise a television system using mechanical disks and rotating mirrors and vibrating mirrors—all mechanical. My contribution was to take out the moving parts and make the thing entirely electronic, and that was the concept that I had when I was just a freshman in high school in the Spring of 1921 at age 14." When Moore asked about others' contributions, Farnsworth agreed, "There are literally thousands of inventions important to television. I hold something in excess of 165 American patents." The host then asked about his current research, and the inventor replied, "In television, we're attempting first to make better utilization of the bandwidth, because we think we can eventually get in excess of 2,000 lines instead of 525 ... and do it on an even narrower channel ... which will make for a much sharper picture. We believe in the picture-frame type of a picture, where the visual display will be just a screen. And we hope for a memory, so that the picture will be just as though it's pasted on there."


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: A letter to the editor of the "Idaho Falls Post Register" disputed that Farnsworth had made only one television appearance. Roy Southwick claimed "... I interviewed Mr. [Philo] Farnsworth back in 1953—the first day KID-TV went on the air." KID-TV, which later became KIDK-TV, was then located near the Rigby area where Farnsworth grew up.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In a 1996 videotaped interview by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Elma Farnsworth recounts Philo's change of heart about the value of television, after seeing how it showed man walking on the moon, in real time, to millions of viewers:


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In 2010, the former Farnsworth factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was razed, eliminating the "cave," where many of Farnsworth's inventions were first created, and where its radio and television receivers and transmitters, television tubes, and radio-phonographs were mass-produced under the Farnsworth, Capehart, and Panamuse trade names. The facility was located at 3702 E. Pontiac St.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Also that year, additional Farnsworth factory artifacts were added to the Fort Wayne History Center's collection, including a radio-phonograph and three table-top radios from the 1940s, as well as advertising and product materials from the 1930s to the 1950s.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: Farnsworth's Fort Wayne residence from 1948 to 1967, then the former Philo T. Farnsworth Television Museum, stands at 734 E. State Blvd, on the southwest corner of E. State and St. Joseph Blvds. The residence is recognized by an Indiana state historical marker and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.


title: Philo Farnsworth

text: In addition to Fort Wayne, Farnsworth operated a factory in Marion, Indiana, that made shortwave radios used by American combat soldiers in World War II. Acquired by


title: Pixie

text: A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas around Devon and Cornwall, and in the New Forest area of Dorset and Hampshire.


title: Pixie

text: Akin to Anglo-Saxon elves and the Irish and Scottish Aos Sí (also spelt Aos Sidhe), pixies are believed to inhabit ancient underground ancestor sites such as stone circles, barrows, dolmens, ringforts or menhirs. In traditional regional lore, pixies are generally mischievous, short of stature and childlike; they are fond of dancing and gather outdoors in huge numbers to dance, or sometimes wrestle, through the night.


title: Pixie

text: Though in the modern era they are often depicted with pointed ears, a green outfit and a peaked hat, traditionally they are described as round eared, and sometimes as wearing dirty ragged bundles of rags which they happily discard for gifts of new clothes.


title: Pixie

text: The origin of the word "pixie" is uncertain. Some have speculated that it is connected to the Swedish dialectal "pyske" meaning 'small fairy'. Others have theorised it may be Celtic in origin, though no clear ancestor of the word is known.


title: Pixie

text: In older Westcountry dialect modern Received Pronunciation letter pairs are sometimes transposed from the older Saxon spelling ("waps" for wasp, "aks" for ask and so on) resulting in "piskies" in place of modern "piksies" (pixies) as still commonly found in Devon and Cornwall to modern times. In Cornwall the term "Pobel Vean" ('Little People') is often used to refer to them collectively.


title: Pixie

text: Similar beings exist in Irish (Aos Sí), Manx (Mooinjer veggey) Welsh Tylwyth Teg ('Fair Family'), and Breton (korrigan) folklore, although their common names are unrelated, and even within areas of language survival there is a very high degree of local variation of names. Similarities have also been noted between Germanic and Anglo-Saxon elves, but despite such analogues until the advent of modern literary fiction pixie mythology was localised exclusively to Southern and South Western England.


title: Pixie

text: By 1869 some were suggesting that the name pixie was a racial remnant of Pictic tribes who used to paint and tattoo their skin blue, as with the Irish fairy tradition of the "Pecht". This suggestion is still met in contemporary writing, but there is no proven connection and the etymology is doubtful. Some 19th-century researchers made more general claims about pixie origins, or have connected them with the Puck (Cornish Bucca), a mythological creature sometimes described as a fairy; the name Puck is also of uncertain origin; Old English Puca, Irish Púca, Welsh Pwca. One British scholar stated his belief that "Pixies were evidently a smaller race, and, from the greater obscurity of the ... tales about them, I believe them to have been an earlier race."


title: Pixie

text: Before the mid-19th century, pixies and fairies were taken seriously in much of Southern England. Books devoted to the homely beliefs of the peasantry are filled with incidents of pixie manifestations, and often locales are named for the pixies associated with them. Specific details of the folklore often vary by location, though broad details are held in common. They are often described as ill-clothed or naked. In 1890, William Crossing noted a pixie's preference for bits of finery: "Indeed, a sort of weakness for finery exists among them, and a piece of ribbon appears to be... highly prized by them."


title: Pixie

text: Some pixies are said to steal children or to lead travellers astray. Some consider this a cross-over from fairy mythology, and believe it may not have originally been attached to pixies; in 1850, Thomas Keightley observed that much of Devon pixie mythology may have originated from fairy myth. Pixies are said to reward consideration and punish neglect on the part of larger humans, for which Keightley gives examples. By their presence they bring blessings to those who are fond of them.


title: Pixie

text: Pixies are said to be drawn to horses, riding them for pleasure and making tangled ringlets in the manes of those horses they ride. They are "great explorers familiar with the caves of the ocean, the hidden sources of the streams and the recesses of the land."


title: Pixie

text: By the early 19th century their contact with humans had diminished. In Samuel Drew’s 1824 book "Cornwall" one finds the observation: "The age of pixies, like that of chivalry, is gone. There is, perhaps, at present hardly a house they are reputed to visit. Even the fields and lanes which they formerly frequented seem to be nearly forsaken. Their music is rarely heard."


title: Pixie

text: The queen of the Cornish pixies is said to be Joan the Wad (torch), and she is considered to be good luck or bring good luck. At Trevose Head 600 pixies were said to have gathered dancing and laughing in a circle that had appeared upon the turf until one of them, named Omfra, lost his laugh. After searching amongst the barrows of the ancient kings of Cornwall on St Breock Downs, he wades through the bottomless Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor until his laugh is restored by King Arthur in the form of a Chough.


title: Pixie

text: In Devon, pixies are said to be "invisibly small, and harmless or friendly to man." In the legends associated with Dartmoor, pixies are said to disguise themselves as a bundle of rags to lure children into their play, and near Challacombe a group of rocks are named after the pixies said to dwell there. The pixies of Dartmoor are fond of music and dancing and for riding on Dartmoor colts. These pixies are generally said to be helpful to normal humans, sometimes helping needy widows and others with housework. They are not completely benign however, as they have a reputation for misleading travellers (being "pixy-led", the remedy for which is to turn your coat inside out).


title: Pixie

text: In some of the legends and historical accounts they are presented as having near-human stature. For instance, a member of the Elford family in Tavistock, Devon, successfully hid from Cromwell's troops in a pixie house. Though the entrance has narrowed with time, the pixie house, a natural cavern on Sheep Tor, is still accessible.


title: Pixie

text: The earliest published version of "The Three Little Pigs" story is from Dartmoor in 1853 and has three little pixies in place of the pigs.


title: Pixie

text: Pixie Day is an old tradition which takes place annually in the East Devon town of Ottery St. Mary in June. The day commemorates a legend of pixies being banished from the town to local caves known as the "Pixie's Parlour".


title: Pixie

text: The Pixie Day legend supposedly originates in the early period of Christianity, when a local bishop decided to build a church in Otteri (Ottery St. Mary), and commissioned a set of bells to come from Wales, and to be escorted by monks on their journey.


title: Pixie

text: On hearing of this, the pixies were worried, as they knew that once the bells were installed it would be the death knell of their rule over the land. So they cast a spell over the monks to redirect them from the road to Otteri to the road leading them to the cliff's edge at Sidmouth. Just as the monks were about to fall over the cliff, one of the monks stubbed his toe on a rock and said "God bless my soul" and the spell was broken.


title: Pixie

text: The bells were then brought to Otteri and installed. However, the pixies' spell was not completely broken; each year on a day in June the "pixies" come out and capture the town's bell ringers and imprison them in Pixies' Parlour to be rescued by the Vicar of Ottery St. Mary. This legend is re-enacted each year by the Cub and Brownie groups of Ottery St. Mary, with a specially constructed Pixies' Parlour in the Town Square (the original Pixie's Parlour can be found along the banks of the River Otter).


title: Pixie

text: At Buckland St. Mary, Somerset, pixies and fairies are said to have battled each other. Here the pixies were victorious and still visit the area, whilst the fairies are said to have left after their loss.


title: Pixie

text: The New Forest pixie tradition is less domestic than elsewhere, and they are not believed to engage in household chores or to be interested in offerings of milk, clothes, food or similar. Though usually small, they can change their height at will, and appear as strange looking, wizened old men (never as women) with pale skin and round ears. New Forest pixies are also believed to change their shape, taking on the form of the Colt pixie (a pale, ragged, "off looking" New Forest Pony colt), or sometimes of a Will-o'-the-wisp. The Colt Pixie is sometimes considered a type of pixie in its own right, and is heavily associated with the New Forest, especially at the barrow known as Cold Pixie Cave on Beaulieu Heath.


title: Pixie

text: The king of the New Forest pixies is either Gran Collin (a giant pixie, much larger than a human) or his twin brother Tiddie Cole ("about the size of a human thumb"). Other named local pixies are Lazy Laurence (who protects orchards and cider), Watt (who grants witches power), and Puck (also known as Tom Puck or Pugg).


title: Pixie

text: In local topography they are connected to various landmarks and barrows, including Pixie Field; Ragged Boy's Hill; Laurence's Barrow; Cole's Hole; Collin's Grave; Watt's Parlour; Gran's Barrow; Tom Puck's Hill near Fritham; Robin Farm and Puck Pits in Emery Down; Pikes Hill and Cole's Mead in Lyndhurst.


title: Pixie

text: The conflation of pixies with fairies, as well as their pointy ears and sprite-like elements, originate with the Victorian Romantic literary tradition. Many Victorian-era poets saw them as magical beings. An example is Samuel Minturn Peck; in his poem "The Pixies" he writes:


title: Pixie

text: The late 19th-century English poet Nora Chesson summarised pixie mythology fairly well in a poem entitled "The Pixies". She gathered all the speculations and myths into verse:


title: Pixie

text: She touches on all the essentials, including even more modern accretions. Pixies are "in-between", not cursed by God or especially blessed. They do the unexpected, they bless the land, and are forest creatures whom other wild creatures find alluring and non-threatening. They love humans, taking some for mates, and are nearly ageless. They are winged, flitting from place to place.


title: Pixie

text: The Pixie Day tradition in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s hometown of Ottery St Mary in East Devon was the inspiration for his poem Songs of the Pixies.


title: Pixie

text: The Victorian-era writer Mary Elizabeth Whitcombe divided pixies into tribes according to personality and deeds. The novelist Anna Eliza Bray suggested that pixies and fairies were distinct species.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The video-sharing platform YouTube is the second-most popular website as of August 2019, according to Alexa Internet. According to the company's press page, YouTube has more than one billion users, and each day, those users watch more than one billion hours of video. Censorship of it has occurred and continues to occur to varying degrees in most countries throughout the world.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In some countries YouTube is completely blocked, either through a long-term standing ban or for more limited periods of time such as during periods of unrest, the run-up to an election, or in response to upcoming political anniversaries. In other countries, access to the website as a whole remains open, but access to specific videos is blocked due to many reasons including orders from country jurisdiction. In both cases, a VPN is usually deployed to bypass geographical restrictions. In cases where the entire site is banned due to one particular video, YouTube will often agree to remove or limit access to that video in order to restore service.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: As of September 2012, countries with standing national bans on YouTube include China, Iran, and Turkmenistan. Due to disputes between GEMA and YouTube over royalties, many videos featuring copyrighted songs were inaccessible in Germany. After an agreement was made between the companies in November 2016, these videos became accessible.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: YouTube's Terms of Service prohibit the posting of videos which violate copyrights or depict pornography, promoting racism, illegal acts, gratuitous violence, or hate speech. User-posted videos that violate such terms may be removed and replaced with a message stating: "This video is no longer available because its content violated YouTube's Terms of Service". Additionally, Google reserves the right to terminate any account for any reason, with or without notice.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: YouTube offers an opt-in feature known as "Restricted Mode", which filters videos that might contain mature content.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 12, 2012, YouTube was blocked in Afghanistan due to hosting the trailer to the controversial film about Muhammad, "Innocence of Muslims", which the authorities considered to be blasphemous. YouTube was later unblocked in Afghanistan on December 1, 2012.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Following the disputed February 2008 presidential elections, the Armenian government blocked Internet users' access to YouTube for a month. The Armenian opposition had used the website to publicize video of alleged police brutality against anti-government protesters.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In March 2009, YouTube was blocked in Bangladesh after a recording of an alleged meeting between the prime minister and army officers was posted revealing anger by the military on how the government was handling a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka. The block was lifted on March 21.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 17, 2012, YouTube was banned for the second time following the controversies regarding the promotional videos for "Innocence of Muslims". On June 5, 2013, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission lifted the ban.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In January 2007, YouTube was sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniella Cicarelli (the ex-fiancée of football player Ronaldo) and her boyfriend due to the fact that the website hosted a video recorded paparazzi in which she and her boyfriend were having sexual intercourse on a Spanish beach; the video did not contain explicit content. The lawsuit asked that YouTube will be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video were removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from accessing the website.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The effectiveness of the measure was questioned, since the video was available not only on YouTube, but also on other sites as part of an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned its previous decision, allowing the filters to be removed. The video footage itself remained banned and was to be removed from the website.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In June 2007, a judge ordered Cicarelli and her boyfriend to pay all court and lawyer costs, as well as R$10,000 (roughly US$3,203) to the three defendants—YouTube, Globo, and iG, citing a lack of good faith in pushing the privacy case when their actions took place in public.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Access to music on YouTube was blocked in July 2020, following a dispute between YouTube and the rights society KODA over royalty fees.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On October 1, 2020, YouTube and Polaris Nordic (which represents KODA, Sweden's STIM, and Norway's TONO) signed a new contract, bringing music by Danish songwriters back onto the website.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On November 30, 2017, most YouTube videos containing music seemed to be blocked by Finnish nonprofit performance rights organization Teosto in Finland. According to them, Google blocked the videos because they did not have an agreement to show music videos in Finland. According to Teosto, they and Google have made a temporary agreement to show the videos in the morning of November 30. The music videos started to return to YouTube in Finland later that day.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The blocking of YouTube videos in Germany on copyright grounds was part of a dispute between YouTube and the "Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte" (Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights – GEMA), a performance rights organization in Germany.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: According to a German court in Hamburg, Google's subsidiary YouTube can be held liable for damages when it hosts copyrighted videos without the copyright holder's permission. As a result, music videos for major label artists on YouTube, as well as many videos containing background music, were unavailable in Germany since the end of March 2009 after the previous agreement had expired and negotiations for a new license agreement were stopped. On October 31, 2016, YouTube and GEMA reached an agreement over royalties, ending a seven-year-long battle of blocking music videos in Germany.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On November 23, 2016, the German "Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht" (Commission for Authorization and Supervision), which is formed by representatives of German public broadcast stations, required "PietSmiet & Co.", a German let's-player operating his own YouTube channel to get a German broadcast license by April 30, 2017, or else be regarded as an illegal pirate radio broadcaster for livestreaming, even when no radio spectrum use is included. Some YouTubers, even non profit, might fail at the expensive fee for applying a license. On April 30, 2017, the livestreaming channel "PietSmietTV" went offline. The channel "PietSmiet" remained online due not providing 24/7 streaming. The channel was mentioned in a requirement of a license.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The Article 17 of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is feared and criticized as censorship, mandatory for all countries of the European Union within two years if adopted.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On April 1, 2008, Indonesian information minister Muhammad Nuh asked YouTube to remove "Fitna", a controversial film made by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders. The government allowed two days for the removal of the video or YouTube would be blocked in the country. On April 4, following YouTube's failure to remove the video, Nuh asked all Internet service providers to block access to YouTube. On April 5, YouTube was briefly blocked for testing by one ISP. On April 8, YouTube, along with MySpace, Metacafe, RapidShare, Multiply, LiveLeak, and "Fitna"s official site, were blocked in Indonesia on all ISPs. The blocking of YouTube was subsequently lifted on April 10. There may still have been some blocking in May 2008 according to local inhabitants.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On January 24, 2010, Libya permanently blocked YouTube after it featured videos of demonstrations in the Libyan city of Benghazi by families of detainees who were killed in Abu Salim prison in 1996, as well as videos of family members of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi at parties. The ban was condemned by Human Rights Watch. In November 2011, after the Libyan Civil War, YouTube was once again allowed in Libya, but did not launch a local version of the site until early 2015.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In May 2013, videos critical of the Malaysian government were blocked from YouTube in Malaysia despite the government's promises not to censor the internet. Analysis of the network traffic shows that the ISPs were scanning the headers of the users and actively blocking requests to the YouTube video according to the video key.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On May 25, 2007, the state-owned Maroc Telecom ISP blocked all access to YouTube. Officially, no reasons were given as to why YouTube was blocked, but speculations were that it may have been due to videos posted by the pro-separatist Polisario, Western Sahara's independence movement, or due to videos criticizing King Mohammed VI. The ban did not affect the other two ISPs in the country, Wana (now Inwi) and Méditel (now Orange Maroc). The blocking of YouTube on Maroc Telecom was lifted May 30, 2007, after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was a mere "technical glitch".


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In February 2008, the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA) blocked access to YouTube on Pakistani ISPs, allegedly because of "blasphemous" videos of Dutch politician Geert Wilders. However, the PTA's block inadvertently knocked out access to YouTube worldwide for two hours on February 25, 2008. Pakistan Telecom had broadcast to other ISPs in the Pacific Rim the false claim that it was the correct route for the addresses in YouTube's IP space. It was suggested by some Pakistani websites, blogs, and by electoral process watchdog groups at the time that the block was imposed largely to distract viewers from videos alleging vote-rigging by the ruling MQM party in the February 2008 general elections. Allegations of suppressing vote-rigging videos by the Musharraf administration were also leveled by Pakistani bloggers, newspapers, media, and Pakistani anti-Musharraf opposition parties. YouTube was unblocked on February 27, 2008, after the allegedly blasphemous videos were removed.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On May 20, 2010, which was Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Pakistan again blocked the website in a bid to contain "blasphemous" material. The ban was lifted on May 27, 2010, after the website removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government. However, individual videos deemed offensive to Muslims that are posted on YouTube will continue to be blocked.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 17, 2012, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered access to YouTube blocked, after the website failed to remove the trailer of the controversial "Innocence of Muslims", and eventually resulting in a ban due to YouTube's noncompliance.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Bytes for All, a Pakistani non-profit organization, filed a constitutional challenge to the ban through their counsel Yasser Latif Hamdani in the Lahore High Court. This is an ongoing case and is commonly known as the YouTube case.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On December 11, 2013, it was announced by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority that they had convinced Google's management to offer a local "https://www.youtube.com.pk" version to Pakistan, as it would be easy for the local authorities to remove "objectionable" material from a local version as compared to the global version of YouTube. However, it would only be offered after the Pakistani government fulfilled some of the undisclosed requirements.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: During the ban a video was released called "Kholo BC" by rappers Adil Omar and Ali Gul Pir opposing the ban. The video went viral and thousands of people supported that the ban is due to political interest.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On April 21, 2014, Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights approved a resolution to lift the ban on YouTube.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On May 6, 2014, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a non-binding resolution to lift the ban, but as of August 2, 2014 it was still in effect. The ban was lifted due to a technical glitch on December 6, 2015, according to ISPs in Pakistan.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: As of January 18, 2016, the ban has been officially lifted, as YouTube has launched a local version of the site for Pakistan.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On November 25, 2017, the NetBlocks internet measurement platform and Digital Rights Foundation collected evidence of nationwide blocking of YouTube alongside other social media services, imposed by the government in response to the violent Tehreek-e-Labaik protests. The technical investigation found that many, but not all, major Pakistani fixed-line and mobile service providers implemented the YouTube restriction which was lifted by the PTA the following day when protests abated after the resignation of Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The video claiming responsibility for the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings, which quickly gained 800,000 views in four days, was removed, along with all videos of Doku Umarov. Additionally, it turned out that over 300 videos from the Kavkaz Center were removed for having "inappropriate content." Russia was blamed for having pressured YouTube to take such measures.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On July 28, 2010, a court in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur ordered a local ISP to block access to youtube.com, web.archive.org, and several other websites offering books for downloads, citing extremist materials as the reason. The order was not enforced and was later reversed. YouTube is now available in Russia.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 4, 2017, Roskomnadzor announced their intention to delete a video released by a popular YouTube channel Nemagia in which bloggers Alexey Pskovitin and Mikhail Pecherskiy described unscrupulous business strategies by Tinkoff Bank.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In February 2019, as a result of a complaint received by Roskomnadzor, YouTube has demanded that the Ukrainian Centre for Journalist Investigations remove a video about Emir-Usein Kuku, a Crimean Tatar human rights defender who has been arrested by Russian authorities in 2016.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In September 2021, YouTube blocked two German-language channels run by a Russian state-backed media company RT stating they spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. In return, Roskomnadzor threatened to block the service in the country or fine Google unless the restrictions are lifted.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In March 2022, YouTube started showing its users ads with calls to disable Russian railroad communications. As a result, Roskomnadzor contacted Google and demanded the company to stop the threats against Russia.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: At the request of the South Korean government, Google removed about 54,000 pieces of content. Not only that, but the government-critical videos that are difficult to delete are ruined by making them recommended to the area that has nothing to do with the video.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The Sudanese authorities blocked YouTube on April 21, 2010, following the 2010 presidential election, and also blocked YouTube's owner Google. The block was in response to a YouTube video appearing to show National Electoral Commission workers in official uniforms and a child in the Hamashkoreib region filling out voting strips and putting them into ballot boxes, with one of them expressing relief that the voting period had been extended for them to finish their work. Sudan had previously blocked YouTube temporarily in 2008 for unknown reasons.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 17, 2012, YouTube was banned again by National Telecommunication Corporation for not removing "Innocence of Muslims", a controversial anti-Islamic film. However, the block was later lifted.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In multiple instances YouTube access was blocked in Syria by the Syrian government and blackouts caused by the Syrian civil war.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: YouTube has been blocked in August 2007 after videos were circulated denouncing the crackdown on the Kurd minority. In February 2011 Syria lifted their block of YouTube and other social media services.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In July 2012, the Tajik authorities blocked YouTube in response to uploaded videos showing protests against militant clashes. Eight days later, the ban was lifted.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In the same year, the Tajik government blocked the website again, this time because of videos depicting the president Emomali Rakhmon which were deemed to be offensive to the government.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In 2013, Tajikistan blocked YouTube for a third time because of a video which depicts President Rakhmon dancing and singing out of tune at his son's wedding party in 2007.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On June 9, 2014, YouTube briefly became inaccessible for an unknown reason. Beg Zuhurov, chief of Tajikistan's State Communications Service, claimed that this was due to "technical problems".


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On August 25, 2015, YouTube was once again blocked by certain ISPs following an order from the State Communications Service. The block was not lifted until mid-2017.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On May 23, 2019, after the President of Tajikistan criticized the internet for "bolstering terrorism", Tajik authorities extended the blockages of all Google resources, including YouTube. However, the ban was later lifted.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In 2006, Thailand blocked access to YouTube for users with Thai IP addresses. Thai authorities identified 20 offensive videos and demanded that Google remove them before it would allow unblocking of all YouTube content.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: During the week of March 8, 2007, YouTube was blocked in Thailand. Although no official explanation was given for the ban, many bloggers believed the reason for the blocking was a video of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. YouTube was unblocked on March 10, 2007.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On the night of April 3, 2007, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand. The government cited a video on the site that it called "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. However, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology said that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites containing references to this video are blocked as opposed to the entire website. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pokai-udom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban." Shortly after this incident the Internet technology blog Mashable was blocked from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question. YouTube was unblocked on August 30, 2007, after YouTube reportedly agreed to block videos deemed offensive by Thai authorities.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On September 21, 2007, Thai authorities announced they were seeking a court order to block videos that had appeared on YouTube accusing Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda of attempting to manipulate the royal succession to make himself Thailand's king.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Turkish courts have ordered blocks on access to the YouTube website. This first occurred when Türk Telekom blocked the site in compliance with decision 2007/384 issued by the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court of Peace ("Sulh Ceza Mahkeme") on March 6, 2007. The court decision was based on videos insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an escalation of what the Turkish media referred to as a "virtual war" of insults between Greek, Armenian, and Turkish YouTube members. YouTube was sued for "insulting Turkishness" and access to the site was suspended pending the removal of the video. YouTube lawyers sent proof of the video's removal to the Istanbul public prosecutor and access was restored on March 9, 2007. However, other videos similarly deemed insulting were repeatedly posted, and several staggered bans followed, issued by different courts:


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: The block in accordance with court decision 2008/468 of the Ankara 11th Criminal Court of Peace issued on April 24, 2008, which cited that YouTube had not acquired a certificate of authorization in Turkey, was not implemented by Türk Telekom until May 5, 2008.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Although YouTube was officially banned in Turkey, the website was still accessible by modifying connection parameters to use alternative DNS servers, and it was the eighth most popular website in Turkey according to Alexa records. Responding to criticisms of the courts' bans, in November 2008 the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated "I do access the site. Go ahead and do the same."


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: In June 2010, Turkey's president Abdullah Gül used his Twitter account to express disapproval of the country's blocking of YouTube, which also affected access from Turkey to many Google services. Gül said he had instructed officials to find legal ways of allowing access.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: Turkey lifted the ban on October 30, 2010. In November 2010, a video of the Turkish politician Deniz Baykal caused the site to be blocked again briefly, and the site was threatened with a new shutdown if it did not remove the video.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: On March 27, 2014, Turkey banned YouTube again. This time, they did so mere hours after a video was posted there claiming to depict Turkey's foreign minister, spy chief, and a top general discussing scenarios that could lead to their country's military attacking jihadist militants in Syria. The ban was ordered to be lifted by a series of court rulings, starting April 9, 2014, but Turkey defied the court orders and kept access to YouTube blocked. On May 29 the Constitutional Court of Turkey ruled that the block violated the constitutional right to freedom of expression and ordered that YouTube access be restored.


title: Censorship of YouTube

text: As of the morning of June 1, 2014, access to YouTube remained blocked in Turkey. But during the day, access appeared to have been restored.