Censorship
Fact Check: Obama, Who Backed Censorship, Claims to Be Free Speech Champion
The Obama administration also backed efforts by Muslim governments to suppress free speech, including criticism of Islam and its prophet, Muhammad. […]
How the US Government funded narrative control operations around the globe
Narrative control efforts to give the US a competitive advantage over Russia and China make sense - this is what we expect of nation states. Why the US Government should be so invested in pushing vaccines and influencing the information environment surrounding the elections of small and far-flung nations is less obvious, unless you understand the US to be an empire representing the interests of major cartels and an ambitious deep state.
Censorship
State Department Closes Censorship Office
Rather than censor Americans’ speech directly, which would raise obvious First Amendment concerns, GEC and other federal agencies “effectively outsourced to the newly emerging censorship-industrial complex” to private proxies, according to a report published by the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government — as if that made the First Amendment problems go away.
Censorship
In Congressional Testimony, Whistleblower Accuses Meta Of Aiding China’s Censorship
Wynn-Williams served as the director of global public policy for Facebook, now Meta, from 2011 to 2017. During that time, she said Meta executives “lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public. ”Wynn-Williams’s allegations against Meta, which she detailed in her memoir “Careless People,” include the claim that the company worked “hand-in-glove” with the CCP to custom-build and wield censorship tools against the regime’s critics.
Censorship
Recent Articles
Censorship
Meta Keeps Big MAGA Accounts on Ban List as Mark Zuckerberg Lobbies Trump
Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly lobbying the Trump administration to drop a pivotal FTC case against the company, in what would amount to a major political favor for Meta. Despite Zuckerberg’s multiple olive branches to the Turmp administration, a number of high-profile, pro-MAGA voices are still banned on Meta’s Facebook and […]
AI
How Taxpayer-Funded Censorship Tools Could Manipulate What Americans See About Vaccines, Raw Milk, And More
The U.S. government funded various online censorship tools, some of which went missing after President Donald Trump took office. Others, however, are still operating today — potentially limiting what Americans see online, especially regarding health issues. […]
Academia
A battle over religion and schools in Oklahoma could decide the future of the First Amendment
Under Walters’ watch, the state approved the first ever religious virtual public charter school, a provocative move that is now before the Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the move next month. He has also proposed placing Bibles in schools, a move that was recently blocked by the state Supreme Court, and is seeking to add more Christian-related themes to the curriculum, including information about the Ten Commandments. […]
Censorship
How Big Pharma’s Favorite Ad Agency Helped Create NewsGuard
Studies show NewsGuard’s ratings are heavily skewed against anti-establishment media sources. Its advertiser exclusion lists include some of the most prominent destinations for non-mainstream news, including Newsmax, Breitbart News, The Federalist, and One America News. While conservative websites bear the brunt, left-wing websites with an anti-establishment, anti-war tendency, like Consortium News, have also found themselves on NewsGuard’s blacklists.
Free Speech
‘It ALL comes back to Obama’: Mike Benz details deep state use of propaganda on Americans
We’re up against a much actually deeper, darker problem with this USAID scandal,” Benz told Rogan. “And as people will see increasingly the, the scandals that will break open at the Pentagon and the State Department,“ which is that we have a Smith-Mundt problem for funding and operations, it’s not just propaganda.” […]
Censorship
Mollie Hemingway Delivers Masterclass Explainer On The ‘Government-Funded’ War On Free Speech
Throughout her opening statement, The Federalist’s editor-in-chief highlighted how the federal and state governments have “fund[ed] and promote[d] censorship and blacklisting technology,” and have even gone as far as to “direct Big Tech companies to censor American speech and debate.” […]
Censorship
Biden admin’s ‘vast censorship enterprise’ with help of NGOs slated for key hearing, lawmaker says
“The Biden Administration created a vast censorship enterprise, comprised of a sprawling network of federal agencies and NGOs that have been working overtime to censor Americans’ speech. From special reporting portals to the White House press secretary admitting at the podium that they were flagging posts to be taken down, the level of coordination to subvert the First Amendment and remove disfavored speech was beyond what most imagined,” the Missouri senator told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement previewing the hearing. […]
AI
America First Legal Exposes Censorship Scheme by USAID and Global Engagement Center, Working With UK Government and Media Firms, to Use AI Censorship Tools
“The partnership between USAID and the Global Engagement Center is bad news for the American people. Add in the fact that they were coordinating with internet censorship enforcers at NewsGuard and Poynter, and you can start to see just how dangerous this unholy alliance is for free speech and free expression. Thankfully, the GEC is shuttered and USAID is being exposed — but lawmakers should take note of this example as they consider legislation to ensure the federal government actually serves American principles and interests,” said Andrew Block., America First Legal Senior Counsel […]
Politics
Trump Guts International Propaganda Agencies
Perhaps Connor O’Keeffe of the Mises Institute said it best:
Voice of America absolutely should go away. Employees and supporters of VOA like to describe the outlet’s purpose as providing “objective” and “balanced” reporting on current events. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find out that what VOA staffers are really passionate about is “promoting democracy” abroad and helping in a global fight against authoritarianism. … It’s a propaganda outlet that we’re all forced to fund. It is one part of the broader regime change apparatus that got a lot of exposure earlier in the year with the gutting of USAID. Funding foreign propaganda campaigns is not our responsibility. Your average American family does not have a moral obligation to send part of their paycheck to try and turn people in Belarus against their government. […]
Education
St. Louis Schools Ordered to Pay $90,000 Each to Two Employees in COVID Vaccine Mandate Suit
“The District’s alleged Policy put Plaintiffs to a choice: compromise their convictions or lose their livelihoods,” U.S. Chief District Judge Stephen R. Clark wrote. “Restrictions impermissibly infringing on constitutional rights, like the right to freely exercise one’s religion, spread across the country like a virus.” more here… […]
Free Speech
British Blasphemy? UK Government Moves Toward New Definition of “Islamophobia” for Speech Regulation
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has announced that the government will be further cracking down on hate speech with a new working group tasked with defining ‘Islamophobia’. The free speech community is raising the alarm that the effort is likely to further broaden the government controls over speech.
It was announced last week that Rayner’s working group would be chaired by former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve KC, who has himself admitted that defining Islamophobia while safeguarding free speech is ‘extremely difficult.’ Notably, Grieve wrote the foreword to the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report on Islamophobia, which advanced a definition that many critics argue is far too broad. […]
