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Censorship

Censorship articles deliver in-depth analysis of the global censorship industrial complex — the coordinated efforts by governments, Big Tech, agencies, and institutions to suppress dissent — and their devastating impacts on public health, free trade, individual liberty, free speech, open dialogue, scientific debate, and policy reform.

We expose mechanisms like government-sponsored censorship, social media suppression, digital authoritarianism in the West (e.g., UK, Canada, Germany, France), disinformation laundering through agencies (CISA, DHS, Treasury), fact-checking industrial complex, self-censorship in science and medicine, COVID-era narrative control, online scrubbing, and threats to mental health discourse, university independence, and sovereign media. Brownstone critiques how these practices distort medical judgment, erode trust in institutions, enable technocratic overreach, and undermine personal freedoms and evidence-based policy.

The Death and Resurrection of Science
By | | , , | 12 minute read

The Death and Resurrection of Science

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We must fight with everything we have against governments that behave in a dictatorial manner, against the evidence, using substandard experts, “for our own good,” as they say. The best way forward is to learn as much as possible about the methods governments used to suppress and distort the science. The Great Barrington Declaration, which has received almost a million signatures, was an important milestone. We need to establish an international cooperation of scientists at the highest level who will stand together and never again accept to be silenced when the next pandemic hits us.

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Chevron, Murthy, and 'Supreme' Hypocrisy
By | | , , | 10 minute read

Chevron, Murthy, and ‘Supreme’ Hypocrisy

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The majority of the court appeared to favor eliminating Chevron. It would be the height of hypocrisy – and one the most culturally devastating decisions since Dred Scott – to not see the parallels and to rule any other way than against the government in Murthy. With that ruling, we can begin to gather in the tentacles of the censorship monster.

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Justices' Grave Error in Murthy v. Missouri
By | | , , | 5 minute read

Justices’ Grave Error in Murthy v. Missouri

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If the justices want to distinguish between persuasion and coercion in the injunction, they need to appreciate that social media companies operate in a very different relationship with government than traditional print media. These asymmetrical power dynamics create a relationship ripe for unconstitutional government coercion.

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Supreme Court Divided on Censorship- Brownstone Institute
By | | , , | 11 minute read

Supreme Court Divided on Censorship

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If I’m a betting man, I’ll place my money (though not much money) that we’ll get a 5-4 or 6-3 decision upholding some kind of injunction. And while I hate to admit it, things could also go the other way. I think it will be close. Supreme Court decisions are notoriously difficult to predict, and it appears there are enemies of free speech on the bench even in the highest Court in the land.

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Fact-Checker, Check Thyself
By | | , , | 8 minute read

Fact-Checker, Check Thyself

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Thorsteinn Siglaugsson was wickedly accurate in sketching the typology of fact-checking techniques. Create a straw-man argument that can be easily knocked down. Assert that a claim is not supported by evidence, is questioned by other experts, lacks context, is misleading, or is only partly true, etc. Engage in ad hominem attacks against the person rather than with their evidence and argument.

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2024 Brownstone Institute Books and Publications
By | | , | 10 minute read

Where We Are Now

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The influence of this work has been extremely broad and deep throughout the world. And keep in mind, we were only founded in May 2021 and still only have the tiniest of staff, with a budget that is a miniscule fraction of what major think tanks in Washington and elsewhere spend every year, to say nothing of the Gates Foundation and government agencies. The experience absolutely proves that one dedicated group of people can do so much with just a little. 

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Harvard's Latest Act of Shame
By | | , | 5 minute read

Harvard’s Latest Act of Shame

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Harvard, once an esteemed and trustworthy source in science, has lost its way. The firing of Martin for speaking freely during the pandemic is a disaster for Harvard’s reputation. There is a petition for having Martin reinstated at Harvard, but we hope he is not interested in going back, which does not deserve to have a professor like Martin among its faculty. 

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The EU is the Real Culprit of Censorship- Brownstone Institute
By | | , , | 7 minute read

The EU is the Real Culprit of Censorship

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It was thus the European Commission which was the driving force behind the wave of censorship which struck Covid-19 dissent from 2020 to 2022, certainly not the Biden administration, whose role was limited to making informal, essentially toothless requests. There was indeed coercion, there was indeed a threat. But it was coming from a different source: it was the looming threat of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). 

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