Articles featuring analysis of the global censorship industrial complex, impacts on public health, free trade, liberty, and policy.
All Brownstone Institute articles on censorship are translated into multiple languages.
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.
Chevron, Murthy, and ‘Supreme’ Hypocrisy Read More »
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.
Justices’ Grave Error in Murthy v. Missouri Read More »
That is what the once vaunted now openly vile Poynter Institute – a pivot point of the international censorship-industrial complex – wishes to “strengthen…around the globe.” Pointedly, not “free speech,” but “fact-based expression.”
Poynter’s Creepy ‘Fact-Based Expression’ Read More »
How ironic that in both these cases, it was the government—the body suggested by the medical leaders to be best qualified to police against “misinformation” in healthcare—which actually fostered “misinformation.”
Medical Leadership Cannot Escape the ‘Misinformation’ Trap Read More »
Billed as one of the most consequential lawsuits of the last century, Murthy v. Missouri (formerly Missouri v Biden) is a legal battle that stands at the intersection of free speech protections and social media companies.
Censorship on Trial at the Supreme Court Read More »
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.
Supreme Court Divided on Censorship Read More »
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.
Fact-Checker, Check Thyself Read More »
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.
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.
Harvard’s Latest Act of Shame Read More »
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).
The EU is the Real Culprit of Censorship Read More »
Justice Jackson, the Biden Administration, Katie Starbird, and their allies in the media may believe they have a divine mission to censor alleged misinformation, that the Devil’s reincarnation has taken multiple forms in the bodies of RFK Jr., Alex Berenson, Jay Bhattacharya, and others; under our Constitution, however, the self-professed nobility of their missions does not excuse violations of the First Amendment. Let us hope the Court realizes the graveness of the threat.
Journalistic Malpractice at The New York Times Read More »
Though many people of a more partisan cast may not want to hear it, the constitutional obtuseness demonstrated by Brown Jackson and an apparent plurality of her Supreme Court colleagues did not come out of nowhere.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: The Ideological Spawn of George Bush Jr. Read More »
