Censorship

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.

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The Supreme Court Gives Hope

The Supreme Court Just Gave Us Hope

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The oral arguments in the free-speech case did not increase hopes for a solid outcome. But long experience suggests that oral arguments can be misleading. The briefs and the case law are what are decisive. If the NRA case is any indication, free speech advocates might have a new basis for hope in the wisdom of the Supreme Court. 

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Tidal Waves Don't Discriminate

Tidal Waves Don’t Discriminate

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Tidal waves don’t discriminate between those who believe in them, and those who don’t. A wave of censorship and government controls is building, fueled by fears about another pandemic, or climate change, or whatever “emergency” can be exploited to justify government power grabs. The only thing that will stop the censorship and control from washing over everyone, is enlightened people who refuse to be swept up, and who work together to push back.

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The Closing of the Internet Mind

The Closing of the Internet Mind

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We have traveled a very long way from the vision of John Perry Barlow in 1996, who imagined a cyberworld in which governments were not involved to one in which governments and their “multi stakeholder partners” are in charge of “a rules-based global digital economy.” In the course of this complete reversal, the Declaration of Internet Freedom became the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, with the word freedom consigned to little more than a passing reference.  

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Musk Wins Latest Censorship Battle in Australia

Musk Wins Latest Censorship Battle in Australia

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Can Australia’s eSafety Commissioner block content globally on demand? Not today, ruled the Australian Federal Court, in a win for Elon Musk’s social media platform X. In a decision on Monday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett refused to extend a temporary injunction obtained by eSafety last month, which forced X to remove footage of the Wakeley church stabbing, an alleged religiously motivated terror attack.

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The Vanguard Behind Australia's Misinformation Bill

The Vanguard Behind Australia’s Misinformation Bill

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Australia has been out in front in shaping the bureaucratised internet: the eSafety Commissioner is touted as the first online “harm regulator” in the world and as recently detailed, is deeply embedded in the global networks driving this push, from the World Economic Forum, to the EU, to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and beyond.

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Censorship in Medicine is Nothing New

Censorship in Medicine is Nothing New

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Over the past 45-plus years, I have only told this story to three or four other people, so by putting it out there, maybe something more will be unearthed, and with it, some kind of closure can occur. Otherwise, the memory of these young women very possibly dies with me. That’s not the way it should be!

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Government Weaponization: My Testimony to the House

Government Weaponization: My Testimony to the House

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I am Todd Zywicki and I appreciate the opportunity to appear to you today to testify on the topic of “Weaponization of the Federal Government.” I am George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School. Today’s hearing focuses on the United States Government’s massive, unprecedented, and chilling multi-year system of censorship by proxy through coercion and collaboration with the country’s largest social media sites to suppress the speech of ordinary Americans seeking to both speak and hear information on issues that not only affect elections and other issues of public political import but that actually directly affect our individual health, well-being, and ability to earn a living and to support our families.

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Book Burning Goes Digital

Book Burning Goes Digital

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In March 2021, the Biden White House initiated a brazenly unconstitutional censorship campaign to prevent Americans from buying politically unfavorable books from Amazon. The effort, spearheaded by White House censors including Andy Slavitt and Rob Flaherty, began on March 2, 2021, when Slavitt emailed Amazon demanding to speak to an executive about the site’s “high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation.”

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The Service of Dissent

The Service of Dissent

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In the last four years we have seen an astonishing rise in censorship, as in other forms of bullying and coercion, inside and outside the academy, even from governments and state agencies. We can’t reverse that by regret. We can only reverse it by acts of resistance. The first antidote to censorship is bold speech and consistent action. Of that, Patrick Provost has provided an admirable example that we ought all to follow.

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The Four Sins of 'Thawteffery'

The Four Sins of ‘Thawteffery’

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Thawteffery is the wicked management of thought, election-to-election, by wicked people for wicked purposes. I speak of the wicked as forming “the junta,” even though the conspiracy may be rather spontaneous. We are talking about some amalgam of a wicked faction, the Deep State, the administrative state, the swamp, the blob, and so on. It has become clear that the CIA and other intel agencies, and the Left Pole, are central in the junta.

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