FREE SPEECH NEWS ROUNDUP

For years, the US State Department has secretly funded and coordinated the OCCRP, a massive journalism consortium directing the energies of press across the world towards America’s geopolitical rivals and enemies.

G20 leaders convened in Rio de Janeiro have called for enhanced responsibility and transparency from digital platforms to tackle the growing challenges of “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “hate speech,” and others on their long list of supposed online “harms.” All code words for state censorship.

To watch Jay Battachariya now being trashed by the Washington Post as a fringe kook and a tool of “dark money” who just wanted to force Covid on the world to widen the labor pool would be shocking, except that no propaganda response can be a surprise. A paper with the Washington Post’s circulation issues would normally be careful before calling anyone else “fringe,” but these still aren’t normal times.

A Telegraph journalist is facing a “Kafkaesque” investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a social media post last year. Allison Pearson, an award-winning writer, has described how two police officers called at her home at 9:40am on Remembrance Sunday to tell her she was being investigated over the post on X, formerly Twitter, from a year ago.

Stories like this were used to argue for censorship, when this was really the ultimate example of why we need a First Amendment. Officials here were the wrong ones, repeatedly, and were openly asking for the right to suppress critics even more than they already were. Is it too much to hope scientists will be allowed to argue freely going forward?

The establishment media’s control over framing the election narrative is “shattered,” Axios’s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen acknowledged Monday. Gallup polling confirms that Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low.

Good news: a new FIRE/NORC poll finds two out of three Americans rate free speech as very important to their vote in 2024, second only to inflation.

England, not Russia, is the culprit in a real foreign election interference story, as the leaked Stateside plans of an advisory group with close ties to Prime Minister Keir Starmer show.

Powerful organizations like Twitter, Meta, Google, and now the FBI have appointed themselves arbiters over the news you get to consume. They decry “threats” to democracy in the form of foreign interference, influence, disinformation, misinformation, and even conspiracies. That ultimately undermines the most powerful engine of our democracy, which is freedom of speech and expression.

GARM, during its operation, engaged in practices that appeared to suppress certain media voices by guiding major advertisers on which news sources were deemed “credible,” with a noticeable bias favoring left-leaning media. He noted that these practices could potentially violate the Sherman Act by unlawfully restraining trade under the guise of social justice.

Within a recent WEF discussion, Secretary Kerry outlines how freedom of speech is a 'threat to the global democracy 'because the governing officials have a difficult time controlling information. Kerry goes on to posit how the next administration, presumably in his hope Kamala Harris, will forcefully structure all the tools of government to stop Americans from using the first amendment to freely speak about issues.

This is why censorsip never works. Dissenting voices contribute authority to law. Law earns our allegiance by remaining open to contestation, and by inviting rather than repressing our critical judgment.

Warnings about major escalation of war -- and potential nuclear war -- take a backseat to think tank experts from the defense industry.

There are increasing calls from academia and the corporate media for major changes to the Constitution, meaning, major changes to the United States. Speech is first on their list.

A good summary of the antecedents of today's censorship crisis in Brazil.

More arrests in the UK for speech.

As governments everywhere tighten their grip on the Internet, Meta's CEO blows a hole in years of official lies.

Today, the government rarely bothers to obtain a search warrant for surveillance because it is cumbersome to do so and because it is so easy to surveil on a massive scale without one — and worry about the Fourth Amendment afterward.

Media gatekeepers are losing control over the conversation, and robust censorship is their only chance to regain power.

The announcement that the already deeply worrying UK Online Safety Act will be amended, to give the state still greater power over information sources like the one which you are currently reading, could signal a massive blow to internet freedom. Publication of “misinformation” is to be criminalized – which means the official narrative will be enforced on social media.

After a nationalist riot, Britain's new Prime Minister announces plans for a "coordinated effort" to arrest wrongdoers "before they can even board a train". Starmer’s address comes in the context of a growing international movement to combine expanded definitions of incitement with “preventive” enforcement.

At least at State universities, there's no basis for censoring political opinions of any kind, and attempts to do so will be struck down as unconstitutional.

"The ban is sure to be met with legal challenges, and even some on the left are questioning the legitimacy of such a ban, as it appears to violate a number of provisions on free speech guaranteed in the constitution."

Participation in Gaza solidarity protests and student groups could become a disqualifying factor for applicants at a prominent Wall Street law firm, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Thank you to all who supported Julian Assange over the years. Your activism and attention ultimately worked.

At least a dozen colleges and universities have changed their policies to make it harder to protest the war on Gaza. More may follow this summer.

According to the Harvard Dean of Social Sciences "A faculty member’s right to free speech does not amount to a blank check to engage in behaviors that plainly incite external actors — be it the media, alumni, donors, federal agencies, or the government — to intervene in Harvard’s affairs." In other words, there should be a "heckler's veto" at Harvard when it comes to faculty members speaking their minds.

"The Scott Ritter affair astonishes me yet more than any of the other astonishing developments of late. I read it as a warning of how extreme things may get, what irreparable damage to the American polity may be done, if liberal authoritarian cliques determine that a broad campaign to suppress dissent will be necessary if Biden is to have a chance of winning a second term and they are to fulfill their end-of-history destiny."

What we are witnessing appears to be establishment politicians weaponizing government intelligence agencies to interfere in Europe’s elections, with the active participation of mainstream German NGOs and news media companies.

During and after the pandemic, certain medical boards were threatening to withhold certification from any doctors who spoke against orthodoxies like COVID vaccine safety.

The point seems to be that any protests at the DNC convention will be funded by Russia.

The National Counterterrorism Center, created in the wake of 9/11 to combat al Qaeda, is now working overtime to find evidence of foreign funding of US student protesters.

This article draws a connection between the arms industry, censorship practices, and the injustices of the criminal justice system.

Interesting practical advice on how to avoid being surveilled, or accused, via location data, if you are even in the vicinity of a disfavored protest.

““Rumble is standing for free speech even when it is hard. Other online platforms and media companies must see these laws for what they are — a threat to their existence.”

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill—called H.R. 9495—that would give the Treasury secretary, who is appointed by the president, unchecked power to declare nonprofit groups “terrorist supporting organizations.”

From your friends on the House Ways and Means Committee.

A federal judge kept alive a lawsuit accusing the federal government of encouraging social media platforms to censor users’ views. The judge ruled that the two states that filed the lawsuit can continue their discovery, a pretrial phase that allows litigants to gather evidence for trial and can consist of examinations under oath and requests for documents.

Greenwald highlights example after example of corporate media's inability to acknowledge they are simply out of touch and were wrong. Instead they describe the election results as something they cannot understand and they were rightfully blindsided and befuddled because who could see this coming.

Harvard Library suspended roughly 25 faculty members from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they conducted a silent “study-in” protest in the library’s main reading room last week — an extraordinary disciplinary action taken by the University against its own faculty.

More on the European Union’s effort to use its infamous Digital Services Act to force companies like X to censor Americans, including on postings related to our presidential election. This is a direct assault on our free speech values, and yet the Biden-Harris Administration has not raised a peep of objection. Now, the EU is threatening to set these confiscatory fines with reference to revenue from companies other than X, including SpaceX.

"This isn’t about terrorism at all. It is about frightening those opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and the West’s collusion in it, into silence. If the British state is going after someone like Winstanley, you are supposed to conclude, they will surely soon come for me too."

In a rare adversarial exchange at a briefing, the Grayzone's Liam Cosgrove grills State Department spokesman on the threat of nuclear war

“‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater” not only isn’t law, it’s a symbol of one of the darkest chapters in our history, when we passed the aforementioned Espionage Act of 1917 and the similarly heinous Sedition Act of 1918, punishing utterance of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States.”

The attacks on the Supreme Court are part of a growing counterconstitutional movement that began in higher education and seems recently to have reached a critical mass in the media and politics. The past few months have seen an explosion of books and articles laying out a new vision of “democracy” unconstrained by constitutional limits on majority power.

To make her argument against free speech, Clinton invokes the Russiagate scam that itself was the product of her campaign's own propaganda. Speaking of which, the case that she invokes here -- Mueller charging some Russians for social media activity -- led to Mueller dropping the case after the Russian company showed up to fight the case in court.

The Ruling Strata are angry; they are angry that their technical expertise and consensus about ‘just about everything’ is being spurned by the ‘deplorables’. There will be prosecutions, convictions and fines for cyber ‘actors’ who disrupt the digital ‘literacy’, the ‘leaders’ warn.

If you disagree with this administration, you are a Russian asset.

Columbia Journalism Review goes full pro-censorship

From April 2023, but still germane.

"...In short, the arrest of Pavel Durov appears to be pretty blatant abuse and only very tenuously connected to the legal basis given as justification. This is simply a part of the current rising wave of authoritarianism in western “democracies”."

In Europe, free speech is in free fall. Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other countries have eviscerated free speech by criminalizing speech deemed inciteful or degrading to individuals or groups. The result had made little difference to the neo-Nazi movement in countries like Germany, which is reaching record numbers. It has, however, silenced the rest of society.

The University of Chicago, like many U.S. colleges and universities this year, abandoned free speech in the interest of contingent politics through their ‘management’ of protests against Israel’s war on Gaza. Integrity Media is gratified that U of C has changed course by lifting its punishment of students engaged in these passionate manifestations of outrage. In a time where monopoly media is throttling voices in opposition to dominant narratives and elite policy preferences, we affirm that an open society requires that universities operate as strongholds of free inquiry and expression. We hope all institutions of higher education, and more specifically, the people who work within them, adhere to policies and practices that uphold these fundamental democratic tenets, which are also required to maintain the integrity of intellectual life more broadly. We congratulate the students on overcoming this momentary and unnecessary setback in their academic lives and look forward to seeing the University of Chicago restore its reputation as an institution that invites open inquiry without defining ideas and political positions as dangerous. The danger lies in the suppression of speech, thought and inquiry.

Rumble in the news, fighting censorship. "...GARM’s influence wasn’t just about ensuring ethical advertising but extended into selective demonetization, where certain creators and outlets found themselves suddenly cut off from essential advertising dollars. This power to influence who gets monetized and who doesn’t,... put GARM in the position of gatekeeper, deciding the fate of various online entities based on their content..."

A good overview of what happened last spring, and what is happening now, at various universities.

The latest on CJ Hopkins continuing persecution in Germany...

"The European Commission offered 𝕏 an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. 𝕏 did not."

There’s been a conspicuous recent propaganda objective of trying to convince people of clearly false things. Often the issues are not even about party politics. Being wrong is a principle with the corporate media.

Over on MSNBC, if you believe in independent journalism, you're probably a Russian Agent. Definitely you're suspect.

Under the guise of "child protection", the EU is attempting to effectively abolish encrypted communication. Foiled for now, they will be back.

OpEd by Leonard C. Goodman

Across corporate media, journalists and pundits introduced conspiracy theories to discredit the pro-Palestine student protest movement, particularly that they are funded by foreign countries or “outside agitators.”

“A decade of (high school and college) work down the toilet because I decided to express my free speech.”

The Grayzone is falsely accused by the Washington Post of spreading “Russian propaganda”, and receiving "funding from Iran."

The danger of this new Ukraine policy is not reported at all in mainstream press.

Perhaps the worst anti-free speech bill in the "democratic" world has been concocted in Canada. It's not to late too stop this abominable proposed law.

The censorship machine's way of doing business has been via surreptitious contacts with media and tech companies, intelligence carve-outs in “fact-checking” organizations, payoffs, and various other clever strategies, all directed toward boosting some sources of information and suppressing others. The goal has always been to advance regime narratives and curate the public mind.

Michael Schellenberger was a 'secret weapon' in derailing the Australian Government's "misinformation" bill, but warns the fight against censorship is far from over.

Following its crushing defeat in the 2024 election, the Democratic Party might finally face its day of reckoning. The party markets itself as the champion of the working class and a bulwark against the party of the plutocrats. But this has been a lie for at least three decades.

President-elect Donald Trump will tap Brendan Carr as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he said in a statement on Sunday. On Friday, Carr posted on X to attack Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft for playing 'central roles in the censorship cartel,' which he said 'must be dismantled.'

Encouraging words from President-elect Trump: "If we don't have free speech, then we don't have a free country."

In a significant post-trial development in what has been described as the “anti-colonial free speech trial of the century,” Attorney Leonard Goodman has filed a motion seeking judgment of acquittal on the conspiracy conviction of the three members of the Uhuru Movement, arguing that the September verdict, which acquitted the defendants of acting as unregistered agents of the Russian government but found them guilty of “conspiracy” to act as unregistered agents, is inherently contradictory and lacks legal grounding.

Legal experts say the surge in prosecutions under anti-terrorism and anti-mafia laws predates 7 October and will damage the right of free expression.

Like every censor in history, EU President Ursula von der Leyen characterizes her censorship program as a means of expunging erroneous information and ideas from public discourse. By using the word “disinformation,” she implies that she and her clique are already the sole possessors of the truth about everything, and that everyone who has and shares heterodox ideas is necessarily in error.

Only 31% of Americans have a "great deal" or a "fair amount" of trust in mass media "when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly," according to Gallup poll conducted in early September. A greater number of Americans -- 36% -- say they have no trust at all. Corporate media should be asking why, but they won't. They'll blame the Russians.

If the US government designates its enemies as “terrorists” and massive Silicon Valley platforms are censoring criticism of US wars against those enemies in order to be in compliance with US law, then the US government is just censoring speech which criticizes US warmongering, using a corporate proxy in Silicon Valley.

When Chicago-area college students returned to campus this fall, they were greeted with more than just new lectures, readings and tests. Many local universities welcomed students back with drastically revised guidelines around protest and political speech.

Outcry is spreading against Northwestern University's decision to cancel the fall classes of professor Steven Thrasher, who was hired as its first ever endowed chair for social justice in reporting. Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism suspended Thrasher months after he took part in a pro-Palestine encampment on campus last spring, in a move that appears to be related both to his defense of students in the encampment and to pro-Palestine statements he made in his speeches and social media posts.

America’s most educated have grown distrustful of non-experts and their ability to process dangerous ideas.

[The] contrast between what the people want, despite all the propaganda they have been subjected to, and what the political establishment ordains, afflicts all metropolitan countries.

Despite documented human rights violations that have been condemned by various United Nations bodies and leading human rights organizations, the British government has chosen to intensify its actions against opponents of Israel’s military operations in Gaza while maintaining its support for the Israeli government.

In one of the most consequential press-speech cases not covered by corporate media, a group of black socialists are facing prison for disagreeing with the Biden Administration on Ukraine.

A journalist is arrested in the UK for speech, under the Terrorism Act.

Great investigative journalism from MintPress on the activities of the CIA in Indonesia.

In recent years, activists from both the right and left have been banned from bank accounts and digital financial platforms over political speech-related allegations with virtually no due process – a phenomenon informally known as debanking.

The London police are now deputized to stop or arrest those engaged in speech deemed inciteful or inflammatory.

“Flights” examines the stories of historic struggle of progressive thinkers and political activists who faced the onslaught of Cold War propaganda and McCarthyism, becoming refugees as a result of their political work. The book chronicles a counter-narrative of American history, where the bravest and most outspoken figures criticizing the system are crushed by it and their lives ruined.

Using techniques first pioneered during the COVID lockdowns, and now expanded with AI, anyone with a political arrest history is banned from moving freely in Paris, according to the article.

The line trotted out by the Commission is that this all about “transparency” and protecting users from deception and disinformation. But the truth, as Musk suggests, is that this is really about the EU’s desire — and the DSA’s ultimate goal — to secretly control the online narrative. So much for transparency.

When this story initially broke, the investigative journalists who published it were roundly condemned. Now even a major Israeli publication concurs, nine months later.

Julian Assange has not been freed passively, the beneficiary of decisions taken by the American and British judiciaries — and almost certainly in the Biden regime’s upper reaches. Julian Assange has achieved his freedom, actively.

Karine Jean-Pierre’s diatribe against so-called cheapfakes is another unconstitutional effort to restrict so-called “malinformation.” This story just got stranger after the Presidential debate, when, after years of insisting that President Biden was mentally sharp, the entire corporate media precipitously dropped this charade, as if on cue, undercutting all of their own stories buttressing the "cheapfake" narrative.

Another case where a US judge is trying to force a journalist to reveal his sources, and where the journalist refuses even under threat of jail.

David Talbot, a great journalist, truth-teller, and author of The Devil's Chessboard, an important book on the security state and the assassination of JFK, recently suffered a serious stroke. We wish him speedy, full recovery.

Only Elon Musk and X stood up to the censors in Australia, and now they've won.

Three great alt-media figures discuss propaganda & censorship in the Ukraine conflict.

Dozens of students protesting the war in Gaza walked out of the University of Chicago’s commencement Saturday as the school withheld the diplomas of four seniors over their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment.

A sad retreat by the University of Chicago from their long-professed commitment to free inquiry and expression.

We should never forget that freedom of speech is a human right.

The Censorship-Industrial Complex is back in business.