Around the globe, there appears to be a growing trend of governments tightening their grip on freedom of speech. Their demands extend beyond what the Censorship Industrial Complex has previously managed to achieve in the past six years, encompassing intrusive measures like reading private encrypted messages and conducting home invasions in search of dissenting opinions.
This situation is worsening as the European Union (EU) announced its intention to penalize Twitter for withdrawing from its supposedly “voluntary” censorship regulations. Thierry Breton, the EU’s top censor, declared, “You can run, but you can’t hide. Beyond voluntary commitments, fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation under the Digital Services Act (DSA) as of August 25. Our teams will be ready for enforcement.”
However, Politico disagrees with this perspective. Last week, they referred to the Censorship Industrial Complex as an “unproven conspiracy theory” propagated by left-leaning academics, think tanks, tech workers, and government employees to silence right-wing voters prior to nationwide elections. They argued that there is evidence suggesting that right-leaning voices actually have a more significant online presence compared to their left-leaning counterparts.
Nevertheless, the existence, funding, and actions of the Censorship Industrial Complex are extensively documented. Numerous pages of Attorneys’ General lawsuits, Congressional reports and testimonies, and internal files from Twitter and Facebook all point to a highly coordinated campaign orchestrated by top White House officials, government agencies, and government-funded contractors. Their objective was to pressure social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook into censoring “often-true” content, including information about drug side effects, with the dual aim of preventing the Public from accessing it and promoting misinformation to further a political agenda.
Politico, notably, did not provide any sources or links to support their claim that right-leaning voices dominate online discussions. This omission may stem from the fact that the “evidence” they refer to relies on a single, highly selective study that attempts to generalize the entire social media experience through an outdated and simplistic Left-Right framework.
In addition to this, there are emails from journalists advocating for censorship who pressured Twitter to de-platform reporter Alex Berenson. The perception of journalists as truth-seeker is becoming increasingly outdated. Many journalists in prominent news organizations today engage in behavior that is contrary to the ideals of journalism. They conspire behind the scenes with organizations like the Aspen Institute and social media executives to suppress stories that could be damaging to the president.
They also assist former CIA Directors and “Fellows” in spreading outlandish conspiracy theories, such as the claim that Russians manipulated the 2016 election, controlled Donald Trump through compromising videos, or had illicitly obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Instead of providing balanced coverage, these journalists vehemently denounce their adversaries. They dismiss the possibility that COVID-19 may have originated from a Chinese lab as a “racist” and “debunked conspiracy theory.” Meanwhile, they advocate the belief that the virus traveled 1,000 miles from the countryside before infecting someone at a “live wet market” as a more plausible explanation.
Why do so many journalists actively contribute to the assault on free speech, even on platforms that champion free expression, like Twitter? Last summer, Berenson released documents revealing that reporters from CNN and Axios urged Twitter to suspend him for criticizing vaccines. Berenson compared this situation to librarians burning books and questioned why journalists would attack their own profession.
The evidence supporting the existence of the Censorship Industrial Complex is plentiful, and they are well aware of it because they are complicit in its activities. The media’s problem lies not in the lack of proof regarding the censorship conspiracy but in the fact that it has indeed been exposed to it.