Defund the thought Police.
Environmental Progress Spotlight: Shining a light on the Censorship-Industrial Complex
Warning: Governments around the world are targeting its citizens.
Governments of democracies have moved from fighting ISIS recruiters and Russian bots to censoring and de-platforming ordinary citizens and public figures they don’t like. In the US, the Censorship Industrial Complex is funded by billions of taxpayer dollars, and is using direct coercion along with the most sophisticated AI tools to manipulate people, label social media posts, and discredit factual information. Just because they don’t agree with them. Governments around the globe are attacking the free speech of its citizens. From Ireland to Germany, Canada to Mexico, laws are being passed that are stifling free speech in ways that would make the East German secret police proud. This complex is a network of government agencies, academic institutions, and NGOs that are censoring ordinary citizens on a whole host of issues, all without their knowledge. Everyone, no matter where they are on the political spectrum, must take notice and help end this assault on our right to free speech.
We Need you!
In collaboration with a range of partners from across the globe, Public and Environmental Progress has launched a new global free speech campaign. We’ve kicked off that movement with the development of The Westminster Declaration, which proclaims free speech as an essential human right and has been signed on by prominent journalists, academics and public intellectuals from across the political spectrum.
The free speech movement at its core is a people’s movement, and that means you! To dismantle global censorship we need a truly global movement.We are looking for allies who are active or want to become active on these issues.
Are you a journalist, attorney, or free speech activist? We need you!
Can you volunteer or do you need to be paid? We want to network with and support you, and learn from you. Please fill in the form below to build this movement.
Sunshine: The Best Disinfectant
what we want
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Shut it down
Congress must immediately cut off funding to the censors and investigate their activities. If you work for one of these organizations that is censoring Americans, you can blow the whistle.
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Shine the light
Congress should mandate instant reporting of all conversations between social media executives, government employees, and contractors concerning content moderation.
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Transparency for Freedom
Revise Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to require social media platforms to disclose their content moderation decisions, including when users are suspended or permanently de-platformed. Read more.
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blow the whistle: get engaged
confidential Whistle Blower contact
Are you an employee or contractor with a censorship industrial complex agency or organization? Are you seeing evidence of censorship, propaganda, or disinformation?
If you see censorship, please contact us.
the issue summary
the censorship-industrial complex
President Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex's unwarranted influence on society. Today, we face the censorship-industrial complex run by tech elites.
threatening our liberties
The censorship-industrial complex endangers our liberties and democracy. Federal government-sponsored censorship is on the rise in the US.
shadow censorship
American citizens are being censored without their knowledge on issues like COVID origins, vaccines, and climate change.
core civil rights
Right or wrong, Americans have the right to express their ideas.
Blacklists and bans
The censorship-industrial complex is creating blacklists of disfavored people and pressuring social media platforms to censor and even ban them.
pressuring private interests
The US government funds organizations that pressure advertisers to boycott news media and social media platforms that refuse to censor or spread disinformation.
censors decide what you can see
Censors are overly confident in their ability to discern truth from falsity and abuse their power.
psychological manipulation
The censorship-industrial complex combines psychological manipulation with highly sophisticated computer science tools.
the more, the scarier
The censorship-industrial complex includes organizations with ties to the Department of Defense, the C.I.A., and other intelligence agencies.
faulty fact checking
The censorship-industrial complex manipulates information under the guise of "fact-checking" and discredits valid hypotheses as conspiracy theories.
military-grade monitoring
The government is using military-grade monitoring and speech-countering techniques to counter what they believe is "misinformation" without a terrorist or extremist predicate.
Censorship Industrial Complex: How it works
GOVERNMENT Funding sources
National Science Foundation (64 grants, $31.8 million on “countering” misinformation)
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency) Division of DHS
USAID
NED (National Endowment for Democracy)
which fund public & Private entities,
DFR Lab (Digital Forensics Research) at the Atlantic Council
EIP (Election Integrity Project)
FITF (Foreign Influence Task Force)
Graphika, private network analysis firm
Moonshot CVE
New Knowledge
GEC (Global Engagement Center), US State Department
which pressure social media platforms
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
TikTok
Spotlight
News, thoughts and ideas that shine a light on the Censorship Industrial Complex.
