Aug 30, 2023
Censorship is ramping up at a rapid clip, and much of it is clearly directed by the U.S. federal government, despite a federal judge's order prohibiting federal agencies and officials from communicating with social media companies about content moderation.1 In recent days, several news stories have highlighted governments' and Big Tech's intent to increase censorship. There's even a rumor that Google will ban independent media from its search results altogether.2 I've not been able to confirm this, but considering everything else going on, would anyone really be surprised if it were true? Google, Meta Ban News in Canada For example, Canada has enacted a new law called the Online News Act that forces social media companies to compensate domestic news organizations for content shared on their platforms. While that may not sound like censorship, it has the same effect, as social media companies are now automatically removing all news links.3 To comply with the new law