Censorship

In April, Washington lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a narrow bill that seeks to crack down on sex trafficking online. To most, it seemed like a no-brainer: Sex trafficking is obviously bad. The law, however, changed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, a 20-year-old communications law that is the basis of the free internet as we know it.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai immediately shot down a request to investigate Sinclair Broadcasting Group for distorting the news, and to pause the review of Sinclair's pending acquisition of Tribune Media. Chairman  Pai said the FCC doesn’t have the authority to revoke licenses based on the content of newscasts.

[Speech] We now regularly see the highest level of our government denouncing real news as false facts. We watch how this sentiment is used to stir up anger, and we see how those in power bestow favors on outlets with narratives that flatter rather than offer the hard-hitting assessments we need. What is happening now is what journalism Professor Jay Rosen has called “not just attacking the press but the conditions that make it possible for news reports to serve as any kind of check on power.” That’s not a state of affairs we should accept. 

Rarely has President Donald Trump waged such a sustained campaign against a single entity as he has with recent broadsides against The Washington Post. Over the past week, Trump has repeatedly tweeted about the Post, its owner Jeff Bezos, and Amazon, the company that made Bezos his fortune. Bezos has remained silent and leadership at the Post restrained in the the face of the criticism, but April 5 the paper published a long story exploring the president’s charges and rebutting them at every turn.

President Donald Trump’s decision in recent days to zero in on Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com as his latest Twitter targets has highlighted a severe fracture in American society, a divide between concrete and steel and zeros and ones, a split that is as much philosophical as it is economic, as much about the fraying of communities as it is about the shape of commerce.

Gov Larry Hogan (R-MD) allegedly had a habit of blocking Facebook users and deleting comments when people criticized him, but a lawsuit has forced him to adopt a more open social media policy. Four Maryland residents sued the governor in a US District Court in August 2017, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland. The ACLU announced that a settlement has been finalized, requiring Gov Hogan to implement a new social media policy within two weeks.

President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign manager is calling for Jim Acosta to be stripped of his press credentials after the CNN White House correspondent questioned President Trump during the White House Easter Egg Roll. Brad Parscale shared an article from The Daily Caller, which reported that Acosta “yelled at Trump” during the event.  Parscale said in his tweet that he thinks it is time for Acosta to “get a suspension for breaking protocol.” “He continues to embarrass himself and @CNN,” Parscale wrote. “Pull his credentials for each incident.”

Wall Street Journal employees circulated a letter that alleges a “senior editor” at the newspaper attempted to remove an already-published multimedia graphic that the senior editor deemed “not politically palatable.”  “This is censorship and it is beneath the standards of the Wall Street Journal. It isn’t the first time, either,” the letter reads. 

A judge recommended that President Donald Trump mute rather than block some of his critics from following him on Twitter to resolve a First Amendment lawsuit.  US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald suggested a settlement as the preferred outcome after hearing lawyers argue whether it’s constitutional for Trump to block some followers. “Isn’t the answer he just mutes the person he finds personally offensive?” she asked.

Within its digital borders, China has long censored what its people read and say online. Now, it is increasingly going beyond its own online realms to police what people and companies are saying about it all over the world. For years, China has exerted digital control with a system of internet filters known as the Great Firewall, which allows authorities to limit what people see online. To broaden its censorship efforts, Beijing is venturing outside the Great Firewall and paying more attention to what its citizens are saying on non-Chinese apps and services.