A consistent theme brought to light by FFO’s ongoing efforts to expose the censorship industry is the central role of the U.S. federal government, particularly the foreign policy and security establishment, in providing the funding and impetus to the whole-of-society campaign against “online disinformation.” This state of affairs, which persisted until the second Trump Administration’s…
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The White House is reportedly preparing to revoke the U.S. visa of Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the UK-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a UK-founded nonprofit closely tied to the current left-wing Labour government, with a track record of pressuring tech platforms to censor Americans. According to The Telegraph, Ahmed — a former…
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SUMMARY United Kingdom lawmakers continue to debate banning virtual private networks (VPNs) as part of a measure to crack down on internet freedom following the enactment of the Online Safety Act VPNs have been used to circumvent proof-of-age and other identity requirements for online services as part of the Online Safety Act VPN usage has…
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SUMMARY Citing “rising misinformation and violent rhetoric online,” Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro in September 2025 visited a Dauphin County school to highlight the PA Department of Education’s Information and Media Literacy Toolkit, which would give teachers and students to identify misinformation Shapiro during the visit discussed the need to identify “hateful” or “extreme” language on…
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SUMMARY The Knight Foundation is one of the most well resourced philanthropic organizations in the United States, with $2.6 billion in assets as of 2023. The Foundation is tied to the foreign policy blob — in the 2010s it entered a public-private partnership with USAID to facilitate influence operations abroad. After the 2016 election, it…
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Ofcom, the UK’s media and online communications regulator charged with enforcing the country’s draconian Online Safety Act (OSA) has claimed that the First Amendment does not protect American companies from its fines. The UK regulator is attempting to impose a 20,000 GBP fine on 4chan, an American-based discussion forum known for both political incorrectness and…
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SUMMARY Less than two months before the 2024 presidential election, Georgetown University hosted an online panel titled “Is Democracy a Democratic Form of Government?” Panelists included the vice president of research at Freedom House, a U.S. State Department-funded nonprofit tracking “democratization” and freedom worldwide. Freedom House received approximately $80 million from the U.S. taxpayer in…
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Beneath Wikipedia’s public brand of crowdsourced objectivity lies a troubling reality: a cadre of ideologically driven editors wielding deletion powers to suppress content that challenges dominant narratives. Recent attempts to erase pages on sensitive topics reveal a pattern of bias, one that undermines free speech and distorts historical records. From downplaying violent crimes to silencing…
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SUMMARY Wikipedia has recently been in the spotlight for its political bias, facing interrogation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), in addition to a spate of news coverage highlighting the online encyclopedia’s political bias. Multiple investigations have confirmed that Wikipedia is run by a tiny clique of mostly-anonymous editors, with 1 percent of users responsible for…
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In the early days of the platform censorship era, the favored approach was relatively blunt: ban big accounts, remove posts, issue takedowns of disfavored narratives, or suspend users whose content crossed certain lines. As this approach has become unpopular, the censorship industry now aims for something more insidious: rather than outright removing speech, the new…
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