SUMMARY X became the first American platform to be fined under the EU’s Digital Services Act, receiving a €120 million penalty after allegedly refusing to open up its data to “disinformation researchers.” Disinformation researchers are critical to online censorship – they are the ones who compile databases of disfavored speech and the advertisers that fund…
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Britain’s online safety regulator has taken a new and far more aggressive step in its campaign to impose UK internet rules on foreign platforms. Newly released correspondence shows Ofcom informing 4chan Community Support LLC that it is expanding its investigation into the American message board to include alleged violations of the United Kingdom’s “Protection of…
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In November, the European Commission unveiled the European Democracy Shield, aimed at enforcing and implementing the EU’s draconian online censorship regime, codified in the Digital Services Act (DSA). The continent-wide initiative includes: A new “Digital Services Act Incidents and Crisis Protocol” to ensure the EU can rapidly coordinate with tech platforms to take down offending…
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Across Western democracies, governments and elite policy networks are increasingly bundling digital identity systems with “anti-misinformation” and “online safety” agendas, treating both as mutually reinforcing components of a new information-governance architecture. This is increasingly visible in foreign bodies: the European Union, Australia, Canada, and the globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) ecosystem, where identity-verification and speech-regulation…
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SUMMARY Media Literacy Now is a nonprofit that advocates for media & digital literacy lessons in K12 schools to train American children to avoid “disinformation.” It’s arguably the most influential such nonprofit in the U.S., with paid advocacy leaders in 23 states including Arizona, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, Montana, North Carolina, and Utah. MLN material was…
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In recent years, an expansive network of “media literacy” organizations has quietly achieved major, statewide policy victories across the country, reshaping K–12 curriculum and state education standards. Media literacy has become a top priority of the global censorship industry, including the U.S. federal government under the previous administration. Media literacy initiatives were funded by the…
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SUMMARY BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international charity, operating one of the largest global media-development networks in the world. BBC Media Action positions itself as a leader in efforts to counter “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “information disorder.” USAID provided £2.613 million to BBC Media Action in FY 2023–24, representing 8% of the charity’s total income.…
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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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