SUMMARY 81 Republican members of the House of Representatives voted with 210 Democrats to re-fund the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) NED is a nonprofit created by Congress in the 1980s, which has been a major source of U.S. soft power abroad. Originally tasked with supporting anti-Soviet movements during the Cold War, NED repurposed itself…
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The government of the UK is rallying international support to ban X over a controversy over an ongoing controversy regarding the use of AI to replace women’s clothing with bikinis. “If X cannot control Grok, we will,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told MPs this week, saying the platform may “lose the right to self…
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SUMMARY Nina Jankowicz was executive director of the short-lived DHS Disinformation Governance Board under the Biden administration, which sought to coordinate “counter-disinformation” efforts across the US federal government. Over the past two years, Jankowicz has testified before the parliaments of the EU, Canada, and most recently the UK, urging foreign lawmakers to resist the Trump…
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Measures to bar children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms came into effect at the end of the year in Australia, a move framed by officials as a child-safety measure but one that has quickly sparked broader concerns about speech, access to information, and democratic participation. The measures require tech companies…
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In 2025, free speech advocates can point to a genuine turning point—one that would have been difficult to imagine just three years earlier. A series of developments marked meaningful resistance to government censorship, coordinated content moderation, and foreign pressure on American speech norms. This moment represents a sharp break from the early 2020s, when virtually…
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SUMMARY Media and digital literacy lessons in schools emerged as one of the top priorities of the censorship industry under the previous administration, promoted by the US federal government as a means to combat disinformation both domestically and around the world. A labyrinth of nonprofits and private ed-tech companies continue to push media and digital…
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In a Westminster Hall debate this week, the UK’s Minister for Digital Government and Data, Ian Murray, responded to mounting pressure from lawmakers on the role of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in bypassing the Online Safety Act’s enforcement regime. Murray, speaking for the government, made clear that the review of the Act will consider VPNs…
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The European Commission announced on December 4 that it will fine Elon Musk’s X €120 million (approx. $140 million) for non-compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s draconian online censorship regime. The Commission has given X 60 days to provide it with a compliance plan, at the risk of “periodic penalty payments.” Per…
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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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