Censorship

Fifth Circuit Finds Biden Administration Violated First Amendment Through Social Media Coercion

| Importance: 8/10

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that White House officials, the Surgeon General, CDC, and FBI ’likely coerced or significantly encouraged’ social media platforms to censor content, constituting state action in violation of the First Amendment. The court found evidence of a …

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals White House FBI CDC Surgeon General +1 more censorship first-amendment social-media government-overreach judicial-ruling
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FBI Enables Social Media Suppression of Hunter Biden Laptop Story Despite Knowing Authenticity

| Importance: 8/10

Twitter and Facebook suppressed the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story after months of FBI warnings about potential Russian ‘hack-and-leak’ operations. The FBI had possessed the laptop since December 2019 and confirmed its authenticity, but when social media companies asked …

FBI Twitter Facebook Yoel Roth Hunter Biden +1 more censorship election-interference fbi social-media disinformation
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Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512: Safe Harbor Provisions Create Dual System of Corporate Protection and Individual Vulnerability

| Importance: 9/10

President Clinton signs the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), with Section 512 creating ‘safe harbor’ liability protections for online service providers (OSPs) that comply with ’notice and takedown’ procedures. While presented as balancing copyright protection with …

Bill Clinton U.S. Copyright Office Google YouTube Recording Industry Association of America intellectual-property copyright dmca regulatory-capture censorship +2 more
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House Gag Rule Suppresses Antislavery Petitions, Demonstrating Slave Power's Congressional Capture

| Importance: 9/10

The House of Representatives passes the Pinckney Resolutions, authored by Henry L. Pinckney of South Carolina, establishing what becomes known as the “gag rule”—a resolution automatically “tabling” all antislavery petitions, prohibiting them from being printed, read, …

Henry L. Pinckney John Quincy Adams U.S. House of Representatives American Anti-Slavery Society Pro-slavery Democrats gag-rule slave-power legislative-capture censorship first-amendment +1 more
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