Censorship

Censorship  (propaganda technique)
Interest of	• 7th floor group • Anti-Defamation League • Mike Benz • Josep Borrell • Center for Countering Digital Hate • European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation • Nick Fuentes • Paddy Hannam • Kim Iversen • Rania Khalek • Karen Kornbluh • Elon Musk • Brendan O'Neill • PewDiePie ADL controversy • Giovanni Pitruzzella • Project Censored • Nathalie Van Raemdonck • Michael Rectenwald • Social Observatory for Disinformation and Social Media Analysis • Lauren Southern • Spiked Online • Trusted News Initiative • Andrew Vallance • Brittany Venti • Wikiscanner • Henry Windsor
The organised suppression of information, increasingly being resorted to by large hierarchical organisations such as the nation states intent on preserving public credulity in their official narratives, many of which are at ever greater variance with reality.

Censorship is the removal of particular pieces of information. It is an age old propaganda technique.

Official Narrative

US President John F. Kennedy elegantly articulated the official narrative of the time when he stated "The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings."

An official (albeit contentious, and still openly debated) addendum to this narrative suggests that nation states are justified in using increasing censorship to protect their citizens against terrorists. Since the launching of the "war on terror" the concept of "national security" is being ever more widely used to prevent both the publishing of information by individuals and the withholding of information gathered at public expense by government bodies.

Problems

In the time of the cold war, the censorship of information by the governments east of the iron curtain was widely understood. Censorship in Western nations was more subtle. Often, a public system of censorship existed, but was rarely used. Since 1912, for example, UK has operated a system of censorship called the D Notice system to muzzle the commercially-controlled media. While officially optional, this is nevertheless fairly effective in practice allows the government to censor material. Australia started a similar system in 1952. This has provided a first line of cover for more extensive, clandestine, systems of censorship - such as the CIA's Operation Mockingbird, active since the 1950's.

The internet in general has proved a problems for old censorship models. Its non hierarchical nature, together with the fact that information flows so freely, have presented an unsurmountable challenge to those seeking to censor information. Wikileaks, for example, has published material which governments have tried to censor with D Notices.

Freedom of speech

Full article: Freedom of speech

Left (legal), a Charlie Hebdo cover of July 2013, released after Egyptian protestors were killed after the military coup.
Right (illegal "defense of terrorism") posted on the net after the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

There is a fundamental contradiction between freedom of speech and censorship. If people should be free to express whatever ideas they wish, then others should not be free to censor them. The commercially-controlled media has failed to face up to this. In January 2015, less that a week after freedom of speech was celebrated in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, dozens of people were arrested in an act of mass censorship by the French government.

By medium

Internet Censorship

Full article: Internet/Censorship

Concern about mass surveillance by intelligence agencies such as the NSA will undoubtedly encourage some people to self-censor what they post online, an effort which is supplemented by many nation states that have sought to explicitly curtail free self-expression on the internet.

While the commercially-controlled media emphasises the internet censorship carried out by China, censorship is perhaps just as common in Western "democracies" and in the US and the UK it is rampant - Scotland Yard reported in 2014 that they were removing thousands of posts a week. Commercially-controlled media regularly remove comments which breech "guidelines" - such as seriously questioning the official narratives that big media seeks to promulgate.

Censorship by search engines is less obvious than removal of social media posts, but some engage in subject-specific blocking of particular websites. As of January 2018, a page from ISGP was in the top 10 results of Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, Gigablast and DuckDuckGo] for the search term "Dutroux affair". By contrast, the page was not in Google's top 100 hits, and was not mentioned in the 81 results of StartPage for this phrase — although other searches revealed that StartPage had indexed that page.

T.V. Censorship

Some UK T.V. series have been bought but never broadcast (for example, the episode of Secret Society about Margaret Thatcher's arms secret committees of the film Conspiracy Of Silence about the Franklin child prostitution ring). Others were broadcast but have been subject to attempts to suppress them ever since. Central TV's archive of Roger Cook's investigative documentary series, The Cook Report, was destroyed in a fire at a warehouse run by 'secure storage' firm Iron Mountain.

Image Censorship

In 2013, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester chose the iconic 2005 anti-war collage Photo-Op (right) for a poster campaign to promote a new exhibition about modern art and war. However, two of the UK's biggest advertising companies (who together controlled about 60% of the UK outdoor advertising market in 2011) refused to carry the image. CBS Outdoor, one of companies, told the BBC that the poster was refused after consultation with the Committee of Advertising Practice, which advises firms on whether ads may breach its code of conduct, which forbids adverts likely to cause "serious or widespread offence", while it told the authors that they could not use images involving explosions on public transport.

Radio Censorship

Bonnie Faulkner's Guns And Butter was summarily removed from KPFA in 2018 after an interview with Alan Sabrosky.

Photography restrictions

Several government facilities are subject to permanent photography bans (such as, for example, passport control). In US, a temporary "order of protection" was used to jail a peaceful protester, Mary Anne Grady Flores, for a year after she photographed an anti-drone protest outside a military base near her home.

Word prohibition

In December 2017, officials of the CDC were prohibited from using 7 words in official documents being prepared for 2018. The prohibited words were: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

Censorship industry

The censorship industry is growing in size.

• Right Wing Watch
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Hope Not Hate
• Anti-Defamation League
• Center for Countering Digital Hate
• Dangerous Speech Project
• Stop Funding Fake News
• Stop Funding Hate

See Also

• category:Censorship
• List of radio shows on censorship
• Project Censored

 

Examples

Page name	Description
9-11/Censorship	A range of tactics have been employed to try to stifle dissent about 9/11, from ad hominem attacks to assassination. As of 2016, censorship is ongoing.
Imran Ahmed	Spooky activist "Buffalo might never have happened if online hate had been tackled after Christchurch"
COVID-19/Censorship	Dissident thought about COVID-19 is being heavily censored, particularly online, as as discussed at Event 201
Cancel culture	A part of Censorship
Climate Action Against Disinformation	A coalition of "climate and anti-disinformation organisations" intending to "eliminate the spread of climate disinformation" by creating "strong policies from both governments and tech platforms"
Climate Disinformation Coalition	Coalition of NGOs lobbying to introduce more censorship of social media. Partners with the spooky Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Corporate media/Censorship	On important topics, corporate media is subject to de facto censorship.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency	The agency that cares so much about security, it's in the name twice.
DSMA-Notice	An official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security, a system of censorship in use in the UK.
Deplatforming	Anti-free speech concept. A part of censorship, particularly on social media.
Renee DiResta	"Former" CIA operative who is "leader of the global censorship industry" as research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.
Document:WikiLeaks D Notice
Facebook/Oversight board	The group charged with deciding what could be said on Facebook, and what should be removed
Faktisk	Norwegian "fact-checking" website with close personnel ties to the intelligence services and the military.
File:WikiLeaks-Australian-suppression-order.pdf	Australian Supreme Court secret super-injunction preventing the publication of information about a corruption case involving 17 named individuals including senior Malaysian, Indonesian, Vietnamese politicians and Reserve Bank of Australia directors
Forum on Information & Democracy	The Forum on Information & Democracy is an Orwellian named group to where the intention is exactly the opposite, massive censorship. Secret funders.
Global Disinformation Index
Julie Inman Grant	According to herself "turned down" CIA employment, before working 17 years for Microsoft. Then she became Australia's online censorship commissioner who wants to "recalibrate" freedom of speech.
Information hygiene	A scientific-sounding buzzword being promoted as part of the SDS internet censorship project. Information hygiene is a mix of censorship through "fact checkers" and "technological solutions", and attempting to get the population to self censor and instead "trust the experts".
Internet/Censorship	Removing things from the internet has become a high priority for those who seek to contain knowledge and shape ideas. This is done under a range of covers, notably the "war on terror".
Nina Jankowicz	An Integrity Initiative's Inner Core member who styled herself "The Mary Poppins of disinformation", nominal head of a US DoDS internet censorship project in 2022 which was disbanded amid condemnation and ridicule. In 2024 she resurfaced as head of the "American Sunlight Project".
Lèse-majesté	The "crime" of dishonouring the ruler. The term is historically applied to crowned heads of state like kings, queens and emperors. While the original meaning is regarded as quaint, insulting rulers is still disliked, and several republics still classify offences against the dignity of the president or the state itself as a crime. Noticeably, several countries also criminalize insults to foreign heads of state.
Missing documents	Files do go missing, both accidentally and on purpose. This article reviews some of the common patterns.
Holger Münch	"The still high incidence of punishable hate posting shows a need for police action."
New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority	New Zealand government supervision body for corporate media.
PewDiePie ADL controversy	The ADL's attempt to destroy the world's most recognised YouTuber. There are still a number of theories to what really happened behind the scenes.
Political correctness	a term.
Rappler	Filipino online news website and "fact checker" largely funded by CIA or other deep-state run foundations.
Section 86a	German law which criminalised holocaust denial, and other organisations and symbols.
Shadow banning
Stanford/Internet Observatory	Cut-out for the Department of Homeland Security to censor online speech. Wound down (or activities shifted to other places) in 2024 after increasing exposure.
Surveillance and censorship program	The UK government's 'Surveillance and censorship' (SAC) program is alleged by Kevin Galalae to be a part of the their CONTEST 'war on terror' strategy. He describes it as a project to 'brainwash the young and the impressionable to hold skewed and hypocritical views in line with the British Government’s foreign and domestic policy objectives'.
Third rail topic	A topic that is not to be touched.
Wikipedia/Protection	Wikipedia protects sensitive pages, to prevent anonymous edits which are deemed unwanted. Such protection is an indication that a page may be of deep political relevance.
Woke	a part of Censorship

 

Censorship victims on Wikispooks

Title	Description
Brian Berletic	Researcher, Writer, Commentator, banned from Twitter in 2022.
Vernon Coleman	Medical doctor with decades of experience. His Wikipedia article received a complete re-write when he started to criticize the official narrative on Covid-19.
T. J. Coles
Sue Grey	"Anti vax" lawyer from New Zealand
Attila Hildmann	German-Turkish TV chef, turned "anti-vaxxer" and "far-right conspiracy theorist"
Karoline Leavitt	Republican political aide
Whitney Webb	Investigative journalist who has published many aspects of The Deep State

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
"Disinformation"	“The weirdest thing about the Biden administration tasking itself with the censorship of "disinformation" on social media is that the United States is the hub of a globe-spanning empire that is built upon a foundation of disinformation, maintained by disinformation, and facilitated by disinformation.”	Caitlin Johnstone	July 2021
Josep Borrell	“Disinformation in times of the coronavirus can kill. We have a duty to protect our citizens by making them aware of false information, and expose the actors responsible for engaging in such practices. In today's technology-driven world, where warriors wield keyboards rather than swords and targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns are a recognised weapon of state and non-state actors, the European Union is increasing its activities and capacities in this fight.”	Josep Borrell	10 June 2020
Daily Mail	“The headline should read "Sussex University examines claims made by professor etc", not just "investigate professor" without certifying if the claim he made is valid or not. Another case of guilty before case proven!”	'Fizzelle'	7 November 2018
EU/Censorship	“Facts are one thing and opinions are another. Opinions are free; facts are facts.”	Joseph Borrell	10 June 2020
Freedom of speech	“Being right doesn’t entitle you to censor everyone who is wrong. That’s the central safeguard against tyranny, because even truth would be a tyranny if it didn’t allow opposition. Free speech – real free speech – has to include the right to be wrong, rude, stupid, offensive and a lying jerk. Because once you outlaw any of that – you’ve effectively ended free speech for all of us forever.”	'Catte'	26 February 2017
Ulrike Guérot	“[Interior Minister] Nancy Faeser when she is interviewed then of course says that the Democracy Promotion Law is there to weaken the anti-democrats and to strengthen the friends of democracy, although exactly the opposite is done. It is called the extremist centre, so the centre itself is becoming extremist, ideologizes itself and does not realize that it will thereby marginalize itself and damage democracy. The extremist center does not realize that has made itself extremist.”	Ulrike Guérot	June 2024
Věra Jourová	“Disinformation waves have hit Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic. They originated from within as well as outside the EU. To fight disinformation, we need to mobilise all relevant players from online platforms to public authorities, and support independent fact checkers and media. While online platforms have taken positive steps during the pandemic, they need to step up their efforts. Our actions are strongly embedded in fundamental rights, in particular freedom of expression and information.”	Věra Jourová	10 June 2020
Rosa Koire	“Ministry of truth: If you are like me you use Wikipedia along with lots of other sources and find it helpful with many fact-based questions. It's the 'peoples encyclopedia'. That is, until you decide to update the Agenda 21, Communitarianism, Sustainable Development, or Asset Based Community Development listings. Then you'll find yourself censored and pounding at the gates. I was successful with a few of these, for a while, but then the gatekeepers found my additions and censored them. They said I was a conspiracy theorist and if I persisted in posting I'd be barred from making any changes or posts to Wikipedia in the future.”	Rosa Koire
PewDiePie ADL controversy	“Reinstalled Twitter to talk about PewDiePie's betrayal by donating 50k to the ADL. The company working with places like Twitter to get rid of anything "Offensive" @pewdiepie You just supported a group that even ruined even YOUR deal to Disney. Wtf? PewDiePie literally paid $50,000 to not be called racist anymore. And in turn- he just got so many people in the future censored off of places like Twitter and YouTube. Anytime someone gets banned for now on, I'll be sure to say "Thanks Pewdiepie"”	Brittany Venti	11 September 2019
SDS/Exposure	“Whatever is unnamed, whatever is misnamed, is something else, whatever is buried under an inadequate or lying language, this will become not merely unspoken but unspeakable.”	Adrienne Rich
Henry Windsor	“in a way, taking a predominately hands-off approach to problems for so long is itself an exercise in power, [...] I think it’s a false choice to say you have to pick between free speech or a more compassionate and trustworthy digital world. They are not mutually exclusive.”	Henry Windsor
Henry Windsor	“In today’s world, we are so connected like a vast nervous system, whether we are online or not. And much like the virus, there are no borders online. So when vaccine misinformation and disinformation spreads, magnified on social media and in parts of traditional media, it exposes a collective threat to humanity. I believe that misinformation is a global humanitarian crisis, and the crisis is getting worse.”	Henry Windsor

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Britain Bans Press TV	article	22 January 2012	Ashfin Rattansi	The story of the banning of Press TV from the UK Sky Platform channel 515 that you will not see covered in the commercially controlled media.
Document:Censorship and Freedom of Speech	blog post	1 October 2008	Craig Murray
Document:Discernment: Why information statecraft matters	strategy document	26 December 2018	Integrity Initiative Chris Donnelly	Musings on how to keep media dominance and control young minds
Document:Jews Boast of Owning Hollywood - But Slam Gentiles Who Say the Same Thing	article	6 July 2014	Editorial staff	Jewish control of Hollywood, Censorship by Google and the taboo on mentioning it by Gentiles
Document:Larry Sanger is right, Wikipedia has become the establishment thought police - just look at my entry on there	Article	12 July 2021	Eva Bartlett	Eva Bartlett in an op-ed for RT, writes about the problems with Wikipedia.
Document:My contribution	self-assessment	26 December 2018	Chris Hernon	A self assessment by Chris Hernon of how he can help the the Integrity Initiative
Document:PayPal Partnering With Anti-Defamation League to Share Info With Law Enforcement, Determine Who Can Use Their Services	Article	26 July 2021	Cassandra Fairbanks	The censorship industry colludes with law enforcement and financial services in order to censor more.
Document:Pro-Kremlin trolls infiltrating comments on news sites for major influence operation, research says	Article	6 September 2021	Deborah Haynes	A study at Cardiff University shows that "Pro-Kremlin trolls" are influencing opinion in the West by infiltrating the comments sections of news websites. Dissent from the Official Narrative? Must be Russian disinformation.
Document:The Move to Muzzle Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala	article	1 January 2014	Diana Johnstone	How a French Cameroonian Comedian has the Judaic-dominated French establishment so worried they are making embarrassing fools of themselves.
Document:The tyranny of woke capitalism	Article	25 June 2021	Frank Furedi	What is "woke capitalism"? It is a form of corporate virtue signalling.
Document:White House Must Establish Disinformation Defense and Free Expression Task Force	open letter	29 April 2021	Electronic Frontier Foundation Center for American Progress Poynter Institute Free Press Access Now Public Knowledge Common Cause PEN America Andre Banks Ashley Bryant Win Black Center for Democracy & Technology Digital Democracy Project Katy Byron Simply Secure Voto Latino	A number of alleged "free-speech organizations" begging to join the US government in implementing censorship in an Orwellian-named "Free Expression Task Force".
File:2014DIN03-024.pdf	legal document	September 2014	Directorate of Defence Communications	The authorisation procedures that all members of the Armed Forces and MOD civilians must follow before making or responding to contact with the media or communicating in public

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