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Jacob Siegel: "This isn't simply about censorship. They're trying to control reality."
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Jacob Siegel: "This isn't simply about censorship. They're trying to control reality."

Listen to our podcast with the author of the most important overview of the Censorship Industrial Complex yet written

It’s now clear that heads of state around the world, from the U.S. and Canada to Britain and New Zealand, are working together to censor their political opponents, lie to the public, and crack down on free speech — all in the name of fighting “disinformation,” “extremism,” and “hate.”

  • In the U.S., President Joe Biden’s administration proposed a “Disinformation Governance Board” and was caught pressuring Facebook to censor accurate covid vaccine information.

  • In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is funding government contractors to demand censorship of social media platforms and is close to passing a new law that would expand government censorship of speech online.

  • In New Zealand, departing Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has announced she will now focus on fighting “extremism” online.

There is a pattern. Those urging censorship of “misinformation” are spreading it. Those who condemn “extremism” demand extreme policies. And those who denounce “hate” are filled with loathing for their political enemies.

Consider the case of Arden. She imposed the most extreme Covid policies of any leader in the world in the world, including “zero Covid,” outdoor masking, and vaccine passports. Arden smeared protesters of her Covid policies as “imported,” and thus illegitimate, a classic “disinformation” tactic. In fact, Arden is herself a tool of foreign elites, including the World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab. And much of her own support came from ex-pats who no longer live in New Zealand.

When you listen to their United Nations speeches, read their reports, and read their emails, it’s clear that the leaders of the Censorship Industrial Complex are waging an “influence operation,” like the kind the U.S. military waged abroad for decades. Governments are funding third-party contractors, e.g., “think tanks,” to smear their enemies as “conspiracy theorists” who are “spreading hate” and causing “real world harms” so that they can censor and discredit them.

What’s happening is plainly coordinated. It’s all done so in the name of “preventing harm.” This is like the prosecution of “pre-crime” in Minority Report. This influence operation aims to control what information we’re allowed to receive and how we perceive it.

Why are elites doing this? Where did this authoritarian effort to control information come from? How should we understand it?

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