Two-sided Censorship
Now even reading certain things is off-limits
Yesterday, the US State Department ordered the termination of news subscriptions. Academic and professional journals were exempted.
These cancellations will create blind spots for embassies who can no longer subscribe to local news outlets. Reuters, the disobedient AP, the New York Times, and more were called out specifically. This is clearly government-sponsored censorship, just on the “buy” side.
Efforts to censor scientists and experts continue, data keep disappearing, and the instability itself is chilling.
So much for “free speech.” These tech and libertarian people never meant it in any way for others. It was always about being free to bully and push people around, never about democratic rights. And the consequences don’t matter to them, as someone in our space once said:
“Libertarianism’s attraction is based on ignoring externalities.” — David Rosenthal, a founder of LOCKSS
We — people, publishers, professionals, citizens — are their “externalities.”