An Inflection Point in the War Against Censorship

In the past 10 days, three major developments have thrust the debate over online censorship back into the national spotlight and could mark an inflection point in the battle to protect free speech.

First, last Wednesday, 136 journalists, writers, and academics from across the political spectrum united to publish what they called the Westminster Declaration, a warning to political leaders and everyday citizens alike about increasing international censorship that threatens to erode centuries-old democratic norms.

Signatories included Twitter Files authors Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi, conservative psychologist and author Jordan Peterson, liberal biologist Richard Dawkins, and liberal filmmaker Oliver Stone, among others.

Two days after the publication of the Westminster Declaration, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would hear Murthy v. Missouri, formerly known as Missouri v. Biden, a landmark case brought by the Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana challenging the government s right to collude with social media companies to censor Americans speech online.

And finally, earlier this week, Republicans elected Congressman Mike Johnson as the next Speaker of the House. Johnson notably hails from Louisiana the same state as one of the plaintiffs in the Missouri case and has previously grilled top Biden officials on their censorship activities.

Taken together, these developments signal a brewing disaster scenario for the unholy alliance of Big Tech content moderators, government bureaucrats, and left-wing activists what Shellenberger and Taibbi have dubbed the Censorship Industrial Complex. Not only are noteworthy self-described liberals turning on the left s censorship regime, but the Supreme Court may also be on the cusp of establishing a new legal precedent explicitly prohibiting the government from working with Big Tech to silence speech, and the House of Representatives now has a speaker who is an expert in constitutional law and is fully willing to call out censorship.

via amac.us

Let’s hope.