Trump's Executive Order on Censorship
The Control of Information. How the rich and powerful shape the media and control your mind. By Dr. Judith Brown.
‘Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States, in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society’. Executive Order, USA, 20 January 2025.
The Executive Order to end censorship in the United States.
On 20 January 2025, on the day of his inauguration, President Trump of the USA signed an order to end the censorship of free speech in the United States. This does not, and cannot, be extended outside the US borders. In the Executive Order he outlines most of the points that he addressed after his successful election, but some things are omitted that may be significant. One is that there is no mention of a bill to protect digital rights, and another is that there is no mention of social media giants who censor to be required to tell users if they are censored, to explain why, and to allow appeals against any such decision. You can read the Executive Order here. However, it is an advance on the restrictions of the censorship regime that has permeated social media in recent times.
This has met with criticism by newswires and mainstream media, who state that this will cause a row back in the fight against disinformation and malinformation that has been ongoing. However, there are many ordinary Americans who will appreciate the renewal of their freedom of expression.
US Executive Order versus censorship legislation.
In countries with censorship legislation, such as EU and UK, we have to wait to see if there will be any change in censorship policies on social media. At the moment, X has mostly capitulated, and Meta is negotiating with the EU in Ireland on the amount of freedom that will be allowed without severe financial penalties. Additionally, it is likely that Meta will lose advertising revenue, as X has done, if free expression is allowed on Facebook and Instagram platforms.
In order for you to understand the extent of the censorship problems two guest articles will be posted. The first is from when the EU Digital Services Act was passed in 2022. You can read this for yourself here. This demonstrates the danger we all face in restrictions in our right to free speech, the most basic human right of all, on which all other rights depend.
The second more up to date analysis, together with details of UK censorship legislation, will be posted on 26th January 2025.