Mollie Hemingway on the Censorship Industrial Complex and Free Speech

The Federalist and Censorship Efforts

• 🎯 The Federalist began experiencing censorship efforts around 2020, particularly after critiquing media coverage of the Black Lives Matter riots.
• ⚠️ An effort to demonetize The Federalist was initiated by a foreign entity, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in conjunction with NBC News and Google.
• ⚡ Hemingway notes that 2020 also saw widespread government-related censorship for those who disagreed with pandemic response strategies.

Countering False Narratives

• 💡 The Federalist's mission is to counter false narratives from major left-leaning media outlets.
• 🚀 A significant effort involved dispelling the Russia collusion hoax, which gained considerable attention for the publication.
• 📌 Hemingway states that speaking against the prevailing orthodoxies of the age, especially when they are false, leads to targeting by the censorship complex.

Global Trends in Censorship

• 🌍 Professor Turley discusses two coalescing anti-free speech movements: one from Europe and one originating in US higher education.
• 🇪🇺 Europe is seen as taking a dangerous turn with the Digital Services Act (DSA), which allows for the criminalization of speech and can compel US companies to censor content.
• 🗣️ Leaders, including American domestic ones, have called on the EU to use the DSA to force censorship on US companies, with threats of confiscatory fines or arrest.

First Amendment Debates

• ⚖️ Dr. Franks' comments on the First Amendment, suggesting it reflects white wealthy men's experiences and calling free speech advocacy a "neoc Confederate agenda," are discussed.
• 💬 Franks clarifies that his Boston Globe piece was a thought experiment about rethinking the Constitution.
• ✅ Hemingway argues that the ability to speak one's mind is a god-given right protected by the First Amendment, not conferred by the government.
• 🚫 She highlights the danger of governments outsourcing censorship and the un-American nature of deplatforming individuals for expressing dissenting views on topics like mask efficacy or vaccine transmission.