Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression

Robin Andersen, Professor Emerita of Media Studies at Fordham University, is an award-winning author, writer and commentator and has written and co-authored a dozen books. Her latest work is Investigating Death in Paradise: Finding New Meaning in the BBC Mystery Show (2023). She is a Project Censored Judge and writes for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). Nolan Higdon, a founding member of the Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas, serves as a Project Censored National Judge. He is also an author and lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Steve Macek, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at North Central College in Naperville, IL, teaches courses on media studies and the First Amendment. He is the author of Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right and the Moral Panic over the City and has contributed chapters to several Project Censored yearbooks, includingthe latest, State of the Free Press 2023.

Acknowledgments – Robin Andersen, Nolan Higdon and Steve Macek: Introduction – Robin Andersen: From Afghanistan to Ukraine: War, Disinformation, and Censorship – Andy Lee Roth, avram anderson, and Mickey Huff: Censorship by Proxy and Moral Panics in the Digital Era – Nolan Higdon: The Fake News Crusaders: Exploring the People and Practices That Spread Fake News While Working to Fight It – Antonio López: Weak, Collapsing, or Resilient Media Ecosystems? Three Scenarios for the Future of Climate Crisis News – John K. Wilson: Silencing the Students: Attacks on Freedom of the Press on Campus – Sue Curry Jansen: Automating Market Censorship: Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Twenty- First Century – Nolan Higdon: The Delusion of Power: Investigating the Myth of Social Media User Power in the Age of Big Tech Censorship – Roger Stahl: Showstoppers: Can the Pentagon Shoot Down a Movie? – Allison T. Butler: Judgement Based on Gender: Patriarchy as a Tool of Censorship – Anthony DiMaggio: The Fascist Right, Rightwing Media, and the War on Critical Race Theory – Steve Macek: Rightwing Attacks on Academic Freedom in Hungary, Turkey, and the United States – Kevin John McEvoy: A Fate Worse Than Censorship: The UK, WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange – Lisa Brooten: When the Crackdown Is a Coup: Informational Autocracy and Media in Myanmar – Amy Forbes and Gary Mariano: Censorship and the Emperor’s Fake Clothes: Media Repression in the Philippines from Marcos to Duterte – Robin Andersen: Israel and Saudi Arabia: The Killing of Journalists Shireen Abu Akleh and Jamal Khashoggi, and the End of Meaningful Human Rights Discourse in US Policy – James N. Green: The Brazilian Far- Right, Academic Freedom, and the Defense of Democracy – Kalemba Kizito: How to Remove a Dictator: People, Power, and Media in Uganda – Jairo Lugo- O cando and Monica Marchesi: News Media Censorship and Platform Control in Venezuela: Back to the Future! – Arthur S. Hayes and Robin Andersen: Repression and Restrictions on Internet Freedom of Expression: The Great Firewall of China, and the Loss of Democracy in India – Robin Andersen: From Egypt to Qatar: Media Coverage of World Events, Hidden Conflicts and Human Rights Violations in the Middle East – Juan S. Larrosa- Fuentes: Mexican Journalists Under Siege: Between the Harassment of Local Governments and the Lethal Violence of Organized Crime – Alan MacLeod: Elon Musk, Twitter, Ukraine and Iran: “Free- Speech Outsider” or Essential Partner in the Military Industrial Complex – Robin Andersen, Nolan Higdon and Steve Macek: Conclusion: The State of Censorship and Resisting the Global Crackdown – Notes on Contributors – Index.

“Given the increasing concentration of corporate power to surveil us across a wide array of media platforms and global state repression to encroach into more areas of our lives, Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on freedom of Expression offers an exhaustive collection that analyzes these multifarious threats that impact all of us. From the living room to the classroom to our jobs, digital media, once championed in utopian terms, has been utilized to threaten our civil liberties and collective action. This collection offers a sober assessment of the threats as well as provides some solutions to a threat that we should all take seriously.”

Christopher Robé
Professor, Film and Media Studies, Florida Atlantic University and author of Abolishing Surveillance: Digital Media Activism and State Repression

“This insightful, well researched book is a clarion call to action to resist the wide-ranging efforts to quash dissent and free speech in public spaces and on college campuses. The thought-provoking chapters drill into domestic and international cases that expose how big tech companies, corporate media, and government leaders conceal, censor, and corrupt facts and truth at the public’s expense to advance their own interests, power, and profits. Historical and contemporary matters are masterly presented that both educate readers to identify and challenge menacing restrictions to expression that threaten the vitality of democracy.”

Spoma Jovanovic
Professor Emerita, University of North Carolina- Greensboro, and editor of Expression in Contested Public Spaces: Free Speech and Civic Engagement

“In response to the current state of restrictions on journalists, activists, artists and students, among others, Censorship, Digital Media, and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression offers an assortment of theoretically diverse essays aimed at addressing the issue from a variety of focal points. From attacks on academic freedom around the globe, to concerns of corruption and collusion between big tech companies and the government, to the silencing of professional and student journalists, the essays in this collection illustrate deftly and comprehensively the widespread, multifaceted, and rapidly escalating attacks on freedom of speech and expression in both non-democratic and democratic countries alike. “

Chris Demaske
Associate Professor, Communication, University of Washington-Tacoma and author of Modern Power and Free Speech: Contemporary Culture and Issues of Equality

“This edited volume contains important insights about the global threats to the freedom of the press and its impact on freedom of expression. The authors of this book come from diverse and impressive backgrounds and contribute wide ranging critiques of government and corporate threats to democracy. This volume greatly expands our knowledge of the impact of censorship across the globe.”

Susan Balter-Reitz
Professor of Communication and Theater, Montana State University-Billings and 2023-24 Fellow, National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.

"This is an invaluable collection of articles that give us the latest--mostly bad--news about the state of free expression in the United States and the rest of the world. Almost every page underlines the urgency of the fight against censorship.”

Christopher Finan
Former Executive Director, National Coalition Against Censorship; author of How Free Speech Saved Democracy: The Untold Story of How the First Amendment Became an Essential Tool for Security, Liberty, and Social Justice

“Media freedoms are shrinking across the globe due to the rise of populist-authoritarian movements that consider ‘truth’ and ‘facts’ as threats to be ‘neutralized’. This compendium is a timely endeavor that helps us unpack and understand propaganda and disinformation aided by Big Tech and other neoliberal instruments. Written in a direct, accessible style, this book will serve as a valuable reference for scholars, students and general publics within the U.S. and abroad.”

Raza Rumi
Director Park Center for Independent Media, Ithaca College, and Lecturer, Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University