The GOP is censoring America in a wide variety of ways. It's not only illegal, but unconstitutional.
TAT readers,
Today’s essay is in my opinion, about one of the most dangerous aspects of the Seditious Republican Party and their chums in the oligarchy, that are aggressively censoring all Americans in one way or another. Here’s the premise; our founders expected citizens and residents to be well and accurately informed as a foundational aspect of being a responsible citizen. In the entire Trump/ MAGA era, the Republican Party has been perpetually driving a stake through the heart of the very truth that those brilliant and courageous founders expected us to have access to. If we do not take the actions required to lay our boots against the backside of cowardly mainstream media, the music and entertainment industry cowards, tech and social media platforms, as well as the tsunami of foreign influence, there will be no truth left to inform us. If this continues, there will no longer be an American republic.
I’m beyond fed up with the “fake news” GOP and their sycophantic base. They are pointing a gun directly at the First Amendment, the grounding expression of our most closely held constitutional rights. Law will not protect us, nor the unfulfilled promises of social media and AI purveyors claiming their only interest is “free speech.” Their commitment to free speech is as laughable as the current version of the Republican Party being the party of “family values.” As any person with sound common-sense knows, an absence of facts deprives us all of not only truth but America’s future.
To be clear, my profession of supporting and defending our national security via ethical influence, is far too complicated for one essay. Today I will present just the overview of censorship and should there be further interest, I will begin writing a short series of essays that flush out today’s overview in greater depth. I was planning on writing that series anyway for the IWI or Irregular Warfare Institute, where I am an advisor, but believe that it is more important at this critical juncture of American History to present the truth to my fellow Americans. Without the explosion of the so-called “fake news,” supported by Russia, this administration which their party have wielded as a bludgeon against every single American, there would have been no Trump-era. In order to maintain the power they have accumulated in our government, they have turned censorship into a nuclear weapon that destroys the very truth we require to make the sound decisions which sustain the republic.
Some of this essay will necessarily go down some technical and legal rabbit holes however, I will do all possible to thread the needle of understanding, by writing with understanding for all, rather than the professional community I originally was going to write for. It’s that important for our future. I’ve long written professionally and privately, that I firmly believe that immoral and adversarial influence operations were the most perilous threat to American democracy. The Republican Party in and preceding the Trump/ MAGA era, has easily proved my beliefs. Censorship in the hand of tyrants, is part of those influence operations and ground zero for the acute threat that could end 250 years of our style and system of government. President Lincoln spoke eloquently in the final words of his iconic Gettysburg Address regarding our citizen’s duty to the cause of liberty.
" that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - The Gettysburg Address - President Abraham Lincoln - November 19th, 1863
What is censorship anyway?
There are so many comments in social media and our news feeds these days as uncertain as most Americans, as to what censorship means legally or operationally under our constitution and legal frameworks. Let’s clear this up, right up front. First of all, I’ll begin with a description from the esteemed ALA or American Library Association. Yes, the ALA has been a tireless warrior in support of our First Amendment, largely by fighting unconstitutional book bans. Their tireless efforts to uphold the one amendment that the current administration consistently violates, is critical to defining who we are as Americans. Here are a handful of the foundational points about censorship in America.
The First Amendment within our Bill of Rights
Amendment I "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." - The Bill of Rights: A Transcription - National Archives
With very few and very narrow exceptions, it is illegal for the government to censor speech. The legality of censorship is oriented almost exclusively towards limiting government to interfere with our constitutionally guaranteed free speech. The First Amendment only pertains to government censorship, but there are some extremely narrow exceptions. In fact, on rare occasions, there may actually be times when censorship benefits us all regarding national security. The question that’s relevant here, is that this administration has become like the old tale about, “the boy who cried wolf,” because their noxious claims of “national emergencies” are false… every single time. This invalidates them from employing any of those narrow exceptions for their brutal agenda. The First Amendment concerns more than freedom of speech and there isn’t one word in the entire amendment that the current administration hasn’t walked on with muddy boots. They have and continue to violate everything within the First Amendment.
Content based Regulation "As a general matter, government may not regulate speech “because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.” 1 “It is rare that a regulation restricting speech because of its content will ever be permissible.” 2 The constitutionality of content-based regulation is determined by a compelling interest test derived from equal protection analysis: the government “must show that its regulation is necessary to serve a compelling state interest and is narrowly drawn to achieve that end.” 3 Narrow tailoring in the case of fully protected speech requires that the government “choose[ ] the least restrictive means to further the articulated interest.” 4 Application of this test ordinarily results in invalidation of the regulation.5" - Content based Regulation - LII, Legal Information Institute - Cornell Law School
I greatly appreciate ALA’s definition of censorship
"Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that some individuals, groups, or government officials find objectionable or dangerous. Would-be censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, to suppress and remove information they judge inappropriate or dangerous from public access, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone. It is no more complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it!” - What is Censorship? - American Library Association
Under the Republican leadership in government, the unconstitutional and illegal manner in which they censor Americans, is not always overt. They employ a wide variety of tactics, strategies and partnerships outside of their official government purview to do their dirty work, therefore complicating some aspects of the legal restraints they long ago ignored. Just because they can find a legal loophole to make their actions technically “legal” doesn’t mean they are adhering to the intent of our constitution or the spirit of the law.
Every single American is now being influenced in a manner that either censors what they see, read, watch or hear, or promotes the ideology of Sedition and fake-patriotism. Whoever and wherever you are, you are being manipulated and it’s really that simple. So if you’re like me and an American raised on the sanctity of our republic and the ideals it represents, you are undoubtedly deeply offended that our government tolerates and willfully deploys influence operations against us. Yes, censorship is part of influence campaigns.
Oh and by the way… not one of us that uses digital technology at home or at work, has any more secrets. Our vehicles, homes, shopping, phones, TVs and anything digital at home or where you venture outside of your home, is spying on you. That data goes to enormous data owners, like Amazon or FB for example, who then use this data to target you in order to exploit your wallet, regardless of whether you need a product or service, or not. This administration and their deplorable tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and more, know everything about our lives due to their data thefts. DOGE isn’t the only criminal though, and the data they stole, violates our Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." - Search and Seizure - Constitution Center.org
These points above are the immovable pieces on the battlefield against influence campaigns and as this essay explains, the piece regarding censorship. War is often ungracious in not providing the battlefield or “good ground” we would like. Sometimes strategy, timing and a hundred other important issues deal us a bad hand. For this reason, we must be honest with ourselves what the immovable pieces are. Now that we know some of these pieces, let’s continue discussing some of the pieces of censorship that are affecting our lives and our republic.
Digital media
In today’s America, the current administration, many major US and foreign corporate entities and those they direct to “moderate” or censor the speech of political opponents, has become pervasive, especially via their coercion of all media, their networks and parent corporations or owners. The attack on our constitutional rights is being waged aggressively around the clock, every day of every month and every year. There’s an entire strategy for this by the administration, the GOP and their foreign allies, such as Russia, China and those within their spheres of influence.
Then there are others, such as the places we all connect on social media like, LinkedIn, FB, Meta, X, Parler, Truth Social and so on. No matter how you access your online interests, your data is being collected and it has enormous value to those that have it in their grubby little paws. Like so many other AI surprises we’re all getting lately, the collection and exploitation of our personal data is one of the most dangerous and pernicious.
Let me tell you a short personal story for a moment, and those of you who’ve ever been robbed or burglarized will identity with this instantly. In my long life, on two occasions my home was burglarized. Once your home has been burglarized, there is a deep, unshakeable disgust that you’ve been horribly violated. Strangers entered your home and rifled through everything you own, no matter how personal. It doesn’t matter what they touched, because everything feels dirty, contaminated and tainted, even those items of little value to the thieves but deeply sentimental and personal to you. This is how I now feel when using digital technology.
Everything we all do publicly is now collected digitally. If you take a drive and stop for gas and pay with a credit or debit card, there is a collected record. Your purchases when you go inside for a coffee or snack, is digitized. At a minimum, your presence and purchase have been collected. The store probably has cameras and audio recording and anyone with a phone taking photos outside could be collecting images and audio, even accidently. All of that data goes to data owners. Data owners believe that they hold the keys to the kingdom and in many ways, they are right. Data is the new nuclear weapon of influence.
Data owners use that data to build digital profiles of everyone. What I mean by digital profiles is that every single piece of data collected becomes like those paint by number sets from childhood. Every morsel of data they collect on you, fills in a little piece of your identity. Knowing a person’s identity can then be used to increase the owner’s ability to influence you, to buy a product or service, vote a certain way or shape the way you perceive the world around you. Amazon for example uses their data to suggest products to you, remembers your purchases and even notes your dislikes. This is why those us who use Amazon’s services, receive ads and suggestions ad nauseum. Even typing in their search box for what you want, they are already picking categories of products for you to shop. You search on Amazon, and instantly, your Facebook pitching you an add for a product, you’ve just viewed or searched.
Google vacuums the data from your searches, mail and all of their other office apps and uses this to digitize your identity. Here’s a quick note from the influence operator world, anyone who understands your identity well, is the person or machine most capable of influencing you. Google is insatiable when it comes to your data. Now to fair, yes AI and related data collection also has positive benefits such as increasing search speed or at one time, enhancing your search results. At the moment though, I will no longer trust Google as far as I can throw them.
Throughout my career, I have had to employ research in order to offer military commands my best insights, support my operations and to innovate strategy, techniques and tactics for success. Much of the required research to analyze what are called, TAs or Target Audiences, is found outside of classified systems. This means what is called, “open-source” intelligence which means that you and I could see the same thing if we searched the same thing. Like my peers and colleagues, Google was the preferred or most common search engine on government systems. In the past couple of years, Google’s search engine has been hollowed out and serves only the most minor research.
Anyone who “googles” anything often, will surely have noticed how much is now missing from searches. Since I include a fair amount of history, global national security reporting and other background in my essays, I have discovered just how little is now available from using their search engine. It’s not just me either. Even prominent historical references either are no longer available or only have one reference that tells the story only one way. Understanding history well, requires seeing situations from a variety of perspectives, if you wish to actually understand them.
Now that I have allowed my security clearance to expire, I, like you, now only have access to publicly available information. My writing and most of our lives, depend on access to credible information. This is another problem with Google searches, a search places an AI section at the top of the page and some of the sources their AI provides, are nowhere near credible. How can Americans make sense of our ever-more complicated world without credible sources. Google is censoring us and their motives are to me suspect, other than their greed and fight for power with other big data owners.
Facebook, is infamous for their digital treachery. Their list of losses in court have been staggering. It would take a book to sort through all of them so I’ll just offer a handful of the most prominent.
Facebook allowed a private tech firm named Cambridge Analytica, owned by Republican super-donor, Robert Mercer to illegally harvest the data of Facebook users for the purpose of personalizing pro-Trump messaging to American voters during the 2016 election period. The data also ended up in the hands of a Russian digital researcher. They settled the case for 725 million to avoid a public trial.
Facebook was found responsible for exacerbating a 2017 genocide in Myanmar, formerly Burma. They didn’t even follow their own standards and did nothing to mitigate the genocide largely caused by their willingness to support a genocidal military junta.
"Facebook contributed to a genocide in Myanmar. Scholars, reporters, and United Nations investigators agree that the social media giant played a role in an explosion of ethnic conflict in 2017 that led to the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims in Northern Myanmar. Riding a wave of liberalization, Facebook entered the country and quickly dominated online spaces, with early the entire internet-connected population of the country using Facebook products. Challenges related to culture and technology meant that the conversations received little moderation. Facebook feeds quickly became populated with hateful speech, including misinformation seeded by the ruling military authority. As a result, Facebook played a critical role in the explosion of violence, especially during the 2017 genocide." "Facebook’s entry into Myanmar provides a vivid picture of how corporations behave in an absolute lacuna of legal accountability. Facebook knowingly sold a product that tended to exacerbate political divisions and spread misinformation, and did so in a market with significant pre-existing risk factors. It adopted no mechanisms to mitigate those harms, failing even to enforce its own voluntary standards. In so doing, Facebook helped facilitate a genocide." - Facebook and Genocide: How Facebook contributed to genocide in Myanmar and why it will not be held accountable - Daniel Zaleznik - Systemic Justice.org
Just recently, a New Mexico court found META/ FB guilty in a landmark case that will cost them $375 million dollars. They were found guilty of failing to protect children and of not removing clear evidence
"SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico jury found Tuesday that social media conglomerate Meta is harmful to children's mental health and in violation of state consumer protection law. The landmark decision comes after a nearly seven-week trial. Jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — prioritized profits over safety. The jury determined Meta violated parts of the state's Unfair Practices Act on accusations the company hid what it knew about about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on its platforms and impacts on child mental health." - Jury finds Meta's platforms are harmful to children in 1st wave of social media addiction lawsuits - PBS - By Morgan Lee of the Associated Press
Professionally speaking, I find Facebook a cesspool of threats, both digital and as a premier host for scam artists. Just this past week, the iconic Lloyd’s of London, reported that a full two-thirds of their fraud cases, originated on META platforms. META is a parent company of Facebook.
As someone recognized in my field, I know fake accounts, bots, propaganda and so much more regarding threats to Americans via influence. I have repeatedly reported fake accounts on Facebook for ages. Not once have they removed the accounts. They allow pro-MAGA bots to infect most high-traffic threads. Their censorship is in how they moderate anti-MAGA users. They are slightly more subtle than LinkedIn, who not only moderates accounts but allows outside companies to do the dirty work for them.
To be fully transparent, I’ve been at war with LinkedIn for over a decade. The war began as I was retiring from the army and began using social media. Over a few months, I connected with a handful of national security professionals and fought the army of Russian and MAGA trolls spewing the conspiracy theories we’ve all come to know regarding the 2016 election. LinkedIn’s platform became so problematic for US national security that the GOAT of US national security and intelligence reporting, Jeff Stein, then of Newsweek, wrote a full-length expose’ about our efforts titled, “How Russia Is Using LinkedIn as a Tool of War Against Its U.S. Enemies.
Today, LinkedIn is still moderating or allowing external companies to moderate. Again, here is a personal story to make my point. When I first subscribed, I acquired a significant following where my posts would typically range between a couple of thousand views and up to 20 plus thousand. Like here, on Substack I wrote the truth about what was occurring while that LinkedIn was a maze of foreign and MAGA influence. Like the 2016 debacle with the Russian and MAGA trolls, my writing is now fully moderated by a Canadian company called ICUC. They are in turn owned by Dentsu Advertising Services, headquartered in London. Not the US, Canada nor the UK will rein in these corporate hitmen like ICUC who specialize in censorship, via AI. Now corporate oligarchs don’t even do their own dirty work, they outsource to companies like ICUC and this problem is far larger than just an isolated critic or two. This is about protecting their brand from the truth.
Their clients are the who’s who of corporate power and includes companies like Sony, Chevron, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Google, etc. These companies pay ICUC to “manage” their online presence. This includes moderation of their critics. Although this is corporate censorship and not illegal, many of the CEOs, owners and board of directors of these behemoth corporations, also fund the current administration’s agendas and their party. They only care about their bottom line, no matter who gets hurt. Such is the state of today’s corporate world. Selling out democracy and its citizens, is the furthest thing from moral.
The last section of this limited overview must focus briefing on the coercion of the media industry by the administration. Their specialty is extortion or buying off potential opponents who in turn, sell all of us out. Brendan Carr, Trump’s FCC, Federal Communications Commission has made quite a name for himself by threatening to cancel broadcast licenses for networks in order to stop them from being too critical of the administration’s immoral and illegal agendas. Their Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert events did not pan out well for Carr and the administration, but to this day, they continue operate with timidity when it comes to reporting the truth about Trump and the GOP. In many cases, they won’t even report a story at all, let alone with timidity. In effect, they have been censored.
We’ve all followed the CBS debacle of them bending low enough to kiss the hindquarters of the president. They put Bari Wiess at the head of the news division, destroyed 60 Minutes and all to curry favor with a man who has no loyalty, except apparently to Putin. There will certainly and justifiably be antitrust lawsuits over this one and in fact, it was we the consumers who have filed the first one. That lawsuit is only the beginning for the merger as that several states are lining up to pursue more antitrust lawsuits opposing the merger. Wiess has been credibly accused of demanding dishonest, pro-Trump reporting at 60 Minutes. Yes, you guessed it, more censorship.
Summary
Phew, this was a long one. If you’ve made this far, I’m beyond grateful. Even at this length, we’ve only scratched the surface regarding types of censorship. The bottom-line today is that while we are busy resisting tyranny, the odds are stacked against us and to a large extent, illegally by the Trump/ MAGA regime. We are no longer engaged in a typical back and forth political battle between political parties. We are a diverse mixture of political interests all pulling for one thing, the restoration of a functioning republic where we retain our rights, are not robbed commercially or by a greedy GOP-run government, that is now a far-right extremist movement, rather than a political party. They are funded by we-the-people’s hard-earned taxes dollars and self-serving billionaires that don’t care at all about our system of government.
As we’ve seen throughout this essay, censorship by the government whether first-hand or via proxies, denies us the truth we require and deserve as US citizens. From the White House and the Republican-led Congress, we only get lies and stonewalling. Helluva a way to run a republic. Media is too afraid to challenge the administration and either writes fluff when discussing the Trump crowd or ignores it altogether. The music industry that we depended on in the late sixties and early seventies for protest soundtracks and anthems, are absent from the resistance, with few exceptions.
Their studios are inflicted with the same cowardice as the movie and TV industry. Those old protest songs sustained protests, the movement and are remembered and still played today. Since the majority of studios are in their own self-imposed “witness protection program,” maybe we can repurpose those classics. We need our own powerful resistance soundtrack that inspires and carries our fight on its shoulders. If there are any takers out there, please join us. We’ll sing and march our hearts out for this all-important cause. Even this administration cannot censor the music in our hearts.
The Republicans are wielding powerful weapons of influence to rally their base and suppress ours, most often by censorship directly or via hired thugs like ICUC and Dentsu. The odds are somewhat against us, but we have a secret weapon that the opposition doesn’t. We’re fighting for something real and tangible for ourselves and the generations that follow. The GOP is running on the fumes of conspiracy theories while that their dear leader is losing support by the day. They do not live in the same reality as we do and therefore have lost their moral spine, while that ours has stiffened. Our resilience trumps their lagging enthusiasm for being abused by the person they were conned into believing in.
In military-speak, we have what is called the “will to fight,” a psychological advantage, and we have the numbers to go with the will. We will have to work both harder and smarter, while that we have little to no control over the government that is attempting to steal our future. America has always loved the underdog. It’s part of our identity and it will carry us through in November, regardless of what the spineless Republican Party throws and their oligarchs throw at us. They won’t play fair, or obey the law. We must accept that reality and overcome these obstacles anyway. Morality, numbers and the constitution are on our side. The American people have yet to fail to protect our republic for a quarter of a millennia. We’re not about to start losing now.
My very best for everyone’s weekend, and onward to victory.
Paul
I remember not too long ago when it was the Biden FBI censoring free speech on Twitter and FB. Now with the GOP in power they are doing it. Truth is the legacy media has always been captured by the establishment and government influence. This has been only revealed in the last few years with the growth of independent (not corporate aligned) media. Whoever is in power will often try to censor and the establishment will always try to maintain power. We need a new kind of leadership in congress that is not beholden to either corporations, the establishment party apparatus or to wealthy donors. It's a high bar but we must have standards.