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.

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