History of Censorship in America

In early January, Project Veritas released a video of PBS firing their principal counsel lawyer, Michael Beller after recommending the forceful re-education of Trump supporters’ children at ” enlightenment camps. Following this disturbing reveal one would expect public figures across the country to decry the notion that to re-educate Americans who support opposing ideas or figures. 

The notion of “re-education”, is an oppressive term referring to the sequestering of a dissident population and subjecting them to cruel punishments until eventually, they fall into compliance. Despite this, several commentators discussed the matter of whether or not “de-programing”, like “re-education”, is possible for unpopular beliefs, which coincides with the ongoing tech de-platforming of Conservative groups for their views.

These recent popular moves to suppress unpopular views are not unfamiliar to U.S. history, like the Alien & Sedition Acts, Sedition Act of 1918, and the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950. Each of these acts impacted American’s civil liberties, for instance, the Alien & Sedition Acts of 1798, which made it illegal to criticize the government or report false information. The Sedition Act of 1918, aimed to curtail the public’s frustration toward the government for entering World War I by making it a crime to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” toward the government. The McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, mandated that individuals associated with the Communist party register themselves with the government to provide transparency of activities, from which the U.S. government may see to it that groups do not take part in anything they deemed as subversive to the government.

Private entities( Facebook and Twitter) are implementing these limitations through their terms of service agreements and unlike the previous bills is considered constitutional under section 203. Section 203, gives social media platforms broad discretion over what they publish on their platforms including censoring individuals and groups who hold dissenting opinions. Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey got caught on video stating that his purge is big than President Trump’s ban from the platform implying that other Conservatives would follow. 

The widespread support for ” deprogramming” Americans with different political views is disturbing. Elements in our society are pushing for long-term stringent measures to shutdown individuals who are deemed inappropriate by using company standards to enforce political “right-think.”