Censorship - Suppression - Narrative Control

Why It Matters

Introduction

Vocabulary

Overview

Internet Suppression & Censorship

Fact Checking & Suppression

Media Suppression & Censorship

Government Suppression & Censorship

Repercussions & Responses

Pause & Reflect

Why It Matters

If you believe that humans have a natural right to communicate freely, then it’s necessary to know if and how power systems are suppressing and censoring information, and what it that they’re censoring. This enables you to work around the systems of control, and to work with others to dismantle the control systems and to enact sustainable solutions.

If you believe that gatekeepers of information serve a purpose you agree with (such as keeping people safe or discussions civil), then it’s important to see how that gatekeeping function is being enacted so you can evaluate if the power you’ve entrusted to others is being wielded in alignment with your values.

If you have ever been confused by why people hold views that are very different from the ones you hold, this is a strong indicator that you don’t have the necessary information to be able to restate the others’ perspective accurately. While you will, of course, hold different views from others, you should easily be able to understand why your perspectives differ; if instead you’re completely confused and feel like the others are simply “crazy,” this is a sign that you have not been exposed to key information. One of the reasons for that may be suppression and censorship.

Introduction

When people seek or share information, they might use a variety of resources such as books, email, social media, videos, blogs, mainstream media, independent media, corporate promotions, medical and scientific journals, and publications sponsored by government or organizations.

The Internet serves as the delivery mechanism or entryway for the vast majority of information sources.

Lynne McTaggart is the author of The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe. In July of 2019, this highly informed author wrote on her blog:

[Internet searching] is the portal through which we discover facts, make connections, interpret the world.
– Lynne McTaggart, When Big Brother Went High Tech

McTaggart is pointing to the Internet being something much bigger than a delivery mechanism. It’s a resource so vast in scope that it’s hard to overstate its impact on people’s thinking. The Internet’s profound effect on the world is not simply due to its existence but HOW information is shared and found. For example, Internet search engines such as Google and DuckDuckGo have enormous influence, as do social media giants such as Facebook and Instagram.

Vocabulary

BIG TECH / TECH GIANTS — A few large corporations that have excessive power and influence on society, markets and information, including Alphabet (Google & YouTube), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook & Instagram), and Microsoft.
BOOK BURNING — Refers to multiple times in history when books, a primary source of knowledge, inspiration and wisdom, were burned by oppressors and war victors to censor the information found within them. (Includes Libraries in Nazi Germany, the Library of Alexandria and many others.) When used to refer to current events, it means censorship.
CENSORSHIP — The suppression of speech, public communication, or other information.
FIRST AMENDMENT — Refers to the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution which states: “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 first amendment refers only to government censorship and is not legally enforceable with corporations.
MONOPOLY — A sector or industry dominated by one corporation, firm or entity.
MONOPOLIZE — To dominate.
OLIGOPOLY — A market or industry dominated by a small number of power-holders.

Overview

Many communication platforms have become subject to market domination by corporations — a centralization of power that results in exceptionally great control over the experience of tremendous numbers of people. Examples include web browsing and social media where two massive corporations have excessive control via the platforms of Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Having established this mammoth control and influence, these services have now become the source of a great deal of suppression, censorship and manipulation of information which greatly impacts what is shared and received. See examples below.

Social media is one of the most influential aspects of modern-day life. Neurological processes within consciousness are designed to seek out social values and express them in life situations, governing a person’s self-worth as a function of how well they are accepted by their peers. Thus, one of the best ways to manipulate a society is to manipulate the social spheres.
– Justin Deschamps

The U.S. Constitutional First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and of the press, but applies only to government. Corporations that have monopolized Internet platforms are not bound by the same power limits that were put into the U.S. Constitution to prevent censorship.

Internet Suppression & Censorship

Following this summary list, you’ll find quotes, sources and links for more information.

Google Search Autocomplete Denigrates Natural Health (2019)
Google Strikes Natural Health from Searches (2018)
YouTube Censors Content on CBD Oil (2018)
Twitter Suspends Multiple Cuban Media Accounts (2019)
Google Employee Blows Whistle on Bias Behind Search Algorithms (2019)
Censored Ted Talk on Consciousness (2013)
Top Assange Defense Account Deleted by Twitter (2019)
“Facebook Censored Me, Criticize Your Government and It Might Censor You Too” (2017)
YouTube Deletes Journalism (2021)
Email Service Providers Blocked Emails to Subscribers (2019)
Mass Censorship of Non-Pharmaceutical Healthcare (2019)
Particular Words in Email Subject Cause Hundreds to Be Unsubscribed (2021)
Facebook Blocks Massive Numbers of Posts (2019)
Google Disparages Chiropractic, Naturopathy & Vitamins, Distorts Questions About Vaccine Safety (2019)
Facebook Deletes Healthcare Research Account with Thousands of Posts (2021)
YouTube Has Removed Nearly 1 Million Videos (2021)
YouTube Blocks Posts from Scientists, Doctors, Academics, Media and Others (2021)
Sharing ‘Misleading Narratives’ Labeled As Domestic Terrorism by Homeland Security (2022)

Google Search Autocomplete Denigrates Natural Health

Following the removal of Mercola.com and many other natural health websites from its search results, Google is now upping the ante by trying to dictate what users search for by completing their queries with all sorts of anti-natural health propaganda. GreenMedInfo, which was recently banned by Mailchimp for sending out newsletters containing vaccine science, recently conducted an experiment of typing the words “organic is a” into Google’s search bar. Here are the autocomplete recommendations that came up:

• organic is a lie
• organic is always non gmo
• organic is a sham
• organic is a myth
• organic is a waste of money
• organic is a marketing gimmick
• organic is always non gmo logo

The same types of autocomplete suggestions appear when searching for “supplements are,” as Google wants users to believe that:

• supplements are bad
• supplements are useless
• supplements are not regulated
• supplements are bad for you
• supplements are not fda approved
• supplements are not regulated by the fda
• supplements are dangerous
• supplements are good for you
• supplements are scams
• supplements are garbage

Once again, an overwhelming majority, nine out of ten, of the autocomplete results are negative, aiming to sway Google users away from having positive opinions about supplements, let alone actually using them.
– Google Alters Search Results, July 14, 2019

Google Strikes Natural Health from Searches

In June 2018, Google – the portal through which we discover facts, make connections, interpret the world – decided to change its algorithms about which information gains preference on its pages. Its target was alternative and natural health. At a stroke, all information about alternative and natural health disappeared or was relegated to back pages. Dr. Joseph Mercola, a functional medicine specialist and architect of a highly popular nutritional health site, whose referenced content has been at the top of health search results for some 15 years, he says, experienced a 99 percent drop in natural search engine traffic. Our own magazine What Doctors Don’t Tell You saw its traffic halved.
– Lynne McTaggart, award winning journalist and author of The Field

YouTube Censors Content on CBD Oil

YouTube has ramped up their censorship campaign and this time, they are coming after CBD (cannabidiol) oil. Channels which discuss CBD oil will be banned because according to YouTube, it “poses a risk of serious physical harm or death.”
– The Daily Sheeple, May 18, 2018

Twitter Suspends Multiple Cuban Media Accounts

Twitter has suspended multiple large Cuban media accounts for reasons the social media platform has yet to explain as of this writing, a move which journalist Dan Cohen has described as “the equivalent of silencing CNN, Fox, WaPo and NPR’s accounts” for that nation. The Union of Cuban Journalists has denounced the move as censorship.
– ZeroHedge excerpts by Stillness in the Storm

Google Employee Blows Whistle on Bias Behind Search Algorithms

Senior Google software engineer, Greg Coppola, has dismissed the idea that Big Tech is “politically neutral” and called out his company as “very biased,” joining Project Veritas’ growing stable of whistleblowers… Algorithms “don’t write themselves – we write them to do what we want them to do,” he pointed out, explaining that even AI machine learning is “just a tool that we control.” Coppola chose Google News as an example to prove his point.
– Mac Slavo, July 25, 2019

Censored Ted Talk on Consciousness

3-min video from Graham Hancock in response to his 2013 TEDx Talk about consciousness beingbanned.

7-min video from Graham Hancock on the censorship, plus more information about the war on consciousness.

18-min video that was banned.
– Graham Hancock

Top Assange Defense Account Deleted By Twitter

One of the biggest Twitter accounts dedicated to circulating information and advocacy for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, @Unity4J, has been completely removed from the site. The operators of the account report that they have been given no reason for its removal by Twitter staff, and have received no response to their appeals.
– Caitlin Johnstone, July 12, 2019

“Facebook Censored Me, Criticize Your Government and It Might Censor You Too”

Facebook blocked a post of mine last month for the first time since I joined it nine years ago. I was seeking to repost a blog article I had written on Janet Reno… I checked the page and saw the official verdict: “Could not scrape URL because it has been blocked.” “Pshaw!” I said, or some other one-syllable epithet. I copied the full text of the article into a new blog post. Instead of using “Janet Reno, Tyrant or Saint?” as the core headline, I titled it: “Janet Reno, American Saint.” Instead of a 1993 photo of the burning Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, I substituted an irreproachable official portrait of Reno. Bingo — Facebook instantly accepted that crosspost.
– James Bovard, USA Today, October 27, 2017

YouTube Deletes Journalism

We released a video on YouTube on August 27th 2021, it was removed within 4 hours from what YouTube claims was “Medical Misinformation.” The interesting part of this was, this was a journalistic piece exploring the way local Detroit media covered a hearing in Michigan about vaccine passports. The video contained some short snippets of a testimony from Dr. Christina Parks, who offered her expert opinion on why it would not be a good idea to mandate vaccines at this moment in time. As you will see in the video below, there are no medical claims made by myself, the journalist, and there is no push for the audience to decide on something medically based. This is honest, neutral journalism, pointing to the fact that objectively poor journalism is being done by some mainstream outlets and it’s causing a crisis in how we view science. Ironically, the video discusses how we aren’t respecting one another’s expert opinions during COVID, and instead we are walking away from science – not allowing critique, discussion, or differences of opinion during a time where the answers aren’t always clear. The Pulse appealed YouTube’s decision, but it was struck down within hours, backing up YouTube’s claims that this video contained “medical misinformation.” Interestingly, YouTube has left multiple full length videos with 100’s of thousands of views up with Dr. Christina Park’s testimony. So why was ours removed? Having been in this field for 12 years, this is obviously preposterous to me. But you check out the video below and decide for yourself.
– Joe Martino, How the Media is Creating a Sensemaking Crisis

Email Service Providers Blocked Emails to Subscribers

Dear WantToKnow.info subscribers, In the last three months, several email services have blocked many of our emails to subscribers. If your email service provider is mac.com, icloud.com, or me.com, you’ve missed and been automatically unsubscribed on ten or more of the 30 or so messages we’ve sent out. If you call and tell your service that you don’t want them to block emails from PEERS (emaillist [at] peerservice.org), it may help to stop this. Currently, I’m having to manually add the over 150 of you back every time after this happens. Any help is greatly appreciated. You can access all of our recent emails to see what you’ve missed on this webpage. Take care, and thanks for your continuing interest. With warm wishes, Fred Burks for WantToKnow.info
– WantToKnow.Info Email July 3, 2019

Mass Censorship of Non-Pharmaceutical Healthcare

There is mass censorship afoot. Many of us have seen it coming, and now it’s a reality. My beloved partner, Sayer of greenmedinfo.com lost his newsletter provider, MailChimp, after they sent him this message and closed down his account.

He pivoted towards a more like-minded option called Ontraport, and remains an unstoppable and intrepid supporter of the science of natural medicine. Now, since June 3rd, we have witnessed an unprecedented decline in search-ability through Google. Prior to that, kellybroganmd.com was averaging 225,000 impressions per month, and you can see that we have nearly flat-lined because our content is not findable without the use of the phrase kellybroganmd.com in the search.

For example, we used to have first page content for terms like “psychoneuroimmunology” or “gut brain.” And now we aren’t in the first 10 (I gave up after ten pages!) of Google. Without ascribing an agenda to this Google algorithm update, it’s clear that sites like greenmedinfo.com, naturalnews.com, and mercola.com are having to reconsider how we can support informed consent and natural healing options because when you know better, you do better. Much of the science that we share is widely available in its published form, however, many rely on the democratization of internet information to help in the curation and interpretation of it. So now we have to get more creative.
– Kelly Brogan MD, email June 24, 2019

Particular Words in Email Subject Cause Hundreds to Be Unsubscribed

Have you noticed that we are using very benign subject lines in our emails? We were testing to see if the subject line trips an algorithm for censoring our postings to hotmail, gmail and yahoo. It seems to be working. The last 8 to 9 days we had only 1 to 4 people get the email in spam or unsubscribed with each posting. This is normal activity. But if we use the word Galactic, Equinox / Solstice, UFO, medbeds, etc. (some words you wouldn’t think would trip an alogirthm) 100 to 135 people get unsubscribed. Then weeks later someone will email us asking why they aren’t receiving our postings. Please add our email address to your contact list.We are not the only ones experiencing this type of suppression. Lorie Ladd posted a video on this as well.
– Planetary Activation Organization (PAO), email July 21, 2021

Facebook Blocks Massive Numbers of Posts

We noticed an unusual phenomenon on our Facebook page. We would post articles as we always had, including many articles that had been posted on our page previously, and later that day we would notice that the posts were gone. Disappeared. Vanished without a trace. We never got any notifications about these missing posts, but if we tried to put the articles back up, they would instantly be taken down again. So we reported the problem to FB, thinking it was a robo-error that could easily be fixed. And more articles disappeared from our feed. And nothing got fixed. Then we started receiving mail from our readers, letting us know that when they tried to share or even privately message one of these ‘missing links’ from their own personal pages, they would get denied and receive a notice from FB saying that the content they were trying to share was not allowed on FB as it ‘violated community standards.’ It started with a few articles, then more, and then even more. About this time ZeroHedge reported a similar problem. Links from their website were being instantly and automatically refused by FB and no one could post these links to the social media platform. Well, Zero Hedge raised hell and because of their reach and influence, the problem was corrected for them in a matter of days, and they have not since reported any issues like this. For us, however, the list of banned links has continued to grow. I finally started keeping track of these after some time, but it is difficult because FB does not ever alert us when it does this. The only way we know that a link has been banned is because we use a program called Meet Edgar to manage our content flow to social media, and this program gives us a red flag when a link won’t go through. I have sent literally dozens of help requests and requests to review banned links, but in many months have never once received a reply from an actual person nor have any of the links been re-approved. Anyhow, I really haven’t cared enough about this to raise a stink because I know clear and well what FB is about these days. I don’t expect the organization to have integrity on issues like this. That said, I recently asked our audience if they would like to see the list of known banned articles, and of course, they said YES!!

[See article for complete list.]

• Bayer Stock Nosedives After Jury Finds Monsanto Guilty of Covering Up Cancer Risks

• Many Ordinary Meds Cause Depression – Public Trust in Pharma Hits New Low

• The Over-the-Counter Cancer Cure You’re Not Supposed to Know About

• Modern Psychology Doing its Part to Mass Produce Obedient Sheeple

• Psychedelics Shown to Heal Damaged Brain Cells from Depression

• A Therapist Explains What Happens When People Try to Quit Psychiatric Meds

• 5G – The Harmful Effects of a New Technology

• Overcoming the Myth of Authority

• The Philosophy of the Free-Range Human

• Spirit Led Activism – The True Power of the People

• Scientific Bullsh*t – How ‘Science’ is Used to Deceive the Public

• How Scientists Engineer Foods to Make Them Dangerously Addictive
– Dylan Charles, 79 Waking Times Articles That You Are Not Allowed to Post or Share on Facebook, July 2, 2019

Google Disparages Chiropractic, Naturopathy & Vitamins, Distorts Questions About Vaccine Safety

Previously, we’ve uncovered how Google actively disparages complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), such as chiropractic, naturopathy, and the use of vitamins, by populating their autocomplete suggestions with keywords no one is actually using. Since then, we have uncovered more concerning examples of these blatantly false distortions when it comes to questions concerning vaccine safety and efficacy.
– Sayer Ji, GreenMedInfo.com, July 31, 2019

Facebook Deletes Healthcare Research Account with Thousands of Posts

12 years, many thousands of posts, and half a million fans later, Facebook recently deleted GreenMedInfo.com’s professional page for “violating community standards on health misinformation that could cause physical harm.” Following a wave of censorship that began in 2019 with Google’s “digital book burning” and removal of natural health websites from their search results, and Mailchimp’s sudden deplatforming of us in 2019, growing rapidly in 2020, and reaching even more alarming proportions in the window of COVID-19 with the publication of digital hit lists intended to intimidate and spread hate and fear, Facebook has now unpublished the Greenmedinfo professional page, followed by 533,630 fans.
– Sayer Ji, GreenMedInfo, July 3, 2021

Twitter Censors Harvard Epidemiologist

In March, Harvard epidemiologist and vaccine expert Dr. Martin Kulldorff was subjected to censorship by Twitter for sharing his opinion that not everybody needed to take the COVID vaccine. Reflect On: Why are so many opinions, evidence and research receiving no mainstream media attention at all? Why are some of them ridiculed and censored? Why do we always get one narrative from government health authorities?
– Arjun Walia, The Pulse, May 16, 2021

YouTube Has Removed Nearly 1 Million Videos

The Facts:

• Journalist Laurie Clarke published an article in the British Medical Journal about the censorship of science, and who Big Tech “fact-checkers” actually are.

• Facebook has removed at least 16 million pieces of content from its platform and added warnings to 167 million others.

• YouTube has removed nearly 1 million videos they claim contain “dangerous or misleading covid-19 medical information.”

Reflect On:

• Why has there been such an effort to hide information that threatens the accepted narrative we get from the mainstream?

• In history, when have those who censored ever been the one’s who were truly serving the masses?
– Arjun Walia, The Pulse, July 29, 2021

YouTube Blocks Posts from Scientists, Doctors, Academics, Media and Others

YouTube is currently in the process of taking down “anti-vaccine” activist accounts while simultaneously blocking people from posting “anti vaccine” content. Simply put, YouTube will ban any videos that claim commonly used vaccines approved by health authorities are ineffective or dangerous. The big issue many people are unaware of with regards to Big Tech censorship is the fact that legit, scientific, peer-reviewed medical literature and thousands of scientists, doctors and other academics have been caught within this dragnet of censorship. For example, in March, Harvard epidemiologist and vaccine expert Dr. Martin Kulldorff was subjected to censorship by Twitter for sharing his opinion that not everybody needed to take the COVID vaccine.
– Arjun Walia, The Pulse, Oct 21, 2021

While misinformation can be a problematic thing, how do we know what misinformation is and who decides that? In a perfect world, one might assume governments and governmental organizations like the CDC or the FDA are reliable sources of information. But is this actually true? Not always. Institutions like this have become political sources of information that seem to have allegiances to politicians and, at times, Big Pharma. When it comes to misinformation, who will decide what is ‘false?’ We have heard time and time again that false ‘COVID-19’ misinformation is the reason for vaccine hesitancy during COVID. While some claims around vaccines have certainly been false, many are not, and have been raised by some of the most respected scientists in the world… I’ve long talked about the obvious damage ‘fact checking’ and claims of ‘misinformation’ has on public discourse, but it seems governing institutions are dead set on continuing to posture and deal with this ‘situation’ by force. In this the DHS considers those who spread misinformation as possible “threat actors.” DHS: “Threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence. “
– Feb 13, 2022

Fact Checking & Suppression

It’s reasonable to believe that information should be verified as factual before being published! Sound journalism has always relied on this foundational premise. Media sources have traditionally had fact checkers to verify key aspects of their journalists’ articles. With the arising of widespread Internet access, there has been an explosion in information sources, and so it’s become more obvious that not all publishers verify their content as factually correct. We can presume that some sources that publish false information or information that is out of context do so inadvertently and some do so willfully.

Mainstream media has been presenting a narrative for many years now that communicates the following: “There are people who publish false information, often incendiary in nature, that causes others to believe falsities and act in inappropriate ways. We are all safer if someone stops the publishing of untrue information.”

This narrative is presented as a problem so great that it needs systemic solutions, which include:

Censorship (blocking content from being published) as a result of fact checking
Censorship and suppression (warnings about certain types of content or sources) using algorithms that flag certain phrases or sources

But systemic solutions, of course, have inherent limitations due to the very nature of systems, such as a lack of transparency around built-in assumptions and a disregard for individualized and subtle considerations. But even in the cases when a system can be developed to create more benefit than harm, systems have virtually always become corrupted, as exemplified throughout this site. (Learn more: Abuse of NDAs, Evaluating Statistics, Trafficking & Abuse by Professionals, Shadow Government Whistleblowers, Professional Whistleblowers on the Existence of Extraterrestrials).

In this particular case of Internet fact checking corruption, the most obvious example is Snopes:

Snopes Retracts 60 Articles Plagiarized by Co-Founder
August 13, 2021, New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/business/media/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html

Snopes, which has long presented itself as the internet’s premier fact-checking resource, has retracted 60 articles after a BuzzFeed News investigation found that the site’s co-founder plagiarized from news outlets as part of a strategy intended to scoop up web traffic. In a statement, Mr. Mikkelson acknowledged he had engaged in “multiple serious copyright violations of content that Snopes didn’t have rights to use.” From 2015 to 2019 — under the Snopes byline, his own name and another pseudonym — Mr. Mikkelson published dozens of articles that included language that appeared to have been copied directly from The New York Times, CNN, NBC News, the BBC and other news sources.

Note: There are many serious questions about the biases of Snopes and some of their unscrupulous tactics, as is covered in this Forbes article. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on media corruption from reliable sources.
– WantToKnow.info email Aug 24, 2021

There are many examples beyond Snopes. For example:

The editor-in-chief of The British Medical Journal (BMJ), Fiona Godlee, and soon to be editor-in-chief Kamran Abbasi have criticized Facebook and their “fact-checkers” for labelling a BMJ article as false news. The two expressed a great deal of concern that the BMJ, who is a high quality source of information, has been subjected to such a false rating. Facebook has now removed at least 16 million pieces of content from its platform and added warnings to approximately 167 million others.

– British Medical Journal Editor-In-Chief Calls Out “Incompetent” Facebook “Fact Checkers”

In addition, the Internet Censorship Examples above include numerous examples of “Big Tech” censoring information with the reason given that they do not support the publishing of information that goes against a mainstream perspective they have chosen to support, such as that CBD is dangerous or that medical professionals who question the need for 100% compliance with pharmaceutical medicine are causing harm.

As you reflect on the mainstream narrative of the problem and solution, considerations include:

Is the mainstream media (or mainstream medicine, research or education) a reliable source for such a broad scale conclusion and recommendation? (This article investigates what it means to be “mainstream,” demonstrates the corruption of mainstream sources, and lays bare how different mainstream media is from investigative journalism and leading-edge, sustainable solution-seeking.)
We can see here that evaluating what is true is a far more complex undertaking than we would hope since it’s not as simple as identifying the facts but also about opening our minds to various perspectives and testing hypotheses. Is outsourcing that job our best solution?
The narrative is fear-based, asking us to outsource our power to evaluate ourselves to a system to protect us from crazies. How effective have such perspectives been in bringing peace and harmony, sustainable living and elevation of societies?

Media Suppression & Censorship

The following comes from WantoKnow.info in an email dated December 10, 2021:

Project Censored specializes in covering the top stories which were subjected to press censorship either by being ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media each year. Project Censored is a research team composed of more than 300 university faculty, students, and community experts who annually review many hundreds of news story submissions for coverage, content, reliability of sources, and national significance. The top 25 stories selected are submitted to a distinguished panel of judges who then rank them in order of importance. The results are published each year in an excellent book available for purchase at their website, amazon.com, and most major book stores. A summary of the top 25 media censorship stories of 2021 provided below proves quite revealing and most informative. Each summary has a link for those who want to read the entire article. For whatever reason the mainstream media won’t report these stories. Yet thanks to the Internet and wonderful, committed groups like Project Censored, the news is getting out. By revealing these examples of media censorship, we can stop the excessive secrecy and work together for a brighter future. Please help to spread the word, and take care.
– WanttoKnow.info

WantoKnow.info provides excellent research summaries on hundreds of valuable subjects. Here is a shortened version of their summary of the Top 25 Stories of 2021 Subjected to Press Censorship:

1. Prescription Drug Costs Set to Become a Leading Cause of Death for Elderly Americans (For full story, click here)

More than 1.1 million seniors in the federal government’s Medicare program could die prematurely over the next decade because they will be unable to afford the high prices of their prescription medications, according to a November 2020 study issued by the West Health Policy Center, a nonprofit and nonpartisan policy research group, and Xcenda, the research arm of AmerisourceBergen, a drug distributor.

2. Journalists Investigating Financial Crimes Threatened by Global Elites (For full story, click here)

The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) released “Unsafe for Scrutiny,” a report about the threats faced by journalists investigating the financial misconduct that lets ‘dirty money’ flow through the world’s most powerful banks. The report reveals that global elites have been abusing their intimidating legal and financial powers by targeting reporters with defamation lawsuits, “cease and desist” letters, social media smear campaigns, trolling, verbal harassment, and even occasionally physical violence. The harassment faced by investigative journalists looking into financial crimes has a chilling effect on reporting about corruption.

3. Historic Wave of Wildcat Strikes for Workers’ Rights (For full story, click here)

Thousands of wildcat strikes erupted to challenge dangerous working conditions and confront chronically low wages for these essential positions. This wave of wildcat strikes has reached remarkable levels. A continuously updated COVID-19 Strike Wave Interactive Map had identified 1,100 wildcat strikes as of March 24, 2021, many of which the corporate media have chosen to ignore. In some cases, workers have engaged in wildcat work stoppages to advance long-standing demands for higher wages, leveraging their increased bargaining power during the pandemic to wrest pay concessions from employers.

4. “Climate Debtor” Nations Have “Colonized” the Atmosphere (For full story, click here)

The Lancet study found that the world’s richest, most industrialized nations – including the United States, Canada, members of the European Union, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan – are responsible for 92 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, while the Global South is responsible for only 8 percent. The biggest climate debtors include the United States (responsible for 40 percent of global overshoots), Russia and Germany (8 percent each), the United Kingdom (7 percent), and Japan (5 percent). The results show that the countries of the Global North have ‘stolen’ a big chunk of the atmospheric fair-shares of poorer countries, and on top of that are responsible for the vast majority of excess emissions.

5. Microplastics and Toxic Chemicals Increasingly Prevalent in World’s Oceans (For full story, click here)

Microplastics and a class of toxic chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS) are becoming increasingly prevalent in the world’s oceans and have begun to contaminate the global seafood supply. According to a July 2020 study published in the scholarly journal Environmental Science & Technology, PFAS – a family of potentially harmful chemicals used in a range of products including carpets, furniture, clothing, food packaging, and nonstick coatings – have now been found in the Arctic Ocean. This discovery worries scientists because it means that PFAS can reach any body of water anywhere in the world and that such chemicals are likely present in our water supply. Meanwhile, researchers at the QUEX Institute have found microplastics in crabs, oysters, prawns, squid, and sardines sold as seafood in Australian markets. The new findings suggest that microplastics have invaded the food chain to a greater extent than previously documented.

6. Canary Mission Blacklists Pro-Palestinian Activists, Chilling Free Speech Rights (For full story, click here)

For an October 2020 article published by the Intercept, Murtaza Hussain interviewed a handful of pro-Palestinian activists who have been targeted by Canary Mission, an anonymously-run website, established in 2015, that seeks to publicly discredit critics of Israel as “terrorists” and “anti-Semites.” As Hussain wrote, “Canary Mission is difficult to describe as anything other than a blacklist.” One activist told the Intercept that Canary Mission has proven “very powerful in silencing people and making them think free speech is not their right. It instills a powerful sense of fear and paranoia.”

7. Google’s Union-Busting Methods Revealed (For full story, click here)

Leaked files from IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, obtained by Vice’s Motherboard show the disturbing lengths to which companies will go in order to derail workplace organizing. IRI Consultants is one of many union-busting firms that help businesses prevent workplace organizing by intimidating workers, tracking employee behavior, and engaging in workplace anti-union propaganda.

8. Pfizer Bullies South American Governments over COVID-19 Vaccine (For full story, click here)

In February 2021, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) reported that Pfizer has essentially held Latin American governments to ransom for access to its lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine. In negotiations with Argentina and Brazil, Pfizer demanded that the nations offer sovereign assets – such as federal bank reserves, military bases, and embassy buildings – as collateral for any liability resulting from future legal cases. One national official who participated in negotiations with Pfizer described its demands as “high-level bullying” that “held to ransom” the government attempting to access the vaccines.

9. Police Use Dogs as Instruments of Violence, Targeting People of Color (For full story, click here)

“It felt like I was being eaten,” recounted Joseph Malott, a 22-year-old Black student who was mauled by a police dog during a Black Lives Matter protest. Later that night, Malott became one of the approximately 3,600 Americans per year sent to the emergency room for severe bite injuries sustained during altercations with police K-9s. Although men and women of just about every age and ethnicity in all fifty states have been subjected to violent K-9 incidents, a series of 13 linked reports suggests Black men have been inordinately targeted. A majority of the dog-bite victims were Black, and most of them were unarmed and suspected by police of nonviolent crimes such as driving a stolen vehicle or burglary.

10. Activists Call Out Legacy of Racism and Sexism in Forced Sterilization (For full story, click here)

During the 20th century, at least 60,000 Americans in some 32 states were sterilized without their consent. The majority of individuals subjected to forced sterilization at the hands of the government have been people of color, inmates of jails, prisons, or institutions for people with mental illness or disabilities, and members of other marginalized and disempowered groups. Forced sterilization continues in the United States today. In 2001 alone, 148 women in California prisons underwent tubal ligation or total hysterectomies without their knowledge, and between 1997 and 2010 some 1,400 California women prisoners underwent unwanted sterilizations. YES! Magazine also reported on more recent allegations of forced sterilizations sanctioned by US officials, including charges that between October and December of 2019 an immigration detention center in Georgia “had forcibly sterilized at least five women in the custody” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

11. Seed Sovereignty Movements Challenge Corporate Monopolies (For full story, click here)

Throughout the world, seed sovereignty activists are reclaiming the right to plant, in resistance to seed laws that threaten food security by criminalizing farmers for using diverse crops. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 75 percent of the world’s crop varieties disappeared between the years 1900 and 2000. By reclaiming the right to plant, the seed sovereignty movement helps protect food security in a time of climate change.

12. Grave Threats to Amazon Rainforest from Domestic Industries and Global Capital (For full story, click here)

A 2020 report from Amazon Watch, entitled “Complicity in Destruction III,” shows how global corporations contribute to Indigenous rights abuses in the Brazilian Amazon. The report identifies threats including deforestation, land grabbing, and illegal fires, which, taken together, severely threaten the rights and survival of Brazil’s Indigenous people. Companies in mining, agribusiness, and energy are “directly or indirectly involved in conflicts affecting Indigenous peoples.”

13. Corporate Media Sideline Health Experts during Pandemic (For full story, click here)

Many prominent commercial TV news networks failed to provide much needed coverage by excluding the voices of independent health officials in their coverage of, and discussion panels about, the pandemic. The networks’ disregard for health experts and public interest advocates raises serious ethical concerns, as it exacerbated the risks posed by the spread of COVID-19 to the health and well-being of those watching.

14. US Factory Farming a Breeding Ground for Next Pandemic (For full story, click here)

Over the past fifty years, meat production has increased about 260 percent, mostly in the form of so-called factory farms or confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that fulfill the US and global demand for producing cheap and plentiful animal protein. 99 percent of US meat comes from factory farms where “poor conditions and stress on the animals means that disease can emerge on the farms and spread through the herd at lightning speed.”

15. Thousands of 5G Satellites Pose Risk of Future Space Wars (For full story, click here)

The prospect of Star Wars–esque battles in space has become much more likely with the rollout of fifth generation (5G) wireless technology, powered by tens of thousands of satellites approved by the Federal Communications Commission and on track to be launched into space. 5G wireless technology is a major factor in the weaponization of space. On October 8, 2020 the Department of Defense (DOD) announced $600 million in awards to advance its 5G capabilities.

16. Femicide Census Connects UK Killings with Global Wave of Violence against Women (For full story, click here)

Fatal violence against women across the world is increasing. A November 2020 report from the UK-based nonprofit Femicide Census spanning nearly a decade found that, on average, “a woman was killed by a male partner or ex-partner every four days,” with that number increasing to every three days when the focus is expanded to include killings outside romantic relationships. These killings are typically treated as isolated incidents by law enforcement and legislators.

17. New Wave of Independent News Sources Demonetized by Google-Owned YouTube (For full story, click here)

In February 2021 independent news sources such as Progressive Soapbox, The Convo Couch, Franc Analysis, and Hannah Reloaded were demonetized by YouTube, the latest instance of YouTube penalizing independent and alternative voices by removing entire channels or videos with no explanation, raising concerns over censorship on the platform. The demonetized videos and channels were made ineligible to receive advertising revenue.

18. “Collision of Crises” for Black and Brown Survivors of Sexual Violence during COVID-19 (For full story, click here)

This study titled, “Measuring the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Survivors of Color,” conducted by the organizations “me too” and FreeFrom examined the “compounding socioeconomic effects” of structural racism and COVID-19 on survivors of sexual violence. The study’s findings revealed a “collision of crises,” involving the intersection of systemic racial inequality with unemployment or unsafe work, food and housing insecurity, economic precarity, and lack of healthcare.

19. European Demand for Biomass Energy Propels Destruction of US Forests (For full story, click here)

Driven by demand in European Union countries, the southern United States is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of the wood pellets used to produce biomass energy. Despite popular beliefs that solar and wind power are its main sources of renewable energy, the European Union (EU) sources nearly 60 percent of its renewable energy from biomass. The true costs of biomass energy are not widely understood.

20. Proposed Domestic Terrorism Legislation Imperils Civil Liberties (For full story, click here)

The violent insurrection of January 6th, 2021, when supporters of Donald Trump unlawfully occupied the US Capitol building, threatened members of Congress, and temporarily derailed certification of the presidential election, has prompted a new wave of federal anti-terrorism statutes. The proposed legislation is unnecessary, because existing laws already cover domestic terrorism, and is especially dangerous given that new laws could be used to repress legitimate political protest.

21. Conservative Christian Groups Spend Globally to Promote Anti-LGBTQ Campaigns (For full story, click here)

Major Christian organizations, including the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Fellowship Foundation, have together spent close to a quarter of a billion dollars over the past 13 years campaigning against LGBTQ and abortion rights, according to a report by openDemocracy. The October 2020 report exposes “the depth of cash flowing from American Christian anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups into dangerous campaigns against reproductive rights and queer rights.”

22. Dataminr Introduces Racial Bias, Stereotypes in Policing of Social Media (For full story, click here)

Dataminr is a New York company that monitors Twitter for “suspicious behavior,” which it reports to law enforcement agencies. Sources directly familiar with Dataminr’s work said that Dataminr has “relied on prejudice-prone tropes and hunches to determine who, where, and what looks dangerous.” Dataminr’s “domain experts” lacked training, creating a powerful but untrustworthy monitoring system made in the image of their own prejudices.

23. Coastal Darkening Threatens Ocean Food Chains (For full story, click here)

Researchers have been investigating how pollution and runoff alter the color and clarity of coastal waters and assessing the degree to which this darkening jeopardizes the health of ocean ecosystems. The research shows that coastal darkening has “the potential to cause huge problems for the ocean and its inhabitants.” Changes in ocean ecosystems could eventually lead to shortages of fish not only for humans, but also for other species.

24. Juvenile Justice Reform Remains Elusive (For full story, click here)

According to the Children’s Defense Fund’s 2020 report, “76,000 children are prosecuted, sentenced or incarcerated as adults annually,” with nearly ten times that number arrested nationally in a single year, and with children of color being “overcriminalized and overrepresented at every point—from arrests to post-adjudication placements.” Children of color are nearly twice as likely to be arrested in comparison to white children.

25. Abusers Benefiting from International Anti-Abduction Treaty (For full story, click here)

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was created to protect children from being abducted and taken away from their home countries. But abusers are now using this treaty as a way to manipulate the courts and regain custody of their children. An analysis of Hague cases found “that an overwhelming number of ‘abductors’ were really mothers escaping abuse—and that the majority of them were forced to return their children” to abusive partners.

Note: If you are feeling depressed or overwhelmed by this information, consider treating yourself to summaries of some of the most inspiring major media articles ever published on this webpage.

Explore our excellent Mass Media Information Center filled with reliable resources on media manipulation, including links to key revealing videos, essays, news articles, and much more.

Read the riveting personal stories of award-winning journalists describing how major stories which should have made front page news were shut down and buried.

Government Suppression & Censorship

Black Budget

The terms “black budget operations,” “deep black programs” and “special access programs (SAP)” are synonymous and refer to secret government programs and spending. Congress does not have any power to oversee these programs. Black budget spending is reported as anywhere from 50 billion to trillions of dollars every single year. Learn more here.

Extraterrestrial Involvement

Through the mid-1950s, reports of extraterrestrial visitation were widely covered in mainstream news sources. For example, on July 28, 1952, front page headlines throughout the U.S. reported on the UFOs that hovered above the White House and the Air Force jets that unsuccessfully chased them. Shortly after this incident, the media coverage suddenly halted. Despite numerous high-profile UFO incidents, the government of the U.S. and other major nations began debunking and suppressing all reports. What exactly happened? See here for a detailed account of the U.S. government cover-up and disinformation campaigns

Secrecy and Suppression as the Norm

U.S. Federal Government Denies 78% of Information Requests

The federal government censored, withheld or said it couldn’t find records sought by citizens, journalists and others more often last year than at any point in the past decade, according to an Associated Press analysis of new data… People who asked for records under the Freedom of Information Act received censored files or nothing in 78 percent of 823,222 requests, a record over the past decade. When it provided no records, the government said it could find no information related to the request in a little over half those cases.
– Ted Bridis, AP News, March 12, 2018

Repercussions & Responses

Independent content providers have been severely and negatively impacted by the purging and manipulation of Internet content.
Unfathomable numbers of people searching the Internet have unknowingly been kept from information that independent sources were trying to share, and have been steered in directions aligned with corporate agendas.
In response, a number of independent content providers have searched out and developed censorship-free platforms.

Beginning in 2017, Independent Media Targeted by Google, Facebook and YouTube

Last year we committed to keeping the CE [Conscious Evolution] community up to date with where we are at as a company after the independent media purge of 2017, 2018 and 2019 that wiped out most of the independent media and about 80% of our revenue. We chose to keep you up to date because we felt it was important our story was told. We also recognize that as we got demonetized and blacklisted, the only people that can keep us going are those who consume, love and share our work. Big tech, including Google, Facebook, and YouTube, reduced our revenue in 2018 to a point where we simply could not survive. Our avenues to make revenue to cover our budgets here at CE became very limited and thus we had to take them into our own hands. We made cuts, lost staff, and had to spend pretty well everything we had saved just to keep bringing these important messages forward. But, we have some really good news! We created CETV, our own on-demand conscious media streaming service that’s similar to Netflix.
– Joe Martino, email Oct 3, 2019

If the prospect of greater privacy and financial sovereignty doesn’t lure the masses to crypto networks, perhaps the ability to speak freely will. Lately, a lot of people who couldn’t give a damn about peer-to-peer cryptocurrency have taken a shine to peer-to-peer networks that run on the same censorship-resistant principles. As social networks run amok, deplatforming users for the slightest provocation, decentralized alternatives start to look increasingly alluring. If YouTube, Facebook, Twitter et al. continue on their current path, they may become the architects of their own downfall, accelerating the exodus to web3.
– Kai Sedgwick, YouTube Censorship Drives Uptake of Crypto-Powered Video Platforms

Video of Censored Content Providers

A special thank you to those in power deleting accounts because they are unknowingly creating the biggest army of truth the world has ever seen.
– Jason Shurka

Pause & Reflect

How do you feel about the fact that social platforms are effectively monopolies that may then control content that is seen by massive numbers of people?
Some people have supported censorship as a way to counter hate speech. Do you think censorship has been effective at doing so?
Is it to society’s benefit that there has been widespread suppression and censorship of natural health, alternative media, government spending and extraterrestrial involvement?
How might content providers and people who rely on them share information more freely without the interference of gatekeepers?

Sources & Resources

Bovard, Ted, USA Today — Facebook Censored Me
Bridis, Ted, AP News — US Sets New Record for Censoring, Withholding Government Files
Brogan, Kelly MD — KellyBroganMD.com
Charles, Dylan, Waking Times — 79 Waking Times Articles that You Are NOT Allowed to Post or Share on Facebook
Congress.gov — Constitution of the United States
The Daily Sheeple — CENSORED! YouTube Begins Banning Videos About CBD Oil Saying It’s ‘Harmful’
Deschamps, Justin — Have You Noticed How Social Media Purges Always Align With The US Empire?
Hancock, Graham — 3-min response, 7-min response, Banned TedTalk
Ji, Sayer, GreenMedInfo — Facebook Deletes Greenmedinfo.com’s Page with Half a Million Followers
Johnstone, Caitlin — Top Assange Defense Account Deleted By Twitter
Martino, Joe, The Pulse — How The Media Is Creating A Sensemaking Crisis
McTaggart, Lynne — When Big Brother Went High Tech
Planetary Activation Organization (PAO) — PAOweb.com
Project Censored — ProjectCensored.org
Project Censored — The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2019-2020
ReliableSoft.net — Top 10 Search Engines in the World
Richardson, Valerie, The Washington Times — Publisher blasts ‘total media blackout’ of Robert Kennedy’s bestseller on Dr. Fauci
Slavo, Mac, Activist Post — Google Whistleblower Confirms They Use Algorithms To CENSOR: “Algorithms Don’t Write Themselves”
Smith, Darren, The Light — Following the Science
Walia, Arjun, The Pulse — British Medical Journal Editor-In-Chief Calls Out “Incompetent” Facebook “Fact Checkers”
Walia, Arjun, The Pulse — Telegram Passes 1 Billion Users As People Seek Censorship Free Big Tech Alternatives
Walia, Arjun, The Pulse — Why Did Twitter Censor An Eminent Infectious Disease Expert For His Opinion On COVID Vaccines?
Walia, Arjun, The Pulse — YouTube Bans & Blocks “Anti-Vaccine” Content from Its Platform
Walia, Arjun, The Pulse — YouTube Has Removed Nearly 1 Million Videos
WantToKnow.info — WantToKnow.info
Weeks, John, GreenMedInfo — Self-Interested Whims of the Oligarchs: Google and Facebook Kill Access to Alternative and Integrative Medicine

Free Handout of this Material

We are happy to email you a free downloadable version of this content.

To receive, please email us and specify the title of this page so we know which piece to send you.

No purchase or credit card required.

And we won’t be trying to get you to buy something because we don’t sell anything.

Why It Matters

Introduction

Vocabulary

Overview