Free Speech
Defund the Thought Police
CW’s imperative Free Speech work began with The Twitter Files – the bombshell discovery that governments are cracking down on this fundamental human right, aided by state intelligence, surveillance, and security organizations.
Since then, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and other Twitter Files journalists have warned of rising government censorship demands. Given their military and intelligence roots, we have called the government agencies, government-funded NGOs, and news media organizations demanding greater censorship of social and political issues a “Censorship Industrial Complex.”
Civilization is facing a totalitarian effort by security, academic, and philanthropic elites to take control over the means of communication in multiple countries simultaneously. If governments and their allies in the media and civil society succeed in censoring social media platforms, then our liberal democratic civilization will be in serious jeopardy. We will be living under the threat of a totalitarian state where committees of bureaucrats decide what we are allowed to say online. Most concerning is the fact that the government censors will do so secretly in order to manipulate the public.
Civilization Works knows how to stand up to the censors and win. We shut down the Stanford Internet Observatory’s censorship operation, revealed the secret government censorship being demanded by the Brazilian government, and exposed censorship demands from the CIA, FBI, DHS, and other government officials.
Testimony
Our founder and president, Michael Shellenberger, frequently testifies on Free Speech and the Censorship Industrial Complex:
Investigations
We have begun untangling the complex web of state sanctioned censorship by:
In Development: Disinformation Dashboard
Civilization Works are now doggedly defending Free Speech by developing a “Disinformation Dashboard” to centralize ongoing findings of international freelance journalists and researchers, providing real-time situational awareness of government disinformation and censorship campaigns across the Western World. The dashboard will consist of:
Disinformation Tracking
Fact Checking
Censorship Leaders
Movements
The Westminster Declaration
We are the organizing force behind The Westminster Declaration, where thought leaders from around the world and across the political spectrum defend the basic human right of free speech.
The Westminster Free Speech Forum
We’re building a global citizen’s movement to fight back. Each June, Civilization Works convenes investigators into government censorship from around the world in London to gain greater situational awareness, build community, and align the strategy of free speech movement leaders.
Documentaries
The state’s involvement in disinformation and censorship rests upon shaky cultural consent. It’s time to reaffirm Free Speech as an essential pillar of civilization.
Civilization Works is bringing our Free Speech investigations to the public in a forthcoming feature documentary: The Censorship Files.
Additional Investigations
Our sister media organization, Public, has produced the following investigations into the Censorship Industrial Complex:
Stanford Internet Observatory Investigations:
free speech: News, reports and more
