Category «Censorship»

The CDC Has Been Gutted

Below is running list of Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) offices that have either been fully eliminated or gutted into non-functionality as a result of today’s mass firings. Wired [no paywall]: “Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a …

Subjects: Censorship, Education, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Medicine

Llano County settles librarian’s wrongful termination suit over book removals

Austin American Statesman – “Former librarian Suzette Baker will receive $225,000 in a settlement of her wrongful termination lawsuit against Llano County… [She] accused them of firing her in 2022 because she refused to pull library materials that a group of conservative activists had deemed inappropriate for children.” The settlement marks the end to a …

Subjects: Censorship, Courts, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

How to Enter the US With Your Digital Privacy Intact

Wired [unpaywalled] – Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data…That de facto border crackdown is set to become far more explicit if the Trump administration follows through on a plan …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Mail, E-Records, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

The Real Cost Of DOGE: Musk’s Government Cuts Creating Massive New Expenses

TechDirt: “Imagine you had pretty much unlimited power over the government and wanted to save taxpayers’ money. You could: Carefully study government operations to understand what works and what doesn’t Make targeted improvements based on data and evidence Track results to ensure changes actually deliver savings Or you could do what Elon Musk did with …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research

How Each Pillar of the 1st Amendment is Under Attack

Krebs on Security: “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.” -U.S. Constitution, First Amendment. “In an address …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research

How to Save a Democracy

Foreign Affairs [unpaywalled] “Americans can learn from opponents of authoritarianism elsewhere. The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency have accelerated a process of democratic erosion in the United States. In just two months, the president and his allies have issued executive orders of dubious constitutionality, violated the civil protections of federal workers, impinged …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

NOAA removed 2024 Climate Literacy Guide from its website

Union of Concerned Scientist: “Yet another resource that belongs to us, the US public, has disappeared down the Trump administration’s memory hole. I just learned from the valiant Environmental Data and Government Initiative that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has removed the 2024 Climate Literacy Guide from https://www.climate.gov (though a data savior has …

Subjects: Censorship, Climate Change, Defense, Education, Energy, Environmental Law, Government Documents

Angelo Carusone on tracking Project 2025 and right-wing media

PBS News: “Project 2025, the conservative policy project, became a flashpoint during the presidential campaign. Angelo Carusone of Media Matters studied the 900-page document and spoke with Geoff Bennett for our series, On Democracy, where we hear a range of perspectives on how government should function, what led to this moment in American history and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Health Care, Housing, Internet, Legal Research, Social Media

The Subtle Resistance of Dictionary.com

The Contrarian: “There’s something pretty interesting happening on Dictionary.com and its sister site, Thesaurus.com. Scroll down to the example usages of a given word and you’ll see what I mean. Among the example sentences for “democracy” at time of publication: “It seems this 248-year-old experiment we call American democracy may very well rest in the …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Trump Hits Smithsonian With DEI Censorship – will remove ‘improper ideology’ from such properties

Executive Order Restoring Truth and Sanity to American Histor. March 27, 2025. By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Government Documents, Knowledge Management