Current Indicator Threat Grade

No or UNKNOWN RISK
No reports. No current evidence. Click FIELD REPORT to share with us a link or your first-hand account.
FREE SPEECH is ABRIDGED
Most of the humanity, for most of human history, has experienced political censorship.
The fastest way to live under an abhorrent regime is to accept “lawful†restrictions to speech. As James Madison wrote, speech that creates “a contempt, a disrepute, or hatred [of the Government] among the people" must stay unrestricted, because the only way to decide whether such disdain is reasonable is "by a free examination [of the government's actions], and a free communication among the people thereon."
The urge of tyrants to impose by force that which the marketplace of ideas does not seem to be correcting quickly enough is eternal. Be vigilant for efforts to re-define the traditional types of unacceptable speech to limit your free expression. Legislation will increasingly try to specify categories of “hate†speech to curry favor with “protected†groups, rationalizing it as incitement to violence.
In 1949, George Orwell published the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In it, a fictional language called the Newspeak was introduced. Newspeak was a Government-organized language created by a totalitarian state as an instrument to limit freedom of thought. Carefully observe how your Government changes the meaning of words over time, and how your fellow citizens fall in line.
The urge of tyrants to impose by force that which the marketplace of ideas does not seem to be correcting quickly enough is eternal. Be vigilant for efforts to re-define the traditional types of unacceptable speech to limit your free expression. Legislation will increasingly try to specify categories of “hate†speech to curry favor with “protected†groups, rationalizing it as incitement to violence.
In 1949, George Orwell published the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In it, a fictional language called the Newspeak was introduced. Newspeak was a Government-organized language created by a totalitarian state as an instrument to limit freedom of thought. Carefully observe how your Government changes the meaning of words over time, and how your fellow citizens fall in line.
Full Indicator Record
Indicator Historical Trend
Today

