censorship

Algorithms Are Censoring Us

Image by Ethan Harris Twitter’s ban of former president Donald Trump has sparked a national debate about online censorship. The president’s supporters rallied to his side, asserting that social media platforms should not censor conservatives for holding certain beliefs. From the printing press to Facebook, technology has always molded how society understands freedom of speech, […]

Censorship and Self-Censorship: China and the NBA

Illustration by Ellie Strayer “Tank Man”—the photo of a man defiantly standing in front of four advancing tanks during the Tiananmen Square massacre 30 years ago—is one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century. Search for it in the United States and Google returns millions of hits. Search for it on the Chinese […]

The Right’s War on Higher Education

Reactionary politics have never been kind to academia. While a well-educated population is deemed a pillar of a democratic society and strong economy, authoritarian regimes in contrast have a dark history of mistreatment of students and academics. China’s cultural revolution, Mussolini’s persecutions of leftist intellectuals, and the Nazi book burnings show how order and state […]