‘Religion of censorship’ intensifying, warns Glenn Greenwald

Journalist Glenn Greenwald last week warned that the censorship regime in the United States is “dangerously intensifying” and has become the religion of the establishment. 

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Greenwald began by explaining that all recent crises have been used to repress certain views and opinions. 

“A series of ‘crises’ have been cynically and aggressively exploited to inexorably restrict the range of permitted views, and expand pretexts for online silencing and deplatforming,” wrote Greenwald. “Trump's election, Russiagate, 1/6, COVID and war in Ukraine all fostered new methods of repression.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms censored any suggestion that COVID-19 was developed in a lab; Apple and Google removed conservative apps like Parler following the events on January 6, 2021; Facebook and Twitter both censored a damning story about the Biden family during the presidential election, which Facebook says was at the behest of the FBI; Facebook and TikTok both banned Russian-backed media; Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others suspend users for voicing any criticism of the COVID-19 injections and, on Twitter, even irreverence of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla can get a user de-platformed. 

When the entertainment industry tried to cancel podcast host Joe Rogan in January after he hosted Dr. Robert Malone, the mRNA inventor who advocated against the COVID-19 injections, Greenwald wrote that “the current religion of Western liberals in politics and media is censorship: their prime weapon of activism.” 

“But that Rogan failure only strengthened their repressive campaigns,” Greenwald continued. “Dems routinely abuse their majoritarian power in DC to explicitly coerce Big Tech silencing of their opponents and dissent. This is *Govt censorship* disguised as corporate autonomy. 

“There's now an entire new industry, aligned with Dems, to pressure Big Tech to censor. Think tanks and self-proclaimed ‘disinformation experts’ funded by Omidyar, Soros and the US/UK Security State use benign-sounding names to glorify ideological censorship as neutral expertise.” 

Such organizations include the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCPR), a consortium of media outlets funded by George Soros, Google and the U.S. State Department; the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder; and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, funded by George Soros, Bill Gates, Google and a host of others, which claims to be “powering solutions to extremism, hate and disinformation.” 

But the most sinister cog in the censorship machine, says Greenwald, are the journalists. 

“The worst, most vile arm of this regime are the censorship-mad liberal employees of big media corporations,” he said, specifically naming NBC News reporters Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, and Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz, who published the personal details of a conservative journalist after complaining about harassment of journalists. 

“Masquerading as ‘journalists,’ they align with the scummiest Dem groups [such as Media Matters] to silence and deplatform.” 

“It is astonishing to watch Dems and their allies in media corporations posture as opponents of ‘fascism’ - while their main goal is to *unite state and corporate power* to censor their critics and degrade the internet into an increasingly repressive weapon of information control,” Greenwald pointed out. 

He also seemed to suggest that Big Tech companies are not engaging in such censorship by choice but are being forced to do so by the government, despite boasts by social media executives about censoring Right-wing speech. 

“But the worst is watching people whose job title in corporate HR Departments is ‘journalist’ take the lead in agitating for censorship,” Greenwald stated. “They exploit the platforms of corporate giants to pioneer increasingly dangerous means of banning dissenters. *These* are the authoritarians.” 

The measure of societal freedom is not how servants of power are treated: they're always left alone or rewarded. The key metric is how dissidents are treated

NBC’s Ben Collins repeatedly advocated for an online forum to be shut down after some of its users expressed the wrong viewpoints and succeeded in having the site shut down. Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz claimed that popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok was “killing people” and, since the account’s owner tried to remain anonymous for her own safety, Lorenz publicly published her identity, forcing the account owner into hiding. New York Times reporters Sheera Frankel, Mike Isaac and Ryan Mac pushed for social media platforms to censor wrongthink about the Russia-Ukraine war. 

The push for censorship of pro-Russia views has become so widespread that it has gradually led to the European Union legally banning Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik over “disinformation".

“So many new tactics of censorship repression have emerged in the West: Trudeau freezing bank accounts of [trucker]-protesters; Paypal partnering with ADL to ban dissidents from the financial system; Big Tech platforms openly colluding in unison to de-person people from the internet,” added Greenwald. 

The journalist also explained how the elites justify their censorship: 

“All of this stems from the classic mentality of all would-be tyrants: our enemies are so dangerous, their views so threatening, that everything we do – lying, repression, censorship – is noble. That's what made the Sam Harris confession so vital: that's how liberal elites think.” 

Last month, author Sam Harris agreed there was a conspiracy to censor the Hunter Biden story by the New York Post, but said it was justified.  

“At that point, Hunter Biden could have literally had the corpses of children in his basement, I would not have cared," said Harris, claiming it would be "infinitesimal compared to the corruption we know Trump is involved in.” 

And when 51 members of the intelligence community were found to have lied when they said the Hunter Biden story was “Russian disinformation,” they never withdrew their statements or apologized. 

“It's the hallmark of all tyranny: ‘our enemies are so evil and dangerous, anything is justified to stop them.'"

The good news, says Greenwald, is that this has sired a burgeoning free speech industry with platforms committed to freedom of expression, such as Rumble, Substack, Gettr and TruthSocial. 

The bad news is, they very quickly become a target of the regime. 

“But as these free speech platforms grow and become a threat, the efforts to crush them also grow – exactly as [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], other Dems and their corporate media allies successfully demanded Google, Apple and Amazon destroy Parler when it became the single most-popular app in the country. 

“It is hard to overstate how much pressure is now brought to bear by liberal censors on these free speech platforms, especially Rumble. Their vendors are threatened. Their hosting companies targeted. They have accounts cancelled and firms refusing to deal with them. It's a regime.” 

The West is embroiled in a war over freedom, said Greenwald, and a society is only as free as its dissidents. 

“The measure of societal freedom is not how servants of power are treated: they're always left alone or rewarded. The key metric is how dissidents are treated.” 

He wrapped up his soliloquy by taking another shot at so-called “journalists”: 

“The worst of all - the most repugnant and despicable - are those calling themselves ‘journalists’ while doing the opposite of what that term implies: they serve rather than challenge power, they deceive rather than inform, they demand censorship rather than free and open inquiry.” 

“Heap scorn on the corporate outlets and their deceitful, pro-censorship employees abusing the ‘journalist’ label,” Greenwald concluded. “Read them with full skepticism, or just ignore them. Support outlets and platforms that want to protect free inquiry and the right of dissent, not rob you of it.”