The Media Research Center (MRC)’s Censortrack database, which tracks online censorship, has surpassed 6,000 cases. Examples include over 700 cases of criticism of incumbent President Joe Biden, as well as a variety of posts on political debates such as transgenderism and the coronavirus response.
Cases of censorship range across platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Google, and YouTube.
In one recent example, an Instagram video from the Atlas Society, a libertarian nonprofit, was censored as “false information” for criticizing the Biden administration’s border policies. In another case, Instagram fact-checkers censored a comedian and political commentator for a post linking Biden policies to soaring inflation.
TaliBAN poster mocks Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (Laura Loomer and Bosch Fawstin)
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google ( KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/GettyImages )
The database includes a number of cases from Twitter prior to the acquisition of the company by Elon Musk, documenting the apogee of censorship under the tenure of CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, including the ban on the use of the term “groomer” and the censorship of conservative satire accounts.
Examples from Google and Google-owned YouTube include the censorship of Jordan Peterson videos, and Google’s decision to ban ads from Live Action, a pro-life organization.
Microsoft-owned platforms did not escape scrutiny. The tech giant is a major force behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as well as a former partner of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) and of NewsGuard, two organizations that curate blacklists of media organizations. As documented by Censortrack, the tech company also engages in censorship, with Microsoft-owned LinkedIn banning Gregory Wrightstone, a geologist, for posting data undermining the official narrative on climate change.
The database showcases the wide range of prominent figures who have been censored by big tech platforms, including elected officials Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former speaker of the house Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, news organizations including the New York Post and The Federalist, as well as Donald Trump Jr., James Woods, Candace Owens, Dana Loesch, and Sebastian Gorka.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.