Watchman: Rumble Defies Global Censorship Trends, Takes Stand Against New Zealand’s Free Speech Crackdown

HNewsWire: The CEO of Rumble, a free-speech YouTube competitor, says that global censorship levels are on the rise, but that what’s particularly noticeable are censorship demands coming from Australia and New Zealand – who seem to be following in the controversial, to say the least, footsteps of France and Brazil. On the one hand, this is surprising, given these countries’ formal democratic provenance. On the other hand, their actions over the last years, including site blocking at ISP level, constant demands for more stringent regulation to facilitate social media content removal, and even the draconian Covid – and post-Covid era measures, tell a different story. Chris Pavlovski told Mat Kim that the FreeNZMedia channel has now become a deplatforming target in New Zealand, for reporting about leaked data from the National Vaccination Database, that a whistleblower, former Health New Zealand…

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Watchman:Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues U.S. State Department for Conspiring to Censor American Media Companies

HNewsWire: Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues U.S. State Department for Conspiring to Censor American Media Companies AUSTIN – The State of Texas and media companies The Daily Wire and The Federalist have sued the U.S. Department of State, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other government officials for engaging in a conspiracy to censor, deplatform, and demonetize American media outlets disfavored by the federal government. Through its Global Engagement Center, the State Department actively intervened in the news-media market to limit the reach and business viability of domestic news organizations by funding censorship technology and private censorship enterprises. Congress authorized creation of the Global Engagement Center expressly to counter foreign propaganda and misinformation. Instead, the agency weaponized this authority to violate the First Amendment and suppress Americans’ constitutionally-protected speech. The complaint describes the State Department’s project as “one of the…

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