This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy
For years, narratives about a “censorship-industrial complex” spread in right-wing circles. The theory claimed that, under the guise of combating disinformation, a sprawling constellation of government agencies, academics, civil society groups, and Big Tech platforms was suppressing conservative and populist speech online.
What began as a relatively niche conspiracy theory from the far right was able to—and continues to—influence a wide range of actions by the second Trump administration. In myriad ways, the idea of the censorship-industrial complex, or CIC, explains the logic behind how the administration operates both at home and internationally.
Over the past nine months, MIT Technology Review and Type Investigations have traced how the theory came
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