No Solution for Self-Censorship

Friends,

Censorship has existed as long as communication and authoritarians have existed in the same space. People in power have always had a narrative about their existence and why their world was the way it was. Censorship was as simple as forbidding expression which challenged power and its narratives. With every advance in communication between humans, the information space grew in volume. We began by speaking person to person, creating sculptures, and drawing on caves. Then orators would speak to groups of assembled persons, or write texts by hand and distribute them. Then came the printing press, telegraphy, and the various forms of electronic communication.

Censorship evolved with every advance in communication, to resist the sharing of ideas which challenged power. With the word "ideas," I refer to not only creations spun up in the mind of a creative storyteller or artist, but also the people of science, mathematics, philosophy, law, religion, and politics, who attempt to understand our world and share what they have found. In democratic societies, it is the people who decide where to draw the line between what expression is permissible and what is considered harmful and warranting restriction. Authoritarian societies organize around obedience to leadership and restrict expression which is non compliant. Think of how the Catholic church fought the discovery of heliocentrism. Consider how puritanical and cultish people in the United States fought (and continue to fight) the teaching of evolution or genetics. It has been a century since the Scopes trial and a half century since the West Virginia School Book War, and tens of millions of people still cling to extreme religious ideas which we know are mythical.

Worse, yet, so-called democracies such as the UK and USA are mandating draconian measures against online anonymity and secure communications. American "red states" are foolhardily mandating restrictions against access to websites containing information about contraception, reproductive health, and options for pregnant people. They should know better, but they do not, as the lawmakers appear to have minimal awareness of facts associated with censorship. LOL, I guess they didn't read my entertaining yet hard hitting book, Censorship's Grave.

Censorship is dead. As mass communication advanced, so did the tools of censorship, such that for every measure, came a countermeasure. For every countermeasure, came a new advancement against censorship. We have paper and ink documents which are waterproof. We have optical and spinning-rust disks which can survive if an office or data center is flooded or burned down. We have encrypted communications which will are as likely to yield Shakespeare as to give up their true contents. We have vaults and online libraries progressing toward offering every work which has ever been published. In a real sense, censorship is dead and we are free - if it is our choice to be free.

Dictatorships are enraged and frightened by unhampered communications. They have learned to track internet usage and block websites and VPN protocols. They interfere with DNS queries. They choke crossborder connectivity until broadband becomes a trickle. Circumventionists figured out how to evade every, I repeat, EVERY form of internet censorship, save for cutting cables. I have personally experienced blocked and throttled "normal" internet while visiting countries considered to be non-free. In those same places, I have used encryption and multithreaded connections to enjoy blazingly fast file downloads, peer to peer file sharing, and media streaming. Everything the dictators can do to limit assembly and expression FAILS, as no barrier is perfect. Except for cutting the cables. MOFO Linux is my version of a toolset for exploiting flaws in censorship barriers and accessing online media. Yet now, the media does not want certain people to access it. There is a voice out there saying, in effect, "We don't serve your kind here."

There is a way to censor, which makes useless every circumvention method: self-censorship! All of the circumvention technology is useless one party to an act of assembly or expression opts out. That means Tor is useless if you don't use it. Tor is also useless if your forums or media platforms block it. VPNs and SSH tunnels are useless if the platform will not allow you to use it because you arrive from a known server address. I have seen these things happen in 2025, and the trend is increasing. Twitter / X, YouTube, Reddit, and various adult entertainment sites, are rolling out age verification systems which eliminate anonymous access to their content. It is getting down to a self-censorship where people cannot break out of a restricted internet bubble and use the large platforms because the tools which liberate at the origin are also the tools which provoke blocking at the destination. You can leave home, but you are welcome nowhere! If you have a server farm's IP address, _please go away! _

Platforms which surrender to authoritarian lawmakers and block access to people using circumvention tools will kill what remains of the internet we had a decade ago. They are going to screw it up for everyone, and why? Cowardice! Because they lack the spine to say no to authoritarians.

None of this dumbassery will solve any problems with obscene content or its access by minors. To stop that problem, parents need to do better in raising children who grow up with healthier minds. I mean this in all seriousness, that we worry about what our kids eat, or that they follow safe practices when crossing streets. But not enough care that they develop healthy minds, learn to handle stresses of life, and have a respect for other people and living things. It is the job of parents, not legislators, to make it so. Addictions, substance abuse, violence and abuse against people and creatures ALL have something in common, and it will never be solved with censorship.

Anti-censorship operating systems will always exist, one way or another. It is a silly fantasy to think a day will come when Tails, Qubes, or MOFO Linux will be unavailable. It is true that Twitter / X, YouTube, Instagram, or the many adult content sites may close down. However, they will be replaced by alternative services which meet the demands of internet users. Until internet users are no longer interested in such services. Because it is the users, not the dictators, which control the bottom line.

Good luck with all of that. Have fun. Don't get hurt.
Phil Collier / MOFO Linux