Internet Freedom Faded in 2024 amid Rise of Juntas, Islamists, and Authoritarians
According to Freedom House, internet watchdogs generally agree that internet freedom will decline again in 2024, the 14th consecutive decline. The decline in internet freedom over the past year has been largely driven by the rise of military regimes, the spread of Islamist speech norms, and the general rise in authoritarian rule, including the spread […]
Trump’s CEO Meetings ‘What You See When Authoritarians Come In’
Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Julie Roginsky spoke Friday on CNN's “Newsroom” about President-elect Donald Trump and industry leaders including X Company's Elon Musk and Meta Company's Mark Zuckerberg. He argued that the talks were what happens “when authoritarians come in.” Host Jim Acosta said, “Elon Musk isn't the only tech executive to visit Mar-a-Lago […]
Brazil cuts ties with Nicaragua as it rethinks links with leftist authoritarians | Brazil
Brazil and Nicaragua have expelled each other’s ambassadors in a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appears to be reconsidering his approach to the authoritarian leftist ruler once seen as an ally. The pair’s ouster this week comes amid rising tensions between Lula and another supposedly progressive leader, Venezuelan President […]
Jimmy Lai’s Imprisonment Is a Blueprint for How Authoritarians Use ‘National Security’ to Crush Political Dissent
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes As Hong Kong slipped slowly into authoritarianism, media mogul Jimmy Lai did something extraordinary: he continued to resist Beijing. Today the 76-year-old Hong Konger remains in solitary confinement in a Chinese prison. When Jimmy Lai was a child working the streets of Canton (Guangzhou), China, in the 1950s, he received […]
Doing ‘what authoritarians around the world do’
Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok compared former President Trump’s recent attacks on the Justice Department in connection with the classified documents case to attacks by authoritarians “around the world.” “The issue isn’t that he immediately turned to fundraising, but that he’s doing what authoritarians all over the world do,” Strzok said. I said on […]