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Opponents say memoir The Courage to Be Free, published in February, violates law governor signed last year

Democrats in Florida are attempting to use a state law that censors books in public schools against the governor who signed it, Ron DeSantis, by asking schools to review or ban the Republican governors own book, The Courage to Be Free.

The very trap he set for others is the one that he set for himself, Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic minority leader in the Florida statehouse, told the Daily Beast.

DeSantis published The Courage to Be Free in February, in what was widely seen as an opening shot in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He has said he wrote the book himself.

Seeking to compete with Donald Trump who enjoys convincing leads in polling DeSantis has established himself as a ruthless culture warrior, willing to use government power against opposing interests and viewpoints.

He signed the law regarding books in schools last year. It includes guidelines for content deemed inappropriate on grounds of race, sexuality, gender and depictions of violence.

But the law has run into problems over interpretations of its language, not least when a childrens book about Roberto Clemente, a baseball legend who faced racial discrimination, landed at the centre of national controversy.

Seeking to take advantage of such uncertainties, Florida Democrats are highlighting instances of language in DeSantiss book which they contend could violate his own guidelines.

As reported by the Beast, in The Courage to Be Free, DeSantis use[s] the terms woke and gender ideology 46 times and 10 times respectively, both of which could constitute divisive concepts the governor has argued should stay out of curricula up to the college level.

DeSantis also claims students have been forced to chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice and, as well as describing violence at Black Lives Matter protests, cites a video showing dead black children, dramatically warning about racist police and state-sanctioned violence.

DeSantis also describes the 2017 mass shooting at congressional baseball practice in which Steve Scalise, a senior Republican, was seriously wounded.

Such passages, Democrats contend (in what the Florida publisher Peter Schorsch called a clever bit of trolling), could fall foul of the governors own rules.

According to the Beast, only one school district initially responded to Democrats complaints. Marion county, near Orlando, said no public school there possessed the governors book.

Driskell told the Beast: Were leaning into one of [DeSantiss] weaknesses.

If America doesnt want Floridas present reality to become Americas future reality, people need to know what its like here. This is our way of fighting back, but also highlighting how ridiculous some of this becomes, right?

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Democrats bid to use censorship law against DeSantis and ban his book - The Guardian

It was intriguing to read the commentary, The governments censorship by proxy appearing as an opinion column by Jacob Sullum in the March 28 edition. Although the column asserted that there is evidence of government collusion in public censorship, I believe that assertion is still unproven, while admittedly compelling.

Apparently I suffered a perplexing example of related censorship described in that commentary. Over the past 90 days on behalf of the Center for a Sustainable Coast I have been posting and attempting to promote articles prioritizing clean energy and reducing carbon emissions as a means to rapidly curb climate change.

When attempting to boost these posts by paying Facebook to push the information out to other FB users, the Meta Ad Center repeatedly refused to allow me to do it, advising that Im not approved to receive ad support for endorsing political (government) policy. How commonly Facebook administrators prohibit ads promoting well-founded public policy reforms remain unknown. In any case, restricting this use of social media unjustifiably handicaps well-meaning. nonprofit advocacy groups that are seeking to serve the common good.

Consider the blatantly biased and repressive contradiction that the 2010 Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision sanctions billions in corporate spending on political and policy campaigns by classifying it as constitutionally protected free speech, while modestly priced Facebook ads promoting policy reforms are being prohibited.

When online platform providers like Meta unfairly impede the responsible use of social media, a gag-order effect results, favoring corporate agendas by thwarting opposing viewpoints thereby hiding and cultivating inconvenient truths.

Center for a Sustainable Coast

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Censorship by subversive means | Letters to the Editor ... - Brunswick News

India

Canadian politician, poet, an India MP and journalists are among 120 accounts that have been withheld

Yashraj Sharma in Srinagar

Twitter has been accused of bowing to government pressure in India by blocking scores of prominent journalists, politicians and activists from its platform in recent weeks.

The Indian government issued notices to Twitter to remove people in the aftermath of an internet shutdown in Punjab during the search for a fugitive Sikh separatist leader.

Twitter agreed to block more than 120 accounts, including the Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh, the Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, several journalists and an Indian MP. Twitter also blocked the handle of the BBCs Punjabi bureau.

Jaskaran Sandhu, the Toronto-based co-founder of Baaz News, an outlet focused on the Sikh diaspora, received an email from Twitter on 21 March that said his account had been withheld in India. In the email, seen by the Guardian, no specific tweet or activity by Sandhu was cited by Twitter for its action.

The Indian government has made it a norm to take draconian measures and crack down on dissent coming from Sikh or other minority communities, Sandhu said. Twitters actions are just another example [that imply] civil liberties and democratic rights are under attack.

My entire account, not any tweet, has been banned in India. It is blanket censorship. And there is absolute silence from Twitter on this.

Freedom House, a US-based nonprofit organisation, has accused the prime minister Narendra Modis government of driving India toward authoritarianism and in 2021 downgraded Indias status from free to partly free.

India, the third-largest market for Twitter after the US and Japan, is proving to be one of its biggest challenges. Responding to a tweet about censorship in India, Elon Musk, who completed a takeover of Twitter in October and calls himself a free speech absolutist, tweeted: It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things.

Social media platforms including Twitter had been seen as one of the remaining avenues for Indian people to express dissent, after traditional media houses largely caved in to pressure from the government to toe its line.

Twitter sued the government in July over takedown orders, after the government introduced legislation in 2021 aimed at regulating every form of digital content, including online news, social media, and streaming platforms and empowering itself to remove content it deemed objectionable.

Prateek Waghre, the policy director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, said much of the content being withheld was reportage that did not portray the government in a positive light. There is no contention. It is just absurd, he added.

Since his takeover, Musk has reportedly slashed Twitters workforce by 90% in India. There is a question if Twitter still has people to vet these requests, Waghre said. The question is also on the willingness of a pushback, which has certainly reduced [since Musk takeover].

Raqib Hameed Naik, the founder of Hindutva Watch, a US-based site that tracks hate crimes in India, described the situation as very grim.

Big tech has completely surrendered to the authoritarian regime of PM Narendra Modi, he said. Twitters conduct in India sets a worrying trend of silencing media, critics and dissenters worldwide.

Sandhu said he was not optimistic about Indias ability to uphold minimal requirements for a healthy democracy, describing the system as rotten to the core.

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Twitter accused of censorship in India as it blocks Modi critics - The Guardian

A bill making its way through Florida's Legislature would expand the state's censorship of discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity all the way up through eighth grade and, in addition, would specify that charter schools are included in the ban.

This attack on educational freedom comes just days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law H.B. 1, which expanded school choice to all Florida students. It's a reminder that when some (but not all) conservatives and Republicans talk about "school choice" and "parents' rights," they have a limited view of what those choices should be and which parents should have rights.

H.B. 1069, which passed the state's House on Friday, would staple some new rules onto H.B. 1557, the law passed in 2022 that censored any discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and restricted it in other grades. H.B. 1069 expands the censorship from pre-K all the way up to eighth grade. And while proponents of this type of legislation have insisted that this is all about giving parents control over their children's education, one simple line of text will undermine that entire argument if this bill is signed into law: "This subparagraph applies to charter schools."

All of this is in addition to the latest move by the state's Department of Education to implement regulations that apply a greater level of censorship to all discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades.

What makes charter schools so valuable is that they give families the freedom to pursue education that meets their children's needs and is free from overly restrictive, one-size-fits-all lesson plans. Families can find charter schools that cater to special needs children or that only focus on certain subjects. There are also a small number of charter schools designed for families with LGBT parents or children.

H.B. 1069 essentially declares that certain types of families will be denied the educational freedom offered by charter schools by censoring which topics can be taught. Politicians who actually believe in "parents' rights" and school choice should be very much opposed to this ban. If parents want their children to learn about LGBT issues in schools, it should not be for a group of conservatives in Tallahassee to tell them no.

In a similar vein, another part of H.B. 1069 undermines the educational choices of families by amending the process of objecting to and removing books from schools. The bill requires that any book or material that is the subject of a removal request by a parent be removed and unavailable to students within five days for an investigation. This means the allegedly objectionable material will be unavailable to all students, not just those of the parents who object. The bill also adds a lengthy appeals processthat involves bringing in a special magistrate that the school district has to pay for if a parent continues to object. As Reason has pointed out before, these aren't "parents' rights" bills at all. These are "parents' veto" laws that allow some parents to control what other parents' kids have access to. And since the school district will have to pay to bring in a magistrate to fight against these objections, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the easiest thing for a school district to do is just remove anything any parent objects to.

H.B. 1069 passed the House easily Friday by a vote of 7735, and the Senate version is currently being reviewed by the Fiscal Policy Committee. If the bill passes, it will be a test of DeSantis' actual commitment to school choice. If he signs it into law, he's giving credence to any Democratic or progressive critic that says "school choice" is really a conservative plot to undermine public schools and school unions as a mechanism of control, not freedom. It is taking power away from parents and concentrating it in the hands of conservative lawmakers.

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Conservative Florida Lawmakers Want LGBT Censorship Expanded ... - Reason

Karmayogin [Sage]. This was a weekly magazine started by Aurobindo Ghose in June 1909. A single copy was available for two annas, and subscription could be had for five rupees. Peter Heehs has recounted the story of how the first issue itself reached Viceroy Minto within a fortnight of its publication. The letter To My Countrymen published in the 31 July 1909 issue gave the Government of Bengal an opportunity to prosecute Ghose.

By that time he was in Pondicherry, a French territory, and therefore it was difficult for the British Government to arrest or prosecute him. Instead, they prosecuted the printer, Monmohan Nath Ghose, who was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment under charges of sedition. The officiating Chief Presidency Magistrate at Calcutta, D. Swinhoe, held the article to be seditious because it imputes repression, dishonesty, partiality and base motives to the government in its administration of this country and appeals to the people of India to abandon moderate methods and to join the nationalist and with their aid coerce the Government and compel it to alter its present policy of which the writer strongly disapproves.

The conviction was set aside in October by the High Court upon appeal. Aurobindo Ghose began the article with a criticism of moderate politics, exemplified by Gopal Krishna Gokhale (18661915) and Pherozeshah Mehta (18451915). Excerpts are reprinted in the following pages:

25 December 1909

To My Countrymen

The period of waiting is over.We have two things made clear to us, first, that the future of the nation is in our hands, and, secondly, that from the Moderate party we can expect no cordial co-operation in building it.Whatever we do, we must do ourselves, in our own strength and courage. Let us then take up the work God has given us, like courageous, steadfast and patriotic men willing to sacrifice greatly and venture greatly because the mission also is great. If there are any unnerved by the fear of repression, let them stand aside.If there are any who think that by flattering Anglo-India or coquetting with English Liberalism they can dispense with the need of effort and the inevitability of peril, let them stand aside.If there are any who are ready to be satisfied with mean gains or unsubstantial concessions, let them stand aside.But all who deserve the name of Nationalists, must now come forward and take up their burden.

The fear of the law is for those who break the law.Our aims are great and honourable, free from stain or reproach, our methods are peaceful, though resolute and strenuous.We shall not break the law and, therefore, we need not fear the law.But if a corrupt police, unscrupulous officials or a partial judiciary make use of the honourable publicity of our political methods to harass the men who stand in front by illegal ukases [a decree issued by the Russian Tsar], suborned and perjured evidence or unjust decisions, shall we shrink from the toll that we have to pay on our march to freedom?Shall we cower behind a petty secrecy or a dishonourable inactivity?We must have our associations, our organisations, our means of propaganda, and, if these are suppressed by arbitrary proclamations, we shall have done our duty by our motherland and not on us will rest any responsibility for the madness which crushes down open and lawful political activity in order to give a desperate and sullen nation into the hands of those fiercely enthusiastic and unscrupulous forces that have arisen among us inside and outside India.

So long as any loophole is left for peaceful effort, we will not renounce the struggle.If the conditions are made difficult and almost impossible, can they be worse than those our countrymen have to contend against in the Transvaal? Or shall we, the flower of Indian culture and education, show less capacity and self-devotion than the coolies and shopkeepers who are there rejoicing to suffer for the honour of their nation and the welfare of their community? What is it for which we strive?

The perfect self-fulfilment of India and the independence which is the condition of self-fulfilment are our ultimate goal.In the meanwhile such imperfect self-development and such incomplete self-government as are possible in less favourable circumstances, must be attained as a preliminary to the more distant realisation.What we seek is to evolve self-government either through our own institutions or through those provided for us by the law of the land.No such evolution is possible by the latter means without some measure of administrative control.

We demand, therefore, not the monstrous and misbegotten scheme which has just been brought into being, but a measure of reform based upon those democratic principles which are ignored in Lord Morleys Reforms, a literate electorate without distinction of creed, nationality or caste, freedom of election unhampered by exclusory clauses, an effective voice in legislation and finance and some check upon an arbitrary executive.

We demand also the gradual devolution of executive government out of the hands of the bureaucracy into those of the people.Until these demands are granted, we shall use the pressure of that refusal of co-operation which is termed passive resistance.We shall exercise that pressure within the limits allowed us by the law, but apart from that limitation the extent to which we shall use it, depends on expediency and the amount of resistance we have to overcome.

On our own side we have great and pressing problems to solve.National education languishes for want of moral stimulus, financial support, and emancipated brains keen and bold enough to grapple with the difficulties that hamper its organisation and progress.

The movement of arbitration, successful in its inception, has been dropped as a result of repression.The Swadeshi-Boycott movement still moves by its own impetus, but its forward march has no longer the rapidity and organised irresistibility of forceful purpose which once swept it forward.

Social problems are pressing upon us which we can no longer ignore. We must take up the organisation of knowledge in our country, neglected throughout the last century.We must free our social and economic development from the incubus of thelitigious resort to the ruinously expensive British Courts.We must once more seek to push forward the movement toward economic self-sufficiency, industrial independence. These are the objects for which we have to organise the national strength of India.

On us falls the burden, in us alone there is the moral ardour, faith and readiness for sacrifice which can attempt and go far to accomplish the task.But the first requisite is the organisation of the Nationalist party.I invite that party in all the great centres of the country to take up the work and assist the leaders who will shortly meet to consider steps for the initiation of Nationalist activity.It is desirable to establish a Nationalist Council and hold a meeting of the body in March or April of the next year.It is necessary also to establish Nationalist Associations throughout the country.When we have done this, we shall be able to formulate our programme and assume our proper place in the political life of India.

This excerpt from Devika Sethis Banned & Censored: What the British Raj Didnt Want Us to Read has been published with permission from Roli Books.

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British-era censorship did not spare Aurobindos letter from being circulated in his magazine - ThePrint