Efforts to control speech continues. As Alabama proves, it’s not just speech on the internet politicians are targeting.
For the last few years, we’ve been covering efforts by major political parties to control speech online. Whether it is allegedly left leaning politician’s pushing laws that would downrank people on social media for not being considered “Canadian” enough or right wing politician’s pushing laws that would censor speech because they think it’s icky (ala age verification laws), efforts to suppress speech has becoming seemingly a bi-partisan effort.
Of course, this effort for government to censor speech is by no means a uniquely Canadian thing. In the US, Democrat lawmakers have pushed anti free speech policies such as the effort to repeal Section 230 for web services that don’t crack down enough on what they consider “disinformation”. For Republican’s, there is an effort to repeal Section 230 for any platform that dares to moderate content. These examples are, of course, far from the only ones to point to when it comes to the war on freedom of expression.
While the internet makes information more easily accessible and convenient, there was another, much older, method of obtaining information. That is through public libraries. Even if the technology is technically older, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worthless. What’s more, just because the technology is older doesn’t mean that it’s off limits to the war on freedom of expression.
In Alabama, lawmakers are making another attempt to jail librarians for daring to have books talking about LGBTQ+ or racial content on their shelves. From AL Reporter:
A House bill that could have led to the arrest of librarians narrowly missed becoming law last session, but sponsors have already filed a follow-up for the session that begins next February.
House Bill 4 is primarily sponsored by Rep. Arnold Mooney, R-Indian Springs, but has a total of 49 co-sponsors including House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville; House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle; and House Speaker Pro Temper Chris Pringle, R-Mobile.
With nearly half the House signed on as co-sponsors and the bill filed more than six months in advance, it appears the bill is poised for smooth sailing through the lower body in the next session.
The bill is facially similar to its predecessor, but has been streamlined to better detail the procedure for charging librarians with a crime.
“Fifty Alabama lawmakers want to throw Alabama librarians in jail for daring to shelve books that challenge their worldviews,” said Read Freely Alabama leadership in a statement Tuesday. “Ripped straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, HB4 will criminalize librarians for vaguely-defined ‘obscene’ literature that targets LGBTQ and racial justice content. Read Freely Alabama members will continue to defend all our libraries against these unconstitutional, nationally-coordinated attacks from extremists. Libraries are nonpartisan spaces where everyone can find their stories represented in all sections; we will continue to ensure it stays that way.”
This is a great example of why I have been highly critical of age verification laws in the first place. It’s the initial stages for more broad censorship rules coming further down the pipe. One of the real purposes of age verification laws is to bring in a certain level of acceptance that government censoring otherwise lawful speech is acceptable. What typically follows are efforts to redefine what is considered “sexual” or “obscene” to be more broad and more vague. Content that discusses sexual identity, though not targeted at first, suddenly becomes targeted for such censorship efforts. Supporters of censorship will then argue that because “pornographic” material can be censored, it only makes sense that such materials can be censored. After all, this is an effort to “protect the children”.
If this sounds like hyperbole, it’s not. Project 2025, the right wing playbook, is pretty direct about these issues. It goes further and pushes for the jailing of anyone who makes anything “obscene” in the first place. This over top of criminalizing anyone who is critical of right wing ideology. That alone is a terrifying prospect and basically destroys freedom of expression in the US.
Either way, it’s bills like these that make it clear that the war on freedom of expression is continuing – and it’s continuing even in the analogue world.
I think they doth protest too much.