Censorship Is the Problem, Not Disinformation | By John & Nisha Whitehead

John Whitehead : Hillary Clinton says the powers-that-be need “total control” in order to make the internet a safer place for users and protect us harm.

Clinton is not alone in her distaste for unregulated, free speech online, he says.

The right to criticize the government and speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom, Whitehead says.

Frida Ghitis : The next phase of the government’s war on anti-government speech and so-called thought crimes could well be mental health round-ups and involuntary detentions.

She says the government could use mental health care as a pretext for targeting and locking up dissidents, activists and anyone unfortunate enough to be placed on a government watch list.

Ghitis says mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities.

The diagnosis of mental illness has over time become a convenient means by which the government and its corporate partners can penalize certain unacceptable” social behaviors.

In recent years , we have witnessed the pathologizing of individuals who resist authority as suffering from oppositional defiant disorder ( ODD ).