© Foundation for Freedom Online
The era of online censorship was fueled by media-driven panics about "fake news" and "disinformation." The focus of fear switched many times, from the spy-thriller narrative of Russian agents spreading disinformation intended to undermine U.S. elections, to "conspiracy theorists" questioning the official response to COVID-19 and undermining "election integrity" by raising concerns about mail-in ballot fraud.
Eventually, these narratives led to the censorship of true information. The Foundation for Freedom Online has compiled some of the top examples:
1. Targeting of Domestic "Malinformation."There are three categories used by the censorship industry and its government partners to distinguish between speech violations on social media: dis- mis- and mal- information (MDM). The DHS's Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) has been at the forefront of popularizing the MDM framework. They maintain an entire website for
MDM resources (as documented by FFO, it was later
scrubbed to remove all mentions of targeting domestic speech).
They define disinformation as speech that is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate. Misinformation is information that is factually incorrect, but not on purpose. The third level of bannable speech - "malinformation" - is defined as factually accurate, true speech that is deemed to be taken out of or lacking context.
In other words, malinformation is information that is completely true or accurate, but used in the wrong way.
Comment: A fair assessment of the influence of social justice to alter proven medical standards for certification and patient care.