c/censorship-survivors

That time my local newspaper deleted comments about the school board meeting

I noticed people kept calling it a 'glitch' when certain posts about the bond measure got removed from the Sun-Gazette's comment section last Tuesday. But I checked back 4 times and the only ones gone were critical of the superintendent's new salary. Has anyone else seen this selective deletion pattern in their local papers?

Shoutout to the librarian who helped me fight a takedown notice

I run a small local history blog about my town in Vermont. Last month I got a DMCA takedown for a post about a 1980s town council scandal. The company claiming copyright was a real estate firm that didn't want the info public. I was at my kitchen table panicking until I contacted the town librarian. She found me the original newspaper clippings from 1985 proving the info was public record. I filed a counter notice with the clippings attached and the post was restored in 10 days. Has anyone else had a library help them push back against bogus takedowns?

Got pulled from a school board meeting after quoting the First Amendment

I was at a district meeting in Austin last month reading a student's letter about banned books when they cut my mic. Afterward a board member told me I should stick to the 'approved talking points' next time. Has anyone else run into unofficial speech rules at these public meetings?

Hit 500 flagged posts on my blog last Tuesday and it finally clicked

I always thought reaching a big number like 500 would make me feel validated but instead it just made me realize how many voices are being silenced in plain sight. Each one was a real person with a genuine opinion just getting nuked by some algorithm. Has anyone else hit a milestone that changed your view on this stuff?

Question about the local library pulling a book on LGBTQ history in Ohio

Last week at the Cincinnati branch I saw a staff member remove 'The 57 Bus' from the display table during a teen event, and when I asked the librarian she said it was 'under review' after one parent complained. Has anyone else noticed books disappearing from shelves without any public vote or discussion?

I used to think VPNs were just for pirates until last month

My buddy in Turkey couldn't access Wikipedia for 3 days straight because of a government block. I always figured VPNs were just for folks downloading movies or whatever. But he showed me how the site was totally unavailable without one, then worked fine after he turned it on. That got me looking at other stuff blocked around the world like news sites in China and social media in Iran. I signed up for a basic one for $3 a month just to test it and now I use it anytime I travel. Has anyone else had a moment where you realized blocking was way more common than you thought?

That time a mod removed my post about vaccine side effects and I actually agreed with them later

I was ranting on a health forum about getting a weird reaction from the flu shot last year, stiff arm for 3 days. Mod deleted it saying it was 'unverified medical claims' and I was so mad I nearly typed up a whole complaint. But then I went back and read the rules - they had a whole system for reporting side effects through official channels, not random forums. I still think they could have been nicer about it, but honestly that specific post was just me whining, not helping anyone. Has anyone else had a mod action that pissed you off at first but actually made sense looking back?

That guy at the library convinced me book banning makes things worse

Tired of people calling any moderation 'censorship'

Last week on a local Facebook group, a guy got his post removed for threatening a city council member. He screamed censorship. That's not censorship, that's consequences. I've seen real censorship in Iran - friends who can't post anything critical without getting arrested. There's a difference between platform rules and government control. This community should know better than to blur that line, right?

Was against local news censorship laws until my town banned a water report

That critique on my op-ed about campus speaker bans really made me rethink how I write

I posted a piece last month arguing we should ban a controversial speaker at our college in Ohio. A reader pointed out I was using emotional fear tactics instead of facts, and said my argument would hold up better if I cited the actual First Amendment cases. She gave me three specific examples of court rulings that contradicted my claims. I ended up rewriting the whole thing with those cases in mind and it felt way more solid. Has anyone else gotten feedback that forced you to look at a free speech issue from a different angle?

Appreciation post: Picking a moderator over a free-for-all in my local community forum

I help run a neighborhood Facebook group in Cleveland, and last month we had to choose between letting every single post go through or hiring a volunteer moderator team. We picked the moderator route after a guy kept posting fake crime alerts that caused panic. It's been 5 weeks now and the group actually feels safer and more useful for real info like lost pets and garage sales. But I still wonder if we went too far, since we blocked 3 people who were just loud but not breaking rules. How do you balance stopping bad info without turning into a censor?

That one time I thought a VPN was overkill and now I can't believe I waited

I used to think people were being paranoid about their ISP tracking everything until I got a letter from my provider last year after downloading a public domain documentary. Has anyone else had a moment where they shrugged off a censorship tool and later felt dumb for it?

My boss banned the term 'climate change' in our office after a client visit in Houston

I work at a small engineering firm outside Houston. Back in June, a big oil and gas client came in for a review and one of our junior guys mentioned 'climate adaptation' in a slide. After they left, my boss sent an email saying we can't use those words anymore in client meetings, even in internal reports now. I get not wanting to offend clients, but pretending the data doesn't exist just to keep a contract feels wrong. Has anyone else had to deal with a workplace policy like this where you cant talk about basic science?

After my college library removed a book on 1960s protest art, a student wrote an essay that changed how I pick which books to challenge.

She pointed out I was confusing my discomfort with the content for a need to remove it, so now I ask myself 'is this actually harmful or just something I don't like' before saying anything.

The high school newspaper that got shut down for reporting on cafeteria food

I just found out about a school in Ohio where the principal killed the entire student newspaper edition because it had an article about the cafeteria serving expired milk. This was back in 2022, and the kids had photos and dates to back it up. The principal said it was "inappropriate content" but everyone knew it was about avoiding bad press. What gets me is how often this happens at the local level, not just big national stories. Has anyone else seen a school or local paper get squashed for something that small?

TIL that $40 VPN from a no-name brand logged everything I did online

I was trying to access a news site from work that they blocked, so I bought this cheap VPN off a reddit ad for $40. A few months later I found out they logged every website I visited and even my real IP address... my whole browsing history was sitting on their server in plain text. I only realized when a buddy showed me their privacy policy buried in tiny font. Has anyone else gotten burned by a cheap VPN service?

Picked a smaller publisher over a corporate deal for my book last spring

I had two offers for my manuscript about banned books in high schools. One was a mid-sized publisher in Austin that wanted total control over edits and marketing. The other was a tiny press run by a guy named Dave who let me keep my chapter on book bans but paid half the advance, about $1,500. I went with Dave because he promised no content cuts. It ended up selling around 200 copies on Amazon and I made maybe $300 total from royalties. The Austin publisher would have pushed it to libraries but they would have stripped out the parts about specific school board names. Has anyone else taken a smaller payout to keep their full story intact and regretted it or felt good about it?

Had a run-in with a film professor who made me rethink my whole free speech stance

I used to think any kind of speech ban was always bad, but after a local professor at Ohio State got suspended over a classroom discussion about historical racial slurs, I started reading the actual policy and realized it was about creating a safe learning environment, not silencing debate. The professor said some pretty loaded stuff without context, and the students complained, and honestly I can see both sides now but I still worry about where you draw the line. How do you guys balance keeping classrooms respectful without sliding into full-on censorship?

Got a cease and desist letter last Tuesday for reposting a news article

It was from a local politician here in Houston who didn't like that I shared a report about his 2019 campaign finance issues. The letter claimed copyright violation but it was a public record from the county clerk's office. I'm just a guy with a blog, not a news outlet. Has anyone else dealt with fake copyright threats just for sharing public info?

I found out my old blog posts were being quietly deleted by the platform 3 years ago

Was digging through the Wayback Machine last month and noticed 12 of my posts about local protests in 2021 vanished from the archive, no notification or reason given from the site. Has anyone else caught their old content disappearing like this and figured out a way to track it?

Tried to post a simple op-ed in my college paper and got told it needed a 'trigger warning' before they'd run it

This was at a community college down in Tucson back in March. I wrote maybe 400 words about how the campus WiFi filter was blocking actual news sites like the Washington Post and calling it 'inappropriate content'. The student editor said my piece could upset people who think internet filters are fine. I asked her how many complaints they actually got. She said zero, but it was 'policy now'. What's the point of having an opinion page if you gotta put a warning label on everything that might make someone think?

The difference in YouTube comments from 2016 to now is honestly depressing

I went back to watch a popular tech review video I remembered from 8 years ago. The comments used to be people arguing about the actual specs and features. Now the same video has people screaming about politics and calling each other names. It's not the platform that changed, it's the algorithm pushing outrage. Anyone else notice this with older videos you revisit?

Got banned from a local subreddit for posting a public city council link

I shared a direct link to a city council meeting video about a noise ordinance vote last week and the mods told me it was 'disruptive content.' They said it was too political even though it was just a public record. Has anyone else had a mod block a link to official government info?

A former censor convinced me I was wrong about moderation

I used to think any moderation was censorship, but an ex-government censor from Malaysia told me at a conference that letting actual hate speech run wild just gives real censors an excuse to shut everything down. He showed me their old internal reports flagging user reports of death threats that got ignored. Has anyone else had their view shifted by someone who used to work in censorship?