Berlin Launch of the German Censorship Network

Video of the launch and some key media coverage.

Our report on German content controls definitely struck a nerve with a lot of media coverage and social media conversations over the past week or so.

Immediately above you can find the video of our November 21st Berlin launch.

Aya Velázquez has kindly subtitled my part into German. For English speakers, you’ll need to switch on YouTube’s auto-translate option to understand what the Germans are saying. You can see all the videos individually here.

Coverage of the report leaned Right - as a critique of Left’s Faustian bargain with authoritarian centrism, it was never going to get much airplay in progressive circles. That said, a few did, including the Italian L’Independiente and Inside Over, and Germany’s Multipolar and NachDenkSeiten. Berliner Zeitung also attended the launch and did an excellent second piece exploring the initiative and the state of free speech in Germany.

At the same time, a host of Right-leaning media grabbed onto the report for obvious reasons - a take-down of progressive censorship by progressives! This included Disclose TV, Reclaim the Net, ZeroHedge, France Soir, and the Epoch Times, to name just a handful.

The story, of course, confirms what many felt implicitly - that progressive civil society was actively coordinating with government to take down dissenting views and punish WrongThink. One of the assumptions that is incorrect is that this is the Left censoring the Right - it is the authoritarian Centre partnering with liberals and progressives to suppress populism, whether on the Left or the Right.

Finally, I appeared on Jasmin Kobusek’s podcast whilst in Berlin. Below is the video.