President-elect Donald Trump has announced a comprehensive Free Speech Policy Initiative aimed at dismantling what he describes as a “censorship cartel.” This initiative comes in response to a network involving 12 government departments and 50 programs, which have been criticized for targeting disfavored speech. The Biden administration has allocated approximately $260 million to combat misinformation, with efforts spanning from government agencies to universities and private entities. Despite the closure of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, its functions and funding are being reassigned to continue countering foreign information manipulation. Trump’s plan includes executive actions to be implemented immediately upon his inauguration, focusing on promoting free speech and potentially revising Section 230 of the Communications Act. Key figures like Brendan Carr and Andrew Ferguson, Trump’s picks for FCC and FTC respectively, are poised to enforce these policies, with a particular focus on entities like NewsGuard, which has been accused of bias in its ratings of news sources. The initiative has sparked a debate on the balance between free speech and the need to combat misinformation, with resistance expected from various governmental and non-governmental organizations.
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