AI, Censorship and Control: How Free Speech Fights Back
In this video, Mike Benz opens by declaring that advocates for free speech in the U.S. are finally “winning”—after years of government-backed censorship programs.
Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State and the current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, which focuses on free speech and internet freedom.
Benz explains that over the past nine months, several major federal initiatives accused of funding or coordinating censorship—such as USAID’s programs, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, DHS’s CISA unit, and National Science Foundation grants tied to “misinformation research”—have been dismantled or defunded.
Watch the speech below:
According to the speech, these efforts once created a vast, AI-driven censorship network involving federal agencies, academia, and social media companies. Originally justified by counterterrorism or anti-disinformation goals, this system allegedly evolved into a tool for suppressing dissent and shaping political narratives at home and abroad.
Benz argues that while much of this “censorship machinery” has been shut down, its influence persists through foreign allies—especially in Europe and Brazil—where new laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act (framed here as a “Digital Censorship Act”) threaten to re-impose speech controls globally.
He warns that AI-based moderation tools, born from military and intelligence programs, now automate large-scale speech policing. These systems, he claims, were crucial in the 2020 election and are being revived through international regulation.
The speech concludes with four proposed solutions:
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Full transparency and declassification of censorship-related government programs.
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Aggressive free-speech diplomacy, including sanctions or trade leverage against censorship-promoting countries.
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Cutting funding to foreign universities and NGOs involved in “censorship work.”
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Conditioning NATO funding on the removal of AI-based information-control projects.
The overall message: the fight for free expression is advancing in the U.S., but the next front lies in confronting AI-driven global censorship networks coordinated through international policy and technology.
source www.youtube.com
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