The Electronic Freedom Foundation has an interesting web page that “attempts to convey the chilling effect that responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have had on information availability on the Internet as well as some sense of the effect on people trying to provide this information.”
The page lists web sites that have been taken down as well as firings and pressure applied to traditional media outlets as well. What I thought was interesting, however, is that EFF apparently has its ideological blinders on — there isn’t any mention of censorship efforts directed at people who have been perceived as too gung ho about the war against Afghanistan.
The EFF notes, for example, that Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” was pulled by some stations because of his comments, but doesn’t note that Ann Coulter was let go by National Review for her bellicose columns. And not a word about Arizona State University where officials removed an American flag from a cafeteria out of “concerns for the feelings of international students on campus.”
Memo to EFF: censorship works both ways.