"In early December, Joshua Aaron, the developer behind the ICEBlock app - designed to let people alert others about the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents - filed a federal lawsuit alleging his First Amendment rights were violated. The Department of Justice had urged Apple to remove Aaron's app from its App Store, which the suit called unconstitutional. And Apple had complied - in the process, setting its own precedent for suppressing anti-ICE speech."
"The year 2025 has marked perhaps the biggest leap back for American free speech in generations. The Trump administration's war on immigrants and civil liberties has led it to attempt to deport organizers and researchers over political speech, weaponize the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on disfavored broadcast shows, and file multiple frivolous lawsuits against journalists that covered Trump, many of which reached settlements that look a lot like shakedowns."
"With the formalization of the deal to sell TikTok to a consortium including the Ellison-helmed Oracle coming in just under the wire, we are ending 2025 with every major social media platform fully or partially controlled by Trump-friendly US billionaires, the same year that, for the first time, most people in the country reported getting their news from social media."
Joshua Aaron, developer of the ICEBlock app, filed a federal lawsuit in early December alleging First Amendment violations after the Department of Justice urged Apple to remove the app and Apple complied, setting a precedent suppressing anti-ICE speech. The 2025 political climate produced major setbacks for free speech, including attempts to deport organizers and researchers over political speech, FCC actions against disfavored broadcast shows, and multiple lawsuits against journalists that resulted in settlement-like shakedowns. The administration used immigration restrictions, regulation, civil suits, and prosecutions to silence critics. The administration pursued control of private platforms, including a TikTok sale and consolidation under Trump-aligned billionaires, increasing content moderation's power to shape public discourse.
Read at The Verge
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