Anti-censorship

Concept

Anti-censorship movement is based on the idea that censorship of information and ideas is incompatible with a free society in which individuals pursue happiness. Early modern writers such as John Locke, John Milton, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Alexis de Tocquevillee advocated anti-censorship as a means of resisting autocracy. The Areopagitica is known as a major text from that period.

Criticism of censorship is directed not only at the state but also at corporations such as Big Tech, and can come from both the political right and the left. Anti-censorship is carried out in the context of defending political freedom of speech, freedom of artistic expression in popular culture such as video games, or civil liberties in sensitive media such as pornography.