Censorship
According to Webster's Dictionary, to "censor" means "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable."
When a government prohibits speech that is not obscene and does not incite violence, that is censorship. The First Amendment, which protects against government restrictions on or interference with the content of speech, applies to government at the national, state, and local levels, protecting the speech of public employees there.
In his first week in office, Trump began censoring the website of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Twitter accounts of the National Park Service.
Timeline
| 2017.01.18 | Trump bans EPA employees from updating public via press or social media. bostonglobe.com (See also Environmental Protection Agency) |
| 2017.01.21 | Interior Department reactivates Twitter accounts after shutdown following inauguration tweet about crowd sizes. washingtonpost.com |
| 2017.01.24 | The Trump administration has instituted a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and barred staff from awarding new contracts or grants, part of a broader communications clampdown within the executive branch. chicagotribune.com (See also Environmental Protection Agency) |
| 2017.01.24 | Trump administration officials instructed employees at multiple agencies to cease communicating with the public through news releases, official social media accounts and correspondence, raising concerns that federal employees will be able to convey only information that supports the new president’s agenda. washingtonpost.com (See also Environmental Protection Agency) |
| 2017.01.24 | Trump administration tells Environmental Protection Agency to cut climate page from website, erasing years of work on climate change. reuters.com (See also Environment, Assaults on Facts) |
| 2017.01.25 | Associated Press: Trump mandating EPA scientific studies, data undergo review by political staff before public release. twitter.com (See also Environmental Protection Agency, Assaults on Facts) |
| 2017.01.25 | The chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee is asking Americans to trust the information they get from the President over the news produced by the media. cnn.com (See also Assaults on Facts, Attempts to Discredit Media) Trump has been called out for highlighting falsehoods and conspiracy theories during his political career and has repeatedly attacked the mainstream press as pushing "fake news." |
| 2017.01.26 | Capitol Hill Democrats calling for the White House not to gag federal employees after HHS memo on Inauguration Day instructs employees not to communicate about regulatory policy with members of Congress. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Assaults on Facts, Department of Health and Human Services) "The HHS memo, along with others sent in recent days by other agencies, “appear to violate multiple federal laws,” including one that protects federal whistleblowers." |
| 2017.02.01 | "Trump: "If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?" twitter.com (See also Education, Fascism, Assaults on Facts) Trump threatens University of California at Berkeley for allowing anti-Breitbart demonstration. |
| 2017.05.10 | Reporter Dan Heyman arrested in West Virginia for asking Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price a question about GOP health care bill. nytimes.com (See also Free Press, Tom Price) |
| 2017.06.22 | The Trump administration, ignoring the need for a free press, has announced that Thursday's press briefing may not be recorded by anyone, and then went further to say that the press also couldn't report that this meeting could not be recorded. slate.com (See also Attempts to Discredit Media, Unpresidential Behavior) |