About This Dataset
Even before taking office for his second term, President Trump claimed he was “restoring free speech in America.” In reality, his administration has waged an aggressive campaign against it, systematically attacking the First Amendment and weaponizing the federal government's power to intimidate critics and control public discourse.
Since his 2020 election loss, Trump and his allies have amplified a vast censorship lie falsely alleging that the Biden administration, tech, and academics colluded to censor conservative viewpoints online. Trump allies even brought a Supreme Court case making this allegation, but it got thrown out for lack of standing because, to put it in Amy Coney Barrett's words: “The plaintiff cannot rest on 'mere allegations,' but must instead point to factual evidence.”
The irony of Trump's continued free speech crusade is that he has overseen the biggest assault on the First Amendment in recent memory. Whether through the suppression of scientific research, the erasure of inconvenient historical truths, the rewriting of history, or the direct targeting of media organizations, the administration's actions represent a full-scale attack on democratic norms and the foundational principle of free speech in the United States.
The American Sunlight Project started cataloguing these actions early in Trump's second term, and has visualized them for the public to see the depth and breadth of the continued assault on their First Amendment rights.
Notes on Categorization
- Censorship type: We’ve categorized the incidents in our dataset into eight types, but many touch multiple areas. In those cases, we’ve chosen what we feel is the primary area concerned; you may disagree. A few incidents did not fit a category and are labeled as “other.”
- Geographic data: We have also labeled each incident with geographic data, including state and country (because the Trump administration’s censorship reaches beyond U.S. borders).
- People and Departments involved: Where applicable, we have included information about the individuals and departments involved in censorship activities. Where that information is not available, the field will read “unspecified.” Entities that are not within the U.S. government are listed as “other.”
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About The American Sunlight Project
The American Sunlight Project is a bipartisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to increasing the cost of lies that undermine democracy. Through research, public education, and engagement with policymakers on both sides of the aisle, ASP helps citizens navigate an increasingly polluted information environment.