Mobs, the State, and private enterprise partner to censor thought dissidents
Financial censorship is a powerful new tool to suppress free speech by threatening, and sometimes ruining, people’s financial lives. While governments have varying restraints on censoring speech, private enterprises and outrage mobs do not. When two of these three groups work together to silence dissidents, individuals have few defenses. In this episode we speak with Preston Byrne, an attorney focused on cryptocurrency and tech, who has written and spoken on this trinity of financial censorship.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Sides of the trinity: The State + mobs, private enterprise + the State, mobs + the State, with examples of each
- “Mob-driven, extra-judicial denial of service”
- Specific strategies to defeat each censor combination
- Using bitcoin, alternative tech applications, and free speech supporting service providers
- HODLing bitcoin doesn’t create censorship resistance
- Trading the network effect for smaller, more free platforms
RESOURCES
- Preston’s personal website, law firm, and Twitter
- Free speech supporting tech and social media: eCheck, Gab, Gunstreamer, Epik domain registrar, Keybase, BitChute
- Preston’s “Free Speech Money” presentation with slides:
