Authoritarian regimes are ramping up censorship — but they’re not just targeting their own people anymore.
They’re coming for us.
Americans need to fight back for our own security and future as well as others' freedom.
Take what happened under President Trump: when China pressured U.S. airlines to erase Taiwan from their websites, the Trump administration rightfully pushed back hard, calling it "Orwellian nonsense."
But some airlines bowed to Beijing’s demands, removing Taiwan as a destination and adopting China’s preferred language.
A communist regime dictated how American companies speak to American consumers.
China successfully exported its censorship far beyond its borders and straight into our information spaces.
This isn’t about respecting another nation’s sensitivities.
It’s about weakening free nations like America by trying to control what we see, say, and believe. If dictators decide what speech is acceptable in global marketplaces, they’re rewriting the rules for all of us. This danger doesn’t stay overseas. It bleeds into our classrooms, our businesses, and our communities.
China’s digital censorship reflects a larger, alarming trend.
Dictatorships are challenging global norms around free expression to replace them.
They are using sharp power to bully businesses, rewrite international standards, and intimidate exiled dissidents — even here in the United States.
Their goal is clear: to make open expression seem unsafe, outdated, and illegitimate.
So why should Americans care?
Because freedom of expression is the bedrock of our Republic and our security depends on it. When dictators silence dissent, they remove checks on dangerous behavior like invading neighbors, abusing religious minorities, and threatening America and our allies.
When they shape the rules of global commerce and speech, they tilt the field against democratic societies.
Dictators’ hostility to free speech is nothing new but in America we know that the voices of citizens are not a threat — they’re our strength.
They fuel debate, challenge corruption, and keep leaders honest. Our Constitution is founded on the power of free citizens to think freely, speak openly, and defend their beliefs.
In the words of Cuban journalist and former political prisoner Normando Hernández González, "freedom of expression and democracy are two inseparable realities.
When one is affected, the other is hurt too."
Democracies bet on free speech, and it’s a good one.
Declines in press freedom correlate with lasting damage to national economies.
We cannot counter authoritarian censorship with government statements alone.
The most effective defense is the same force that built America: bold, independent voices who refuse to be silenced.
That’s why President Reagan helped found the National Endowment for Democracy: to weaken tyranny abroad before it threatens us here at home.
At NED, where I’m board chair, we support individuals every day — from parents to pastors—who are defending free expression at great personal risk. These brave people don’t just reject repression; they outsmart it and expose it.
In Iran, technologists are using satellite internet to bypass regime censorship.
Russian journalists are publishing the truth despite government blocks, echoing the courage of American patriots who stand up to censorship today.
In Nigeria, legal advocates challenge cybercrime laws used to silence dissent.
Even in China, where censorship is severe, citizens are finding ways to leap the Great Firewall and share uncensored information.
And we’ve seen troubling trends closer to home.
In Brazil, when debates over election integrity became heated, citizen groups we support spoke out against a sweeping new court mandate that gave authorities broad power to remove vaguely defined "risky" content.
There was no public debate, no legislative vote — just a judicial decree.
Our partners warned it would chill legitimate speech and set a dangerous precedent, even in a democracy.
These aren’t distant fights.
They’re frontline battles for the same freedoms we cherish in America.
They show that liberty isn’t granted by governments.
It’s claimed and defended by individuals determined to speak the truth.
That’s why NED backs people, not just projects.
We partner with those who bring their own vision, including tools to bypass censorship, expand access to information, and defend free speech across borders.
Many of today’s most effective responses to censorship started as local ideas in some of the world’s most repressive environments.
Authoritarians know that controlling speech means controlling society.
But truth has a stubborn way of surfacing, especially when brave individuals have the means to share it.
That’s why we stand with the brave.
The more we help free people speak for themselves, the harder it becomes for dictators to silence entire nations — or manipulate the world.
Peter Roskam, a former six-term Republican Congressman from Illinois, is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy.
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