Government Censorship Is Here, and Silence Is Not Safety

Arresting Black journalists, demanding voter rolls, raiding voting databases — all hallmarks of autocracy that must be stopped

This week, we witnessed unprecedented Federal interference into our elections, the targeted censorship of Black independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, and perpetual distraction from the Epstein Files—all from an aspiring autocrat. Meanwhile, ICE fascists continue to decimate our communities with no end in sight. Here are the key updates from this week you need to know, and how we can stay informed. Let’s Address This.

Federal authorities arrested Black independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their reporting on a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sources: Left image Georgia Fort, right image Wikimedia Commons

Election Interference

The Donald Trump administration crossed yet another line that would have been unthinkable in any functioning democracy: it ordered a federal seizure of 2020 election materials in Georgia—an unprecedented assault on voting rights and public confidence in elections. According to reporting, FBI agents executed a search-and-seizure operation at Fulton County’s election facility and removed hundreds of boxes of ballots and related records under a sealed warrant, with Tulsi Gabbard observed at the scene, raising alarm among lawmakers and election officials about political interference in election administration.

If you’re thinking, “This feels like an attempt to relitigate 2020,” that is exactly the context. This is the same political operation whose most infamous artifact remains Trump’s 2020 call to Georgia officials to “find 12,000 votes”—an explicit attempt to manufacture a different outcome after the electorate had already spoken. What matters now is not only the brazenness of the act, but what it signals: a government preparing the ground to delegitimize the Midterm elections, intimidate officials, and condition the public to accept state power overriding democratic process.

And this is not an isolated incident.

In Minnesota, US AG Pam Bondi sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz offering what can only be described as a coercive quid pro quo: comply with federal demands—turn over voter rolls and ICE will leave the state. How much more clear can this regime demonstrate that ICE isn’t here to “keep us safe,” but to help Trump enforce his dictatorship?

Put those two events side by side—a federal ballot seizure in Georgia and a voter roll extortion attempt in Minnesota—and the pattern becomes difficult to deny: the machinery of the state is being used to undermine election integrity, not protect it.

The other half of the strategy is censorship

Election interference is only one part of the equation. The other part is disinformation and censorship—because you cannot steal what people are watching closely, and you cannot normalize what people can see clearly.

That’s why the administration is no longer satisfied with corporate media’s steady capitulation. It is now moving directly against independent journalists.

Today, January 30, federal authorities arrested Black independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their reporting on a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Whether you agree with the protest or not, the premise of the arrests is chilling: the state is asserting criminal liability around journalistic coverage and protest documentation. The First Amendment implications are harrowing—if merely reporting on an incident is no longer protected by First Amendment actions, then journalism is truly dead in America. The same government who won’t reveal the name of the ICE officer who murdered Alex Pretti, has sent its goons to arrest Black independent journalists who are reporting on ICE’s oppression.

And if you noted the symbolism here, good on you. The arrests occurred on January 30—the same day as the historical anniversary of the firebombing of Dr. King’s home—on the eve of Black History Month. The message is not subtle. It is intimidation, calibrated to produce a chilling effect: report less, ask fewer questions, stop filming, stop documenting, stop organizing.

Indeed, the systemic nature of advancing white supremacy (mediocrity?) cannot be ignored. What else can we call it when an utterly incompetent 23-year-old white man can fabricate an entire story about Somalis in Minnesota and get personal praise from the President—but two seasoned award-winning Black journalists who have decades of unassailable reporting behind them report on protests in Minnesota and get arrested?

All this is in the backdrop of Trump continuing to block full release of the Epstein Files, as required by law. While he ignores the law, a Minnesota Judge has stated that ICE has ignored at least 96 binding court orders. This trampling of basic law and order is degrading the entire system of justice upon which our republic rests.

Here’s why all of the above is connected. When a government is trying to consolidate power, it has two immediate vulnerabilities: elections and exposure.

It therefore moves on both fronts. It seeks to discredit elections, intimidate administrators, and normalize extraordinary interventions (like ballot seizures). And it seeks to reduce exposure by controlling narratives—through compliant corporate media, and when that fails, through direct intimidation of independent reporters.

That is why you are seeing this convergence: election meddling, voter-roll coercion, and arrests of journalists. It is one integrated strategy: undermine democratic accountability while shrinking the space for public dissent.

What it requires from us

The first requirement is that we stop treating censorship as something that “might happen later.” It is happening now, in real time, through state actions that chill speech and punish exposure.

The second requirement is that we understand silence is not a neutral position. Silence is what allows the next escalation to be framed as ordinary.

If you are reading this, you cannot outsource this moment to someone else. You cannot assume corporate media will suddenly grow courage after years of proving it will not. You have to decide whether you will be informed enough to resist, and engaged enough to matter.

Thus the clear ask. If this human rights newsletter has been useful to you—if it has helped you see what corporate media minimizes or ignores—then I need you to act accordingly.

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Conclusion

A government that raids election infrastructure while attempting to coerce voter data is not behaving like a democracy confident in its legitimacy. A government that arrests journalists for reporting on protest activity, while hiding the murderers it employs, is not behaving like a democracy committed to the First Amendment. These are not isolated incidents. They are coordinated signals of where we are headed if we allow them to stand.

This is the moment to raise your voice while the space to do so still exists. Stay informed. Stay engaged. Support the independent institutions that are refusing to look away. And do not mistake quiet for safety. Quiet is often the first condition power requires before it moves to the next step. Do not comply in advance.