History of Censorship Timeline

Reporting and public discussion of military atrocities has been highly controversial, including the Holocaust and Holocaust denial, the bombing of Dresden, the Nanking Massacre, the Armenian genocide, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War.

Michel Foucault's 1978 text Sexual Morality and the Law, originally published as La loi de la pudeur, was later republished as The Danger of Child Sexuality, illustrating disputes over sexuality, morality, and censorship.

Image source: Michel Foucault

In a 1997 essay, social commentator Michael Landier argued that censorship is counterproductive because it prevents censored topics from being openly discussed.

Image source: Censorship

Under the Penang Islamic Religious Administration Enactment 2004, non-Muslims in Malaysia can be penalized for speaking, writing, or publishing numerous Islamic words and phrases, including Allah, al Quran, fatwa, hadith, Haji, Kaaba, imam, and sheikh.

During the four years that the CCD was active after World War II, authorities opened approximately 200 million pieces of mail and 136 million telegrams and tapped telephones about 800,000 times.

From 1956 until 1974, the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin was banned from participating in Northern Irish elections, restricting its political representation during a period of conflict.

Image source: Sinn Féin

After a military coup took power in Uruguay in 1973, the new government practiced censorship as part of its authoritarian rule.

From 1988 until 1994, the United Kingdom prevented broadcasters from transmitting the voices of Sinn Féin and ten Irish republican and Ulster loyalist groups, although their words could still be conveyed through actors or subtitles.

In July 2014, journalists' associations expressed concern about media freedom in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vučić faced criticism over the condition of the press.

Image source: Aleksandar Vučić

In September 2015, five members of the U.S. Congress informed Vice President Joseph Biden that Andrej Vučić was leading a group responsible for deteriorating media freedom in Serbia.

A Council of Europe study published in April 2017 reported a significant increase in threats to media freedom across Europe.

Image source: Freedom of the press

Amid declining car sales in 2020, France banned a television advertisement by a Dutch bicycle company, saying that it unfairly discredited the automobile industry.

In March 2022, Novaya Gazeta suspended its print activities after receiving a second warning from Roskomnadzor.

In March 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a law imposing prison sentences of up to 15 years for publishing knowingly false information about the Russian military and its operations. Some Russian media outlets stopped reporting on Ukraine or shut down.

By December 2022, more than 4,000 people had been prosecuted under Russian fake news laws in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Image source: Censorship in Russia

In November 2007, Vint Cerf said he believed government control of the Internet would fail because the Web was almost entirely privately owned.

Image source: Internet censorship

A Berkman Klein Center report published in 2009 concluded that circumvention-tool developers would generally stay ahead of government blocking efforts, while estimating that fewer than two percent of filtered Internet users used such tools.

The BBC World Service conducted a poll of 27,973 adults in 26 countries, including 14,306 Internet users, between 30 November 2009 and 7 February 2010 to assess attitudes toward Internet access and freedom.

The Arab Spring uprisings, beginning in 2010, became a prominent example of social-media-led protests and of the relationship between online communication, political mobilization, and censorship.

Image source: Arab Spring

In 2010, Visa Inc. participated in financial censorship of WikiLeaks by blocking payment processing connected with the organization.

India's Information Technology Rules 2011 defined objectionable content to include material that threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security, or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order.

In 2013, Harvard political science professor Gary King led a study of what caused social media posts to be censored. It found that posts mentioning the government were not more or less likely to be deleted depending on whether they supported or criticized the government.

Between 2014 and 2019, 128,872 investigations were launched for the relevant offense in India, and prosecutors opened 27,717 criminal cases.

On 29 April 2017, Erdoğan's government blocked online access to all language versions of Wikipedia in Turkey.