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#orwellian — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #orwellian, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Pentagon Spokesperson Admits There’s a Secret Blacklist of Journalists

    When pressed about the Iran war, a CENTCOM press official threatened to put an Intercept reporter on a “list of people to disregard.”

    Nick Turse, August 24 2026

    Excerpt: "Under self-styled #WarSecretary #PeteHegseth, the U.S. military has mounted the most aggressive assault on #PressFreedom in memory, from an effort to outlaw 'unauthorized' questions from reporters to imposing unconstitutional restrictions on journalists’ access to the Pentagon. Hegseth has compared reporters to 'Pharisees,' who in the Bible call Jesus’s teachings into question, while the secretary’s minions regularly hurl insults at reporters. This is part of a broader war on press freedoms by the #TrumpAdministration, that includes demonizing #journalists; filing so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or #SLAPPs, to intimidate and silence criticism through expensive legal proceedings; and employing grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to intimidate reporters.

    " 'Threatening journalists with placement on a #blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn’t like is as #unconstitutional as it gets,' said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. 'This should put to rest the Pentagon’s prior claims that it’s anti-press policies — like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information — are somehow content neutral.'

    "Allee revealed the existence of the blacklist after this reporter was left on hold for more than two hours and complained about a long-standing lack of transparency by the command. In calls earlier that morning, Maj. Emma Thompson, #CENTCOM ’s media operations chief, repeatedly refused to answer questions about Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East, disparate U.S. casualty counts, and medical evacuation flights: 'Nothing for you,' 'Don’t have anything for you,' 'No comment.' Thompson then hung up on this reporter mid-question.

    #TheIntercept called back multiple times until Allee picked up the phone. 'They’re not going to answer your call if you just keep calling and calling,' he told this reporter."

    Read more:
    theintercept.com/2026/08/24/pe

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/uPwYW

    #USPol #Censorship #SiliencingDissent #SilencingThePress #NoComment #Orwellian #MinistryOfTruth #CharacteristicsOfFascism

  2. Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left

    #AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant

    by MATTHEW COOLEY
    August 12, 2026

    "The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.

    " 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.

    Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."

    Read more:
    rollingstone.com/politics/poli

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/eRg8I

    #WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism

  3. #FlockCameras Can Track Every Car in America. #Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

    In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

    By Fernando Alfonso III and Kashmir Hill
    Aug. 10, 2026

    Excerpt: "A #Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. #LosAngeles and #DaytonOH , among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

    "Flock’s pitch is simple: It can help the police find stolen cars, locate wanted people and solve crimes. One license-plate reader led to the arrest in Florida of a man who had threatened a mass shooting in Louisiana; another helped police find the man eventually convicted in an assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump.

    "But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of #BigBrother style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

    Read more:
    nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/floc

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/3PnB8

    #USPol #ACAB #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #Orwellian #PoliceState #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #CharacteristicsOfFascism

  4. #JaredGolden isn't running, so he could give a shit about #Mainers (or anyone else)...

    ‘Dangerous and Shameful’: 42 House #Democrats Help #GOP Send #Trump Spying Bill to Senate

    “It was these Democrats’ responsibility to stand up against this administration, and they voted to stand down instead,” said one campaigner.

    Jessica Corbett, Apr 29, 2026

    Excerpt: " 'The 42 Democratic votes to advance Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump’s #surveillance agenda are dangerous and shameful,' she declared.

    " 'These Democrats defied their constituents and common sense to undercut meaningful privacy reforms in the House and instead voted to hand over sweeping spy powers to the Trump administration,' she stressed. 'This means continuing #warrantless backdoor searches and allowing an increasing number of federal agencies to exploit the data broker loophole to supercharge #AI and fuel mass #DomesticSurveillance.' "

    Read more:
    commondreams.org/news/fisa-sec

    #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Orwellian #FISA #Section702 #SurveillanceState

  5. #AndThen? And then #Mullvad was #censored in #UK

    #UnitedKingdom is escalating its #censorship & mass #surveillance

    When Mullvad tried to address this with #TV #ad “And Then?”, it was banned on British television

    Outdoor ad campaign meant to criticise the TV ban was also largely halted

    Here, you can watch the banned ads and explore the entire campaign

    mullvad.net/en/and-then/uk

    #authoritarian #Orwellian #dystopian #privacy #security #ToxicTories #ToxicLabour #KeirStalin #StarmerOut

  6. Stop scanning us! #FacialRecognition

    Home Secretary Mahmood, revealed her chilling vision of building a “panopticon” where “the eyes of the state can be on you at all times”

    Your #passport photo now being searched by police, even if you have done nothing wrong

    #Driving licence photos are next

    If we don’t set clear limits now, our rights to #privacy, #FreeSpeech, #protest & access to information are at risk

    Sign:
    you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions

    #UK #ToxicLabour #authoritarian #BigBrother #Orwellian

  7. 🚨 We all knew this would be coming... Don't like polluters? TOUGH SHIT! You're under arrest!!!

    #FBI #Counterterrorism Agents Spent Weeks Seeking a #ClimateActivist — Then Showed Up at His Door

    The visit suggests a possible FBI probe into #ExtinctionRebellionNYC as the Trump administration increases surveillance of #activist groups.

    Jacqueline Sweet, February 12 2026

    Excerpt: "Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, at least one of whom works on counterterrorism, went to the home of a former member of a #ClimateActivism group for questioning last week, potentially signaling a new escalation in the Trump administration’s promise to criminalize #nonprofits and #ActivistGroups as #DomesticTerrorists.

    "Two FBI agents, one from New York’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, told a former member of Extinction Rebellion NYC they wanted to ask him about the group at his home upstate on Friday, an attorney for the group told The Intercept. The visit followed a prior attempt to reach him at his old address.

    "The FBI’s apparent probe of Extinction Rebellion NYC comes as the Justice Department ramps up its surveillance of activists protesting immigration enforcement and the Trump administration creates secret lists of domestic enemies under Trump’s National Security Presidential #Memorandum7, or #NSPM7.

    " 'I believe this to be a significant escalation of the criminal legal system against #XR and find it very troubling,' said Ron Kuby, the Extinction Rebellion attorney. 'This is usually the way we find out an actual investigation is underway and is often followed by other visits and other actions.'

    "The former Extinction Rebellion member, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, said that the visit came after a phone call in January from a special agent that he assumed was a scam.

    " 'I was skeptical the phone call was really from the FBI, but after I declined to speak with the agent, she said that she was standing outside my door,' he said. She was actually at the activist’s former address, which he said made him additionally dubious. But last week, when the agents showed up at his current address, he said he saw the agent’s business card through his door."

    Read more:
    theintercept.com/2026/02/12/fb

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/4Nq3X

    #USPol #ExtinctionRebellion #CriminalizingDissent #AntiProtestLaws #EPAFail #Polluters #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism #Oligarchy #EnvironmentalActivists #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #NoMiningWithoutConsent #ResistFascism #Authoritarianism #Fascism #Orwellian #ThoughtCrime #BigBrother #NineteenEightyFour #SilencingDissent #SilencingFreeSpeech #CorporationsAreTheRealTerrorists

  8. @adamsaidsomething @eff Oh! Here we go: I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the Spanish🇪🇸 regime when I am seeing this. I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the UK🇬🇧 regime when I am seeing this. I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the Danish🇩🇰 regime when I am seeing this. I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the Australian🇦🇺 regime when I am seeing this. I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the French🇫🇷 regime when I am seeing this. I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the Malaysian🇲🇾 regime when I am seeing this.

    #censorship #authoritarian #orwell #orwellian #privacy #surveillance #concentrationcamp #dictatorship #totalitarianism #totalitarian #authoritarianism #kafkaesque #denmark #spain #uk #france #australia #ageverification #socialmedia #contempt #teenagers #identitytheft #teen #teens #teenager #youth #herewego #hereyougo

  9. Scrap #DigitalID cards

    #UK Government plan for digital ID cards is £1.8 billion white elephant

    It is little more than an echo of the failed Tony Blair ID card scheme, now with an expensive digital element bolted on

    We rejected ID cards then and we reject them now.

    Despite the government’s partial U-turn on some compulsory elements of the scheme, the huge cost remains – alongside many other problems.

    r.ippl.es/digital-id/

    #security #privacy #BigData #ToxicLabour #KierStalin #ID #Orwellian

  10. Stop #FacialRecognition

    This could be the last meaningful chance to push back on 24/7 #facial recognition in #UK

    Putting cameras on our high streets, we’re all treated like #suspects in #digital #police #line-up, with our photos taken repeated for identity checks 24/7

    We’ve created a speedy tool to help you respond – it takes just minutes but could help protect privacy for a generation.

    bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaig

    #PoliceState #authoritarian #Orwellian #dystopian #ToxicLabour #KeirStalin

  11. #Labour's #jury plans condemned by lawyers across UK, Ireland

    UK #Justice Secretary #Lammy wants to limit #JuryTrials

    “The Four Bars are deeply concerned that the #UK Govt planning to restrict the right to a #jury #trial in #England & #Wales

    - “Being tried by a jury of one’s peers is a fundamental cornerstone of the criminal #justice system in our respective jurisdictions”

    thenational.scot/news/25729633

    #ToxicLabour #DemocracyNOW #HumanRights #authoritarian #Orwellian #1984 #dictatorship

  12. #UKGovernment expands #police use of #FacialRecognition vans

    by Kate Whannel, August 13, 2025

    "More live facial recognition (#LFR) vans will be rolled out across seven police forces in England to locate suspects for crimes including sexual offences, violent assaults and homicides, the Home Office has announced.

    "The forces will get access to 10 new vans equipped with cameras, which scan the faces of people walking past and check them against a list of wanted people.

    "The government says the technology has been used in London to make 580 arrests in 12 months, including 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions.

    "However, campaign group #BigBrotherWatch said the 'significant expansion of the #SurveillanceState' was 'alarming'.

    "Live facial recognition was first used in #England and #Wales in 2017 during the Uefa Champions League final football match in Cardiff.

    "Since then its use has largely been confined to #SouthWales, #London and #Essex including at a Beyoncé concert to scan for paedophiles and terrorists [like elderly Palestine Action activists!]

    "The government is now funding 10 vans equipped with LFR to be shared between seven forces, approximately doubling the number of vehicles.

    "The seven forces are Greater #Manchester, #WestYorkshire, #Bedfordshire, #Surrey, #Sussex, #ThamesValley and #Hampshire.

    "The technology identifies people by taking measurements of facial features including the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline and then comparing the data to to an existing watchlist.

    "Each van will be staffed with a trained officer who checks the matches identified by the technology.

    "Simultaneously, the government is holding a consultation on what safeguards are needed to "ensure transparency and public confidence", ahead of drawing up a new legal framework.

    "Big Brother Watch is bringing a legal challenge against the #MetPolice's use of the technology, alongside #ShaunThompson, who was wrongly identified by an LFR camera.

    #Rebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'Police have interpreted the absence of any legislative basis authorising the use of this intrusive technology as carte blanche to continue to roll it out unfettered, despite the fact that a crucial judicial review on the matter is pending.

    " ;The #HomeOffice must scrap its plans to roll out further live facial recognition capacity until robust legislative safeguards are established.'

    "Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti told the BBC the technology was 'incredibly intrusive' and 'some would say this is yet another move towards a total #surveillance society'."

    Read more:
    bbc.com/news/articles/cj4wy21d

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/I2g32

    #Orwellian #UKPol #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #ThoughtCrime #PalestineAction #Censorship #Authoritarianism

  13. California Supreme Court has ruled: If you catch Covid from work and then a family member dies from it, you can’t sue your employer.

    They said too many employers have disregarded safety protocols.

    Too many companies broke the law.

    Too many people didn’t do the right thing.

    Apparently, expecting them to do the right thing posed an unreasonable burden on them

    #OrwellWasRight #Dystopia #Orwell #Dystopian #Covid19 #Orwellian #Covid #CorporateTerrorism #Capitalism #PeopleNotProfit #WageSlaves