#silencingdissent — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #silencingdissent, aggregated by home.social.
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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#Activist charged with felony after giving border agent #DuressCode that wiped his phone
The government says destroying his own data during an airport interrogation was illegal.
Ryan Whitwam – Jul 27, 2026
"In early 2025, Atlanta resident #SamuelTunick was on his way home following a trip abroad. After landing in the US, customs agents demanded access to his Pixel phone, which was running an alternative version of Android called #GrapheneOS. Rather than hand over his data, Tunick used a clever feature of the software to delete everything. Now, he’s facing federal charges.
"The first hearing in this case happened last week, according to The Guardian, during which government attorneys and agents claimed that Tunick was subjected to a standard secondary interrogation at an international airport. During that encounter, agents were 'looking for anything that’s prohibited.' However, Tunick’s legal team alleges he was targeted for his #activism.
"Tunick was involved with a group called #DefendTheAtlanta Forest, which opposed the construction of an enormous law enforcement training facility in the area often known as #CopCity. What Tunick didn’t know, according to his lawyers, was that he’d been placed on a watch list for his actions and that Customs and Border Protection had discussed over email plans to detain him upon his arrival back in the US for 'suspected terrorism activities.'
"During the interrogation, #CBP agents told Tunick they wanted to search his phone for evidence of child sexual abuse, and if he didn’t unlock the device, it would be confiscated. The government has long asserted broad authority to examine and seize electronic devices at the border for virtually any reason. Tunick claims he was never read his rights and requested legal counsel several times, but the requests were denied."
#Fascism #DefundCBP #DefundICE #HomelandInsecurity #USPol #SilencingDissent #StopCopCity #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #DefendTheForest
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From 2022: #NSW Police Use #AntProtest Laws to Monitor Tour Groups
by Paul Gregoire & Ugur Nedim,13 Oct 2022
Excerpt: "#SilencingDissent
"Back in 2014, then NSW premier Mike Baird told a NSW mining industry dinner that his government was going to 'crackdown' on those who choose to break the law when they protest. And he singled out '#protesters who unlawfully enter #mining sites.'
"A little over a year later, the Coalition government followed through with the premier’s promise when it passed a series of harsh #AntiProtestLaws, under the Inclosed Lands, Crimes and Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment (Interference) Bill 2016.
"The legislation created the new offence of aggravated unlawful entry on inclosed lands. Section 4B of the #InclosedLand Protection Act 1901 provides that interfering, or attempts to interfere, with the conduct of a business on enclosed land can land a #protester with a fine of up to $5,500.
"Under the provisions of the bill, police were provided with additional powers to stop, search, detain, and seize the property of protesters, as well as being given the power to shutdown a peaceful protest if it is #ObstructingTraffic.
"And the bill also inserted a definition of #mine into section 201 of the #CrimesAct 1900, so that the offence of interfering with a mine includes #coal seam #gas exploration and extraction sites. This offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"The #WilpinjongThree
"Bev Smiles, Bruce Hughes and Stephanie Luce are the first people to be up on protesting charges since the laws were changed. In April last year, the three were arrested for protesting outside the #Wilpinjong #CoalMine in #Wollar.
"The three are up on charges of rendering a road belonging to a mine useless and hindering the working equipment belonging to a mine. These are both offences that carry the penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"When the trio appeared at Mudgee Local Court on February 9, the presiding magistrate rejected police claims that the Wollar-Ulan Road, where the defendants were arrested, actually belonged to the mining company.
" 'They have pleaded not guilty, and are awaiting a judgment on the case,' Mr Phillips explained. 'The outcome of that case will be important.” If the three have 'the book thrown at them' then it’s likely to discourage the protesting of coal mines in NSW."
#AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #NoMining #CoalMines #UraniumMines #Australia #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #LandBack
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Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Since his first inauguration, Trump has been throwing charges at protesters and seeing what sticks. He always failed — until now.
Natasha Lennard, March 17 2026
Excerpt: "It started on President Donald Trump’s very first day in office in 2017. Over 200 #InaugurationDay #protesters were mass arrested and charged with hefty riot and conspiracy felonies for simply being present and wearing black at a rowdy demonstration.
"Since then, the government has sought and failed to convict left-wing activists on thin, unconstitutional claims of collective guilt.
"Just as the J20 prosecutions, as the inauguration cases were known, fell apart, so too did cases accusing dozens of participants in the Atlanta-based #StopCopCity movement of #DomesticTerrorism, #racketeering, and conspiracy.
"It became a pattern of sorts. Prosecutors on both the federal and state level throwing extreme and overreaching charges at leftists, based on infirm theories of collective liability, aiming to paint #antifascist, #AntiRacist movements as criminal terrorist networks. The evidence marshaled in these cases was consistently no more than typical #FirstAmendment-protected activity, like making protest signs, raising bail funds, or being present at a demonstration. The cases drained movement energies and resources.
Again and again, though, they failed."This was the pattern repeated in the malign, overreaching cases against protesters in #FortWorthTX. The #AntiICE activists had mounted a demonstration at a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement jail in nearby #Alvarado.
There were consistencies with other anti-protest cases. There had been some illegal activity outside the #PrairielandDetentionFacility last July, and a police officer was shot. The government latched onto these circumstances to build its strategy of criminalizing dissent through guilt by association."Even in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were 'North Texas Antifa Cell operatives' — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility.
" 'Most people looking at this case are still stuck on the shooting aspect, but the jury decided the shooting was beside the point,' a member of a support group for the defendants told me. 'The verdict is that a normal #NoiseDemo deserves to be called terrorism and people should spend potentially the rest of their lives in prison. The implications of this are obvious, and people should know that the DOJ is going to try this again.' "
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/uvx92#USPol #DomesticTerrorism #AntiICEProtests #Texas #ResistICE #SilencingDissent #AntiTerrorismLaws
#CriminalizingProtest #Resistance -
Will #DomesticTerrorism charges be brought against these #AntiICE #protestors?
#ICE enforcement action leads to #protest, violent clashes in #SouthBurlington, #Vermont
by Derek Brouwer, Liam Elder-Connors, Zoe McDonald, March 12, 2026
"A tense, day-long standoff outside a South Burlington, Vermont house ended Wednesday night with federal immigration agents removing three people inside and a series of violent clashes between police and hundreds of #activists who tried to impede the apprehension.
"It marked the first major confrontation between protesters and federal immigration authorities in Vermont. Federal law enforcement deployed #TearGas and #flashbangs on a normally busy street in the state’s second largest city to disperse the activists who had surrounded their vehicles. Roughly 60 local and state law enforcement officers were also on scene, though the departments sought to distance themselves from ICE’s conduct.
"The incident began when a man fled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had been surveilling a Dorset Street residence where he was staying.
"According to an ICE affidavit, the subject of the warrant was Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, a Mexico native who was removed from the United States in 2022, and later illegally reentered the country. In January, Corona-Sanchez was arrested by Middlebury police and charged with drunk driving, the affidavit says.
"Following a multi-vehicle crash, Corona-Sanchez escaped to a house on Dorset Street, authorities said.
"A growing number of protesters and police assembled outside throughout the day as immigration authorities waited for a criminal warrant to enter and arrest him.
"A neighbor, Richard Landsman, said an Ecuadoran family with two children had lived in the house for roughly a year. At one point in the afternoon, people helped a child leave the house; they were driven away.
"When the warrant came through after roughly nine hours, federal agents approached the front door with #TacticalGear and weapons drawn. They were supported by #VermontStatePolice troopers.
"Police wrenched away protesters blocking the front entrance and ICE agents broke down the door. Federal agents removed three people from inside, forcing them into an unmarked car. They attempted to drive off, but protesters linked arms and blocked the street. Confrontations ensued, and the agents eventually managed to drive off by running over a median and exiting via a driveway."
#ResistICE #SilencingDissent #AntiTerrorismLaws #CriminalizingProtest #Resistance #USPol #VTPol #ACAB
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Senator, who has repeatedly warned about secret US #GovernmentSurveillance, sounds new alarm over ‘#CIA activities’
by Zack Whittaker, February 6, 2026
Excerpt: "In 2011, #RonWyden said that the U.S. government was relying on a secret interpretation of the #PatriotAct, which he said — without disclosing the nature of his concerns — created a 'gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says.'
"Two years later, then-#NSA contractor #EdwardSnowden revealed that the National Security Agency was relying on its secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to force U.S. phone companies, including Verizon, to turn over the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans on an ongoing basis.
"Since then, Wyden has sounded the alarm on how the U.S. government collects the contents of people’s communications; revealed that the Justice Department barred Apple and Google from disclosing that federal authorities had been secretly demanding the contents of their customers’ push notifications; and said that an unclassified report that #CISA has refused to release contains 'shocking details' about national security threats facing U.S. phone companies.
"As noted by Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, we may not know yet why Wyden sounded the siren about the CIA’s activities, but every time Wyden has warned, he has also been vindicated."
#USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #Spying #USCitizens #WarrantlessSurveillance
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#BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, March 11, 2025:
"While the bizarre court case continues in #MandanND, #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace, our most viewed articles include this one from the medics at #StandingRock, who were targeted and
attacked as the medics were treating water protectors on Oct. 27, 2016 -- a tactic that was used in #Palestine when medics were targeted and assassinated during the past two years. At Standing Rock, law enforcement had silencers on their weapons. 'Why do they have silencers if they are here for peace,' a medic said, who was fired on by law enforcement using shotguns loaded with lead-filled bean bags. According to the #GenevaConvention, knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is
a #warcrime."From 2016: #MortonCountySheriff and the Violent Gang of #Police Targeted and Arrested #Medics while they were Treating Patients
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/10/standing-rock-medics-shot-by-police-and.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #ACAB #StandWithStandingRock #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPs #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #BigOil #CorporateColonialism -
The Circus is Coming to Town -- The Bizarre Lawsuit of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety
by #CensoredNews, January 1, 2025
"It's the most bizarre lawsuit -- Energy Transfer v Greenpeace and Red Warrior Society, eight years later.
"There are loads of documents hidden away with 'confidential' stamps in the court records, and a whole lot of players -- governors, Congressmen, and law enforcement, in the shadows.
"The fragments, , between the blackouts of 'redacted,' show that the head of Energy Transfer hasn't been answering all the questions in depositions. Other snippets show that the #OilPipeline doesn't want to reveal its spills, and whether there's been contamination already into the water at #StandingRock.
"Meanwhile, there's a 'newspaper' tainting the potential jurors, attorneys say, which promotes the sheriff.
"And where are all the files on #TigerSwan, the paid #FBI informants, and the military #SpecialOps? Tens of thousands of documents of TigerSwan were gained by #TheIntercept in another court battle.
"Where are the files on the #drone being shot down by law enforcement, the U.S. #BorderPatrol's surveillance plane, and the #BIA's #surveillance van parked at the casino, with undercover officers wandering around inside?
"The judge, appointed by the governor, won't recuse himself.
"#UnicornRiot media is in Minneapolis Supreme Court fighting the pipeline's subpoena to seize its confidential media records.
"#WaterProtectors and media have been served with third party subpoenas by the pipeline for this fishing expedition for their info.
"And it's all coming to #MandanNorthDakota, at the end of February, to North Dakota's District Court,
home to #MortonCountySheriff.
"It's a $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit to shut them down, says Greenpeace. Greenpeace said there was a large dump of records into the case."Stay tuned, and dig through the files -- good luck."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-circus-is-coming-to-town-bizarre.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB -
'Weird' Newspaper Could Taint Jury Pool in #DAPL Case, Court Told
The Strange Case of #EnergyTransfer v. #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Dec. 13, 2024"A newspaper that mysteriously appeared in the mail boxes of Morton County residents could taint the jury pool in the upcoming case of Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace. It is the latest strange development in the case filed against Greenpeace, Red Warrior Society and water protectors over the protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"Now, eight years later, Energy Transfer's $300 million lawsuit filed against Greenpeace, known as a SLAPP lawsuit to silence protesters, is slated for North Dakota Court in February. Besides all this, the pipeline has been on a fishing expedition serving the media and water protectors with third-party subpoenas to extract their information."Central ND News, the 'weird' newspaper targeting Standing Rock Water Protectors, and promoting the Morton County Sheriff, has generic bylines called 'staff reports.' The funders are a conservative group promoting pipelines. It was mailed to Morton County from Chicago, Illinois.
Everett Jack, an attorney representing Greenpeace, said during a Monday afternoon hearing. 'We should have the right to figure out who sent it when they did and why.'"Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/weird-newspaper-could-taint-jury-pool.html#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #MortonCountySheriff #CentralNDNews #Conservative #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy #CorporateInterests #Corporatocracy #BigOilAndGas #SLAPPs #SLAPP