Censorship is a Sign of Weakness Which Invites More Censorship Attempts
"The Truth is About to Prevail"
Last week I argued that Software Freedom is "Activism" because "it confronts companies that don't play by the rules."
In 2024 and in 2025 we've thwarted many attempts by Microsoft (or by Microsofters) to censor us. Better yet, those attempts were seized upon (as opportunities) to highlight whatever facts they were attempting to bury and at the same time dig even deeper for more facts.
The outcome was positive. Interest in what we had to say measurably grew... we learned from experience how to better combat censorship whilst at the same time forming new alliances. In a lot of ways, what happened made us even stronger and more robust to future censorship attempts. Some other sites asked us for tips on that.
When censorship was attempted by the EPO a decade ago we learned what practices to avoid and what measures to adopt. We had already rejected social control media (since it was young and "hip"). It ended up becoming exactly what we predicted it would turn out to be.
7 days ago the FSF's Eko K.A. Owen announced the "2025 Summer Fundraiser" ("become one of 200 new associate members by July 11," it said). It's now past 10%, which possibly means another $10,000 for the FSF (depending on the type of membership).
In recent years the FSF brought back its 'censored' Board members [1, 2] and brought in more. In some sense it looks like the FSF learned that self-censorship or demotion of people for the sole purpose of appeasing censors is a losing strategy.
Software Freedom is a revolutionary idea. And revolutionaries don't succumb to pressure from bullies. █