Choose from our shortlist of 10 authoritarian leaders and vote on who you think has done most to crack down on freedom of expression this year
Who is 2025’s Tyrant of the Year?
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CATEGORY: United States
Tyrant of the year 2025: Donald Trump
Will the US President win this accolade to add to his FIFA Peace Prize?
China media giant Tencent gags anti-censorship website FreeWeChat
The website of anti-censorship organisation GreatFire.org’s platform dedicated to exposing Chinese government censorship of WeChat is taken offline by US hosting provider Vultr
MAGA 101: Inside Trump’s fast-track masterclass in undermining academic freedom
A report on the impact of the Trump administration’s assault on research and teaching in the United States and what the future might hold for free expression in academia in other democracies
Memes: The new frontier of American propaganda
How the second Trump administration is using AI imagery, spreading misinformation that often intimidates with repercussions for free expression
History is being written by the AI victors
Erasing inconvenient truths isn’t new but technology is making it so much easier
The week in free expression 31 October – 7 November
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
The ethics of AI-generated content and who (or what) is responsible
Index explores the world of Hitler worship, social harms and the welfare of AI assistants
The week in free expression 24 October – 31 October
Index rounds up of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days
Do the dead have free expression?
Index explores the issues around whether AI should be used to bring the deceased back to life
Smears about the media made by US President Donald Trump have obscured a wider problem with press freedom in the United States: namely widespread and low-level animosity that feeds into the everyday working lives of the nation’s journalists, bloggers and media professionals. This study examines documented reports from across the country in the six months leading up to the presidential inauguration and the months after. It clearly shows that threats to US press freedom go well beyond the Oval Office.
“Animosity toward the press comes in many forms. Journalists are targeted in several ways: from social media trolling to harassment by law enforcement to over-the-top public criticism by those in the highest office. The negative atmosphere for journalists is damaging for the public and their right to information,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO at Index on Censorship, which documented the cases using an approach undertaken by the organization to monitor press freedom in Europe over the past three years. Learn more.