09/22/2025

The Soft Pressure That's Silencing U.S. Business

These are the three main ways the current administration is cracking down on speech

When it comes to cracking down on free expression, America has two colorful and distinct traditions. And one is playing out in business right now.

The first might be called the "direct method:" The government brings down the hammer of censorship by criminally prosecuting an individual or business directly for their speech. From World War I through the 1920s, laws like the Espionage Act authorized imprisoning activists and newspaper publishers who circulated anti-war ideas. Earlier, the Sedition Act of 1798 effectively made it illegal to criticize the sitting president, John Adams, resulting in the prosecution of at least 25 Americans.

The second tradition of censorship could be called the "Indirect Method," utilizing what First Amendment scholars sometimes call "soft coercion." In this approach, the government leverages all the creative ways it can to punish speech peripherally— by withholding certain benefits, making regulatory tweaks or tagging groups with toxic legal designations in national security or the tax code. This tradition came to define the McCarthy-era crackdown on Communist sympathizers, which reached its zenith in the 1950s.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Business Insider.