Many countries have suppressed me-
dia in the past, for example Eritrea, Nazi

Germany, and North Korea but in the

modern day countries are using cen-
sorship as a weapon of public oppres-
sion. For example, in Russia, the state

controls what people see on the inter-
net and in the media by not allowing

topics like LGBT communications, the

Russo-Ukrainian War, and extra-par-
liamentary political opposition. This

also happens in China with the Tianan-
men Square Massacre, pro-democracy

movements, and human rights in Tibet.
Most recently, the country that prides
itself on freedom, the United States,
has been censoring the internet and
media noticeably since 2022, at the

start of the Israeli-Hamas War. Exam-
ples are the censorship of anything

Anti-Israeli, the 2003 Iraq invasion, and
most recently the shutdown of PBS and
NPR, major news sources in the U.S.
China, Russia and The U.S. are the three
most powerful countries in the world,
all with different degrees and attempts
at censorship, China’s is the harshest

censoring anything that doesn’t strict-
ly comply with government regulations

they also have their versions of apps
that don’t exist outside of China for
example WeChat instead of WhatsApp
and Xiaohongshu instead of Instagram.
In Russia, they are a little more subtle
about media censorship, usually in the
form of “non criminal” deaths of Putin’s
opponents such as Alexei Navalny and
state-run Media, you can still access

Google but it is restricted to state ap-
proved topics, unlike China, Russia

doesn’t have it’s own apps they just ban

western apps such as Facebook, Insta-
gram and “X” calling them “Extremest

Corporations”.
The U.S. is the most subtle in media
censorship, using tactics like removing
media outlets from major sites such
as The White House and The Pentagon
and suing media outlets reporting

things that are anti-Trump or Anti-Con-
servative. This is a plan to discourage

media outlets from saying anti-Trump
things, which limits the freedom of
speech in the United States, a country
first built on freedom of speech.
Media censorship is used in many

ways, including but not limited to con-
trol over the opinions and speech of

people, silencing political opponents or

opposing ideology, and generally, exer-
cising power. Political power is a good

motive for media censorship, especially
if your regime is disliked by the people.

Trump is trying to use media censor-
ship to his advantage to gain political

power, he is doing this by removing the

AP (Associated Press, a high rated cen-
trist news outlet) from the oval office,

replacing The New York Times, NBC,
NPR, and Politico in the pentagon with
Pro-Trump news outlets and removing
funding for PBS and NPR. These actions
allow Trump to easily get his opinions
and ideology out to a broader amount
of people.
In China, Xi Jinping has also contributed
to media censorship with things such
as the Cyberspace Administration of
China or CAC, He has also implemented
a Real-name Registration policy for all

social media in China which helps au-
thorities track and remove dissent and

dissenters easily, and, most notably,
China’s “Great Firewall” which blocks all

on the Chinese internet from access-
ing websites with potentially “sensitive

content” which is just another way of
saying content illegal under Chinese

law. Xi Jinping has also used media cen-
sorship in a similar way to Trump, as he

also censors and controls the media in
his county to gain and abuse power, for
example any Chinese news source that
says something bad about Xi Jinping or
the CCP will be immediately removed
and there will be an investigation into
the media source, this allows Xi Jinping
to have full control about what is said
about him and his party.

Since 2015, they have been collaborat-
ing with China’s Great Firewall, Vlad-
imir Putin has repeatedly sent hits on

journalists that oppose him and his

policies, for example Anna Politkovska-
ya, a prominent Russian journalist who

was shot and killed in the elevator to
her apartment in Moscow by unknown
affiliation murders and Igor Domnikov
whose murder was orchestrated by
Sergey Dorovsky, an ex-government
official from Lipetsk Region. Russian
media censorship is, ironically, very
hard to find information on due to the

censorship of materials leaving Rus-
sia, especially materials considered

“Unfavorable” to the government. The

government in Russia uses media cen-
sorship in the same way as many other

countries, to silence dissenters, to con-
solidate power, and to keep the ruling

class in power.
The U.S, Russia, and China all use
censorship in similar ways to silence
dissenters, to consolidate power and
keep the ruling class in power but all
to different degrees. As time goes on,
the media will become more censored
which will limit the rights of people to
free speech which furthers the UN’s

goal in Article 19 of the Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights, Everyone has

the right to freedom of opinion and ex-
pression.