That's true of the usual-suspect authoritarian regimes, but citizens of liberal democracies have also seen their liberty curtailed.
"Cambodian authorities are using the Covid-19 pandemic to carry out arbitrary arrests of opposition supporters and government critics," according to Human Rights Watch.
"Across the globe, illiberal leaders-facing questions about their preparedness to deal with a pandemic that has killed nearly 45,000 people, at a time when too few states appear to be equipped for the challenge-see fake news bans as convenient tools to suppress criticism and accurate information just as readily as misinformation," Foreign Policy acknowledged a month ago, before the death toll climbed to its current level.
Despite controversial social media efforts to tag and sometimes yank misleading information, the pandemic hasn't been widely used in democratic countries to stifle political speech-yet.
Almost simultaneously, a Michigan judge refused to uphold a constitutional challenge to Michigan's bizarre and draconian pandemic restrictions.
The American Civil Liberties Union also worries about "Plans to use location data from our cellphones to address the pandemic in ways that would not be effective and would impinge on rights." Likewise, Human Rights Watch warns that "For authoritarian-minded leaders, the coronavirus crisis is offering a convenient pretext to silence critics and consolidate power."
Freedom will be that much harder to reclaim if many people don't want it back.
https://reason.com/2020/05/01/freedom-is-a-pandemic-casualty-in-authoritarian-regimes-and-liberal-democracies/
"Cambodian authorities are using the Covid-19 pandemic to carry out arbitrary arrests of opposition supporters and government critics," according to Human Rights Watch.
"Across the globe, illiberal leaders-facing questions about their preparedness to deal with a pandemic that has killed nearly 45,000 people, at a time when too few states appear to be equipped for the challenge-see fake news bans as convenient tools to suppress criticism and accurate information just as readily as misinformation," Foreign Policy acknowledged a month ago, before the death toll climbed to its current level.
Despite controversial social media efforts to tag and sometimes yank misleading information, the pandemic hasn't been widely used in democratic countries to stifle political speech-yet.
Almost simultaneously, a Michigan judge refused to uphold a constitutional challenge to Michigan's bizarre and draconian pandemic restrictions.
The American Civil Liberties Union also worries about "Plans to use location data from our cellphones to address the pandemic in ways that would not be effective and would impinge on rights." Likewise, Human Rights Watch warns that "For authoritarian-minded leaders, the coronavirus crisis is offering a convenient pretext to silence critics and consolidate power."
Freedom will be that much harder to reclaim if many people don't want it back.
https://reason.com/2020/05/01/freedom-is-a-pandemic-casualty-in-authoritarian-regimes-and-liberal-democracies/
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