Suzanne DeWitt Hall
Because Trump repeatedly calls media outlets “the enemy of the people” and threatens to jail reporters
“The website you are trying to reach is forbidden.”
Imagine a page like this appearing when you hit the search button. You could be helping your child find primary documents for their fourth-grade history paper on the Indigenous people of the region. Perhaps you want to confirm statements you’ve heard about climate change. You could simply be trying to get an update about Middle East unrest from your favorite news source. The ability to fulfill these information needs and many others is at risk in next month’s presidential election.
Donald Trump repeatedly calls media outlets “the enemy of the people.” He threatens to jail reporters whose opinions he doesn’t like, strip networks of their broadcast licenses, and pull the FCC under White House (rather than congressional) oversight. During his time in the Oval Office, Trump worked on an executive order to censor social media as a response to posts which were critical or embarrassing. And while Trump denies knowing anything about the Republican post-election road map, Project 2025 includes plans for what has been called a “thermonuclear attack on the internet.” Given all these warnings, it’s not unreasonable to foresee the United States mirroring China or North Korea, where website access is tightly controlled, and online activity is strictly monitored.
Elon Musk recently headlined at a Trump rally, leaping in wild exuberance at the idea of what the future could mean for him. Imagine the full force of a billionaire “technology czar” controlling internet access. How long would it take for data availability to be modified based on the politics of your state, or your individual demographics?
You might think this sounds alarmist, despite the things Trump states out loud. But I’m a writer, and I take seriously the warnings from literature about the logical extension of those statements. George Orwell’s prophetic novel 1984 presents a startlingly realistic world where the Thought Police constantly surveils the populace, and where nonconforming individuals are eliminated by a Ministry of Truth, along with all evidence that they ever existed. Books like this are scary predictors of what could come, and of the very real choices we face right now.
Free access to information undergirds every other issue. Without it, we can’t separate truth from lies, develop informed opinions and positions, or monitor the actions of governing bodies. Without access to information every other issue becomes moot.
In this election, I’m a single-issue voter. Please join me in voting Harris-Walz and continue voting blue down ballot.
Suzanne DeWitt Hall (she/they) is the author of The Language of Bodies, which Wally Lamb called “...a film noir between covers—dark, tense, and sexy.” Other books include Where True Love Is devotionals, the Living in Hope series, which supports family and friends of transgender people, The Path of Unlearning faith deconstruction books, and the Rumplepimple Adventures series. Their poetry has been included in a variety of anthologies, including Rivers of Ink and Smashing Bricks 3.