The erosion of free speech rights is manifest in a chilling poll from the Pew Research Center that shows a huge jump in favor of censorship among citizens with almost half now supporting the government barring "misinformation."  The shift is almost entirely among Democrats who (like Democratic leaders) now overwhelming favor fewer free speech protections and more government control over speech.

The poll shows 48 percent of survey respondents supporting government censorship of misinformation as compared to 39 percent in 2018.

Republicans have become more protective of free speech but the shift among Democratic voters is startling. In 2018, just 40 percent of Democrats supported censorship by the government and Big Tech. It is now 65 percent.

The poll reflects the move among Democratic politicians for years in calling for censorship. We previously discussed the unrelenting drumbeat of censorship on the Internet from Democratic leaders, including President-elect Joe Biden.

As previously discussed the hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who followed up his apology for censoring the Hunter Biden story but pledging more censorship. One of the most chilling moments came from Delaware Senator Chris Coons who demonstrated the very essence of the "slippery slope" danger.

Dorsey: Well, misleading information, as you are aware, is a large problem. It's hard to define it completely and cohesively. We wanted to scope our approach to start to focus on the highest severity of harm. We focused on three areas, manipulated media, which you mentioned, civic integrity around the election, specifically in public health, specifically around COVID. We wanted to make sure that our resources that we  have the greatest impact on where we believe the greatest severity of harm is going to be. Our policies are living documents. They will evolve. We will add to them, but we thought it important that we focus our energies and prioritize the work as much as we could.