{"id":5797,"date":"2025-12-09T16:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5797"},"modified":"2025-12-09T16:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T00:56:23","slug":"u-s-showing-signs-of-rapid-authoritarian-shift-civic-freedoms-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5797","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Showing Signs of \u2018Rapid Authoritarian Shift,\u2019 Civic Freedoms Report Warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. is showing signs of undergoing a \u201crapid authoritarian shift\u201d as civic freedoms in the country decline following President Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House, a group that tracks the status of such liberties and\u00a0the threats they face around the world<\/a>\u00a0is warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CIVICUS, an international network of civil society groups that advocates for stronger civil liberties, downgraded its assessment of U.S. civic freedoms from \u201cnarrowed\u201d to \u201cobstructed\u201d in a\u00a0new report<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday, months after it\u00a0added<\/a>\u00a0the country to a global human rights watchlist earlier this year.

\u201cLong-established democracies are showing signs of rapid authoritarian shift, marked by weakened rule of law and growing constraints on independent civil society. Argentina and the USA exemplified this trend,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIVICUS, in collaboration with 20 other civil society partners, assesses countries\u2019 current state of freedom with five categories<\/a>: closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed, and open. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cnarrowed\u201d label, which the U.S. was previously classified under, is applied to countries where the groups find that people are generally able to exercise their rights of expression, free speech, and assembly, but there are some attempts to violate these rights by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cobstructed\u201d category, meanwhile, contains countries where the organizations have determined that \u201cthe full enjoyment\u201d of civil rights is constrained through legal and practical means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough civil society organisations exist, state authorities undermine them, including through the use of illegal surveillance, bureaucratic harassment and demeaning public statements,\u201d CIVICUS writes in its description of the label. \u201cCitizens can organise and assemble peacefully but they are vulnerable to frequent use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies, including rubber bullets, tear gas and baton charges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More<\/strong>: U.S. Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist Over Declining Civil Liberties<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describing its reasoning for downgrading the U.S., the group wrote that \u201cTrump has issued unprecedented executive orders designed to unravel democratic institutions, global cooperation and international justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also pointed to what the group described as a \u201cmilitarised response\u201d to protests against Trump\u2019s aggressive immigration moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has sent troops to multiple cities across the country, including the deployment of thousands of National Guard members and hundreds of Marines to\u00a0Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0over the summer after protests broke out in the city over immigration raids. A federal judge\u00a0ruled<\/a>\u00a0in September that Trump violated longstanding federal law when sending the troops to the city, finding the Administration “systematically used armed soldiers” for law enforcement purposes. The President has also deployed federal troops to several other Democratic strongholds in what the White House has characterized as an effort to combat crime.

The group also cited Trump Administration actions targeting pro-Palestinian activists, including its moves to rescind student visas<\/a> using what CIVICUS described as \u201carchaic and obscure clauses of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.\u201d The Administration said this summer it had revoked hundreds of visas over \u201csupport for terrorism\u201d under the law, which prohibits foreign-born people from admission to the country for engaging in\u2014or being deemed likely to engage in\u2014\u201cterrorist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other instances highlighted by the group included\u00a0the arrest<\/a>\u00a0of nearly 100 protestors at a sit-in at Trump Tower who were advocating for the release of Palestinian activist and Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, as well as the continued attempts to deport Khalil himself. It additionally noted the Administration\u2019s use of AI to screen the social media accounts of student visa-holders for \u201cpro-Hamas\u201d activity under a\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0\u201cCatch and Revoke\u201d program as an instance of government surveillance targeting protesters.

The report also pointed to Trump\u2019s attacks on the press. Trump has continued to escalate<\/a> his long-running public criticism of media outlets and journalists over unfavorable coverage, and has raised alarm among free speech experts in recent months as he has filed lawsuits<\/a> against multiple news organizations and his Administration has made moves to restrict media access to the White House and Pentagon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPress freedom is under pressure, with censorship, judicial harassment and political interference manifesting in the cancellation or suspension of major talk shows, funding cuts affecting independent media and tighter restrictions on White House press access,\u201d CIVICUS wrote in the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Administration\u00a0came under fire<\/a>\u00a0in September when ABC News temporarily cancelled\u00a0Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em>\u00a0hours after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair threatened to take regulatory action against the network because of comments Kimmel made regarding the\u00a0assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>. Months earlier, CBS announced the cancellation of\u00a0The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>, whose eponymous host is a consistent and prominent Trump critic, as its parent company Paramount awaited FCC approval for a multi-billion dollar merger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump also signed into law a package rolling back billions in funding over the summer that rescinded $1.1 billion in funding for The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, prompting the nonprofit\u2014which for decades helped support NPR, PBS, and hundreds of local public media stations\u2014to begin shutting down<\/a> its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. was last classified in the \u201cobstructed\u201d category in 2020, during Trump\u2019s first term, and 2021, the first year that then-President Joe Biden was in office. CIVICUS upgraded the country\u2019s civic freedom status later in Biden\u2019s presidency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current decline in the U.S.\u2019s civic freedoms identified by the group appears to be part of a wider global trend. Just 39 of the 198 nations and territories CIVICUS assessed have an \u201copen civic space rating,\u201d which means that nearly three in four people around the world live in a country with \u201crestricted conditions,\u201d according to the report.\u00a0\u00a0

While CIVICUS found civic liberties in countries such as Senegal, Gabon, and Mauritania have improved, it noted declines in other major world powers, including France, Germany, and Italy, all three of which\u2014like the U.S.\u2014were downgraded from the \u201cnarrowed\u201d to \u201cobstructed\u201d category. Other countries such as Argentina, Israel, and Switzerland, also saw their assessments drop.

Reprinted from Time Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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