{
  "title": "Ladder: shutdowns and blocking, in North America",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/shutdowns_and_blocking?continent=north-america",
  "filters": {
    "continent": "north-america"
  },
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "tactic": {
    "slug": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
    "name": "Shutdowns and blocking",
    "definition": "A government cuts internet or mobile telephone service, blocks news websites or social media platforms, or jams radio and television signals, so that audiences cannot receive news and reporters cannot send it out.",
    "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/shutdowns_and_blocking"
  },
  "focal_case": "US",
  "count": 3,
  "stages": [
    {
      "stage": "punish",
      "name": "Punish",
      "definition": "Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.",
      "rungs": [
        {
          "slug": "1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail",
          "title": "United States convicts Mother Earth editor Emma Goldman of draft conspiracy and bars her magazine from the mail",
          "occurred_on": "1917-01-01",
          "occurred_on_precision": "year",
          "stage": "punish",
          "focal_case": true,
          "country": "US",
          "country_name": "United States",
          "continent": "north-america",
          "rsf": {
            "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
            "year": 2026,
            "rank": 64,
            "of": 180,
            "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
            "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
          },
          "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson",
          "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson",
          "what_was_done": "Emma Goldman, editor of the anarchist magazine Mother Earth, was convicted with fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman of conspiring against the newly enacted Selective Draft Law and received the maximum two year sentence and a ten thousand dollar fine.",
          "outcome": "upheld",
          "outcome_on": "1918-01-14",
          "outcome_note": "Goldman's conviction stood, and she was deported from the United States in 1919.",
          "ladder_note": null,
          "sources_count": 2,
          "tactic_primary": "detention_and_violence",
          "tactics": [
            "detention_and_violence",
            "expulsion_and_visa_denial",
            "shutdowns_and_blocking"
          ],
          "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "stage": "silence",
      "name": "Silence",
      "definition": "Removing outlets or channels from the public sphere: closures, licence withdrawals, forced sales, blocking and shutdowns, prior restraint, nationalisation.",
      "rungs": [
        {
          "slug": "1917-us-burleson-mail-ban-milwaukee-leader",
          "title": "United States Postmaster General Burleson strips the Milwaukee Leader of its mailing rate",
          "occurred_on": "1917-01-01",
          "occurred_on_precision": "year",
          "stage": "silence",
          "focal_case": true,
          "country": "US",
          "country_name": "United States",
          "continent": "north-america",
          "rsf": {
            "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
            "year": 2026,
            "rank": 64,
            "of": 180,
            "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
            "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
          },
          "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson",
          "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson",
          "what_was_done": "Postmaster General Albert Burleson used the wartime Espionage Act to strip the Milwaukee Leader, a socialist daily, of its low-cost second-class mailing rate, cutting off its main channel to readers.",
          "outcome": "upheld",
          "outcome_on": "1921-03-07",
          "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court upheld the revocation of the Leader's mailing rate 7 to 2 in United States ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson.",
          "ladder_note": null,
          "sources_count": 2,
          "tactic_primary": "shutdowns_and_blocking",
          "tactics": [
            "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
            "shutdowns_and_blocking"
          ],
          "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-burleson-mail-ban-milwaukee-leader"
        },
        {
          "slug": "1917-us-espionage-act-bars-the-masses-from-the-mail",
          "title": "United States postmaster bars the magazine The Masses from the mail under the Espionage Act",
          "occurred_on": "1917-07-01",
          "occurred_on_precision": "month",
          "stage": "silence",
          "focal_case": true,
          "country": "US",
          "country_name": "United States",
          "continent": "north-america",
          "rsf": {
            "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
            "year": 2026,
            "rank": 64,
            "of": 180,
            "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
            "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
          },
          "leader_slug": "woodrow-wilson",
          "leader_name": "Woodrow Wilson",
          "what_was_done": "Weeks after the United States entered the First World War, the New York postmaster used the new Espionage Act, a law against interfering with military recruitment, to bar the socialist magazine The Masses from the mail.",
          "outcome": "upheld",
          "outcome_on": "1917-11-01",
          "outcome_note": "The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed Judge Hand's order later in 1917, and the Post Office's mail ban on The Masses stood.",
          "ladder_note": null,
          "sources_count": 2,
          "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
          "tactics": [
            "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
            "shutdowns_and_blocking"
          ],
          "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-espionage-act-bars-the-masses-from-the-mail"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/shutdowns_and_blocking?continent=north-america&format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/shutdowns_and_blocking.json?continent=north-america",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/shutdowns_and_blocking.md?continent=north-america"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}