Category Archives: Libertarian

Thursday marks the beginning of early voting during North Carolinas 2022 primary election cycle. The delayed timeline from redistricting lawsuits created a unique timeline and some voters may be returning to cast their ballots in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heres what you need to know about early voting before casting your ballot in Orange County.

This early voting period, there are five polling places in Orange County: Orange Works at Hillsborough Commons, Carrboro Town Hall Complex, Chapel of the Cross, Efland Ruritan Club and Seymour Senior Center. The Orange County Board of Elections office will not be an early voting site.

(Via Orange County Board of Elections)

Early voting runs from April 28 through May 14. Weekday early voting is open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, May 1 the precincts will be open from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, May 7 and Saturday, May 14 voting will be open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no early voting Saturday, April 30 or Sunday, May 8.

Some Chapel Hill voters may vote in Chatham or Durham counties. To learn more about early voting in Chatham County, click here. To learn more about early voting in Durham County, click here.

On Election Day, Tuesday May 17, polling places are open 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. During Election Day voters must vote at their assigned precinct.

Voters can register to vote at an early voting location. Voters must be a resident of North Carolina and their respective county for at least 30 days prior to the election. Additionally, voters who turn 18 years old by the general election can vote during the primary.

North Carolina has semi-closed primaries. This means unaffiliated voters may choose a Democrat, Republican or Libertarian ballot. Voters registered as Democrat, Republican or Libertarian will receive the ballot matching their voter registration.

Voters will see non-partisan races, like the Carrboro Town Council special election and Orange County Schools Board of Education, on their ballot regardless of political affiliation.

Voters can check their registration, see their assigned polling place, and view a sample ballothere.

All voters must have registered to vote at their current address in the county by Friday, April 22 in order to cast their ballots on Election Day.

A photo ID is not required for voting in North Carolina this election cycle.

Here are some select races Orange and Chatham county voters will see in their ballots. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by first name and parties in alphabetical order. Incumbents in local races have their names bolded.

To see a sample ballot for the 2022 primary elections, visit this North Carolina Board of Elections web page.

North Carolinas primary election day is set for Tuesday, May 17, with early voting starting on Thursday, April 28.

For more election coverage and candidate introductions, visit ChapelborosLocal Election Coverage page.

Chapelboro.comdoes not charge subscription fees. You can support local journalism and our mission to serve the community.Contribute today every single dollar matters.

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Early Voting Starts Thursday: Here's Where to Go in Orange County - Chapelboro.com

What, pray tell, had roused freedom from its slumber?

The Supreme Courts Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which ruled that corporations have First Amendment rights. I thought then, like most conservatives, that the court was correct. Unlike many these days, I still do. The New York Times Co. has every right to argue for its preferred policies, and so does Koch Industries.

Its difficult to exaggerate how committed the right once was to this principle and how much it appalled the left. Masterpiece Cakeshop, we conservatives contended, had every right not to be compelled to make gay wedding cakes because of the owners religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby had a First Amendment right to defy provisions of the Affordable Care Act that violated its religious freedom. We won both arguments at the Supreme Court.

That era is now officially over.

Florida recently passed the Parental Rights in Education bill (tendentiously called the Dont Say Gay law by detractors). The Walt Disney Company, under CEO Bob Chapek, tried to stay out of the controversy. But a pincer movement of internal and external political pressure forced the company to publicly oppose the bill.

Worse, a video of a Disney meeting at which executives boasted of their not at all secret agenda to incorporate gay and transgender themes into Disney content was leaked at the worst possible moment. The very online right was already in a full-blown moral panic about pedophilia, basically holding that anyone who opposed the bill was either a groomer or groomer friendly. (Once a term for adults who manipulate underage children for sexual abuse, groomer suddenly meant dissenters from a moral crusade.)

Against the broader backdrop of the populist fatalism of the Trump era, which holds that conservatives never win when they play by the rules, it was something of a perfect storm.

Florida Republicans, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, voted to strip Walt Disney World of its special status under something called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Crafted by Republicans in 1967, the improvement district deal exempted Disney World from zoning and tax laws in exchange for Disney transforming a massive amount of swampy land into the Magic Kingdom and running it without taxpayer money. Economically and politically, it was win-win for both Disney and Floridauntil last week, when a remarkable number of politicians suddenly embraced a purist libertarian opposition to such public-private partnerships of which there are more than 1,000 in Florida.

Of course, Orlando International Airport and Daytona International Speedway, with similar exemptions, will be fine, because the libertarian arguments are entirely pretextual. This was about punishing Disney. Floridas lieutenant governor even admits that if Disney simply changed its politics, everything could go back to normal. Oh, is that all?

The view on the right is that DeSantis is a courageous brawler, beating back a behemoth of woke capitalism. Its certainly true that DeSantis comes out a winner on the national stage as he contemplates a presidential run in 2024.

I will also concede that DeSantis supporters have a point. If corporations will let themselves be bullied out of their lanes by the left, they shouldnt be surprised if they invite retaliation from the right. As problematic as I find this whole spectacle, it would be a good thing if corporations thought twice about picking sides in the culture war. As Michael Jordan once said, Republicans buy sneakers too.

But whether the costs outweigh the benefits is unknowable, particularly in a climate in which what constitutes winning is redefined on the fly by Twitter mobs. After all, as National Reviews Charlie Cooke notes, DeSantis had already won: Disney took its shot at the Florida parental rights bill, and even though all of its sponsors were recipients of Disneys political contributions, Disney lost. But the rights equivalent of Twitter-addicted woke activists wanted a pound of Mouse flesh.

Privately, some defenders say the Reedy Creek Improvement District rescission, which doesnt go into effect until next year, will never happen. Saner heads will prevail, opting not to shift massive burdens onto county governments and taxpayers (this would explain why Disney has largely stayed mum). But that theory assumes DeSantis is the mobs master, not its servant.

And even ifa big ifcorporate America takes the right lessons here, theres no chance activists on the left or right will, at least for the foreseeable future. When you reward mobs, you get more mobs.

More here:

DeSantis Beat DisneyThen the Mob Wanted More - The Dispatch

In many ways, primary election season for local offices in Gaston County will be more excitingthan the general election in November.

Many of the races will be decided in the primary, leaving uncontested races on the ballot in November.

And with early voting starting Thursday, here are five things to know:

Must you belong to a political party in order to vote? No.

The 2.53 million voters in North Carolina who arent registered with the Democratic, Republican or Libertarian parties can vote in the primary election along with the 2.5 million Democrats and 2.2 million Republicans.

North Carolinas 49,036Libertarians have no partisan primaries this year, so their members may vote only in the non-partisan elections underway this spring.

Independent voters will have two options:

Select a non-partisan ballot and vote only in the non-partisan races, such as City Council races.

Select one of the partisan ballots and vote in those elections plus the nonpartisan elections.

Note that unaffiliated voters are not allowed to vote in more than one political partys primary. If you are independent and you happen to like a particular Republican candidate for sheriff and a particular Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, youll have to decide which candidate will get your vote. The other candidate that you liked will have to do without your support and possibly lose the election because you were blocked by law from voting for them.

You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-201-7016or email him at kellis@gastongazette.com.

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Early voting starts Thursday. 5 things to know in Gaston County - Gaston Gazette

Monday, April 25th 2022 - 20:55 UTC Argentina's peso is not even good as fertilizer, Milei explained

Argentine Libertarian Deputy Javier Milei Sunday insisted on dollarizing the country's economy during a rally in Mendoza where he also vowed that such would be his first step if elected President in 2023.

Milei also said the Argentine peso was the currency of the caste, because it loses its purchasing power every minute due to inflation, causing additional trouble to the working class.

The economist Milei's views are not matched by those of many of his colleagues who have rejected dollarizing and warned of the negative consequences such a move would have.

We have to get rid of the peso garbage, which is not even good for fertilizer, Milei said at Mendoza's O'Higgins Park while giving a masterclass attended by over 12,000 people.

That bunch of thieves said that the peso is to have sovereignty. You talk about sovereignty when you want the people to be slaves, Milei warned after reviewing the history of inflation and income redistribution policies.

Milei also explained he would start by moving from fractional banking to an anti-corruption system with Simons banking to then develop a dollarization strategy.

The only ones who will lose with these measures are the corrupt politicians of the caste, Milei promised.

We do not need a lender of last resort with Simons banking. Politicians, stop lying to the people, stop putting fear in them, he said.

Milei also said he believed the country was rich in lack of opportunities, due to the filthy political caste we have, which expels our children, which led to increasing migration. To reverse that trend, Milei insisted the only solution is to go back to the ideas of freedom and get the State out of the way.

The Libertarian Deputy also referred to his colleagues as econochantas (bogus experts) who are functional to the caste and who exist on both sides of the 'crack'.

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Milei gets 12000 people to attend class on inflation in Mendoza - MercoPress

Former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian who left the Republican Party and has become one of its most prominent critics, slammed Kevin McCarthy after new audio revealed the top House Republican excoriated Donald Trump during private calls after January 6.

McCarthy had privately placed blame for the Capitol attack squarely on Trump and told his Republican colleagues "I've had it with this guy," while at the same time publicly defending him from a second impeachment and blame for the riot.

"I met a lot of duplicitous people in Congress but none more conniving and fundamentally dishonest than Kevin McCarthy," Amash tweeted after the tapes were released. "He will say or do whatever he thinks is necessary at a particular moment to obtain or maintain power."

Later that year, Amash announced he was leaving his party in a Washington Post op-ed in which he condemned America's two-party system and urged others to join him in "rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us." He left office in 2021.

Amash is once again speaking up after New York Times reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin published tapes of McCarthy's phone calls with Republican lawmakers that show a clear inconsistency between the minority leader's public and private stances on Trump.

On a January 10, 2021 call, McCarthy told House Republicans "I've had it with this guy."

"What he did is unacceptable. Nobody can defend that, and nobody should defend it," McCarthy said.

The next day, in a separate call, he assured Republicans that he had been "very clear" with Trump that the president "bears responsibility for his actions, no ifs, ands, or buts."

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Ex-GOP Rep. Justin Amash calls Kevin McCarthy 'conniving and fundamentally dishonest' after tapes reveal the House GOP leader planned to tell Trump to...

While the talk is about free markets and private propertyand it is more respectable than it was a few decades ago to defend near-complete laissez-fairethe bulk of the intellectual community almost automatically favors any expansion of government power so long as it is advertised as a way to protect individuals from big bad corporations, relieve poverty, protect the environment, or promote equality.

Milton Friedman, introduction to The Road to Serfdom 50th-anniversary edition, 1994

Originally published at Josiah Barlett Center for Public Policy

The right-of-center movement in the United States is shifting toward statism in a way even many of its self-proclaimed liberty activists dont realize.

Responding to relentless left-wing provocation, people on the right think theyre defending liberty by using the state to block or punish private-sector actions they dislike. Instead, theyre expanding state control over private behavior.

The Live free or die state is not immune to this shift. Here, lawmakers who believe themselves to be righteous champions of liberty are trying to extend state control over private contracts and decisions.

To pick one example, considerHouse Bill 1210, relative to exemptions from vaccine mandates. The bill requires any employer that receives any public funds, including grants or contracts, to allow a right of conscience exemption from vaccination.

Framed as a defense of individual liberty, the bill actually would reduce liberty.

If enacted, it would weaken the right of free individuals to associate only with others who accept their dedication to fighting infectious diseases through vaccination.

Vaccination status is not an immutable characteristic like race or sex. It is a choice, and not a purely individualistic one. It can have profound, even life or death, consequences for others.

Were the bill to pass, health care facilities such as nursing homes and hospitals would be required by law to hire employees who refuse to vaccinate themselves against any and all infectious diseases. The bill covers all vaccines, not just those for COVID-19.

The bill restricts freedom of association in the name of bodily integrity. But someone who refuses to vaccinate is making a choice to give up bodily integrity.

A virus is a foreign living organism that invades a body and uses it as a host. Viruses cannot replicate by themselves. They infect host cells and use them for reproduction, usually killing them in the process. Vaccines are designed to protect cells against invasion and destruction by alien organisms. Their purpose is to preserve bodily integrity.

Viruses arent libertarian. Theyll infect anyone they can. People have a right to choose to associate with others who agree to vaccinate. This bill would violate that right in pursuit of a non-existent right to join a group without agreeing to its terms.

Conservatives can easily see that it would be a violation of individual rights for the state to require religious employers or ideological organizations to hire anyone regardless of their beliefs. This bill violates the freedom of association in a similar way.

Should HB 1210 become law, a cancer patient would be unable to seek medical care in New Hampshire in a facility with a fully vaccinated staff. Thats not protecting peoples rights. Its forcing people to associate with others who might be a danger to themselves.

The libertarian saying that your rights end where my nose begins applies here. Going unvaccinated (or not) is not a lifestyle choice like getting tattooed or piercing ones nose. It can have a direct, potentially catastrophic effect on others. And others have a right to protect themselves against that through their associations.

LikeHouse Bill 1469, which seeks to restrict the free association rights of all New Hampshire businesses under the guise of regulating banks, HB 1210 would expand the power of the state to regulate economic transactions in new ways.

Supporters of such market interventions honestly think they are taking steps to protect individuals. But theyre mistaken. Unwittingly, they are moving to empower collectivism and weaken the liberty of the individual.

See more here:

From Vaccines to Banks, NH Sees Misguided Efforts To Restrict Freedom in the Name of Liberty - NH Journal

Longtime lawmaker Lester Jackson is leaving the Senate, setting up a four-candidate race to succeed him

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on the lingering effects of 2020 election

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger talks about how the results of the 2020 election and lawsuits have lingered in state politics ever since.

Savannah Morning News

Around the Georgia Capitol, the Savannah senators are among the most familiar faces in the building.

Lester Jackson (D-District 2) has served in the Georgia General Assembly for 24 years and previously chaired the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. Ben Watson (R-District 2) joined the Legislature in 2011 and chairs one of the Senates highest-profile committees, Health and Human Services.

Georgia Senate: After 24 years, Lester Jackson completes his final session as a state representative

The 2022 election will introduce at least two new faces to the ranks of Savannah-area members.

Watson is likely to return, but Jackson isnt running for re-election to his Senate seat, choosing instead to mount a statewide campaign for Georgia Labor commissioner. Additionally, the 2021 redistricting session added a third Senate district, District 4, to Chatham County.

Georgia Senate map surprise: Chatham adds third Senate post as part of redistricting

Two Democrats are challenging Watson while four candidates - two Democrats, two Republicans - are running for Jacksons open seat. Republican Billy Hickman, who resides in Statesboro, is running unopposed in District 4 and will represent a swath of West Chatham residents.

That primary will be held on May 24, with early voting beginning May 2.

Heres a look at the candidates for the local Georgia Senate posts.

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Savannah-area election races

U.S. House, District 1

Georgia General Assembly, House races

Georgia General Assembly, Senate races

Georgia voting laws, what you need to know

Jones serves as the chairman of the Chatham Democratic Committee and previously sat on the Chatham County Commission. He mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Chatham Commission chairman in 2020, losing to Chester Ellis.

Niquette previously ran for the Georgia House in 2020, mounting an unsuccessful challenge for the seat held by Rep. Ron Stephens. He is campaigning on updating technology in public schools, protecting the environment, expanding Medicaid and criminal justice reform.

A physician and the brother-in-law of former U.S. Congressman Jack Kingston, Watson served two terms in the Georgia House before being elected to the Georgia Senate. He has championed health care reform throughout his political career.

Mallow joined the Georgia House in 2021 after winning a 2020 election runoff by 19 votes. A district executive with the Boy Scouts of America, Mallow is a champion for Georgias youth and also advocates for health care reform and improving mental health services

Scott is a district manager for Advance Auto Parts and a ministry leader with Overcoming by Faith church. He ran unsuccessfully for a Chatham County Commission post in the 2020 election.

Yasger is a U.S. Army veteran and member of the Georgia Army National Guard. His platform includes many Libertarian-leaning views, such as decriminalization of marijuana. He ran for U.S. House in 2020, finishing third in the Republican primary.

Young switched parties to run for the Senate post after a failed bid to win a Georgia House seat in 2020 and 2021 elections. He is a military veteran and a retired vending machine business owner.

A Statesboro accountant, Hickman joined the Georgia General Assembly in 2020 by winning the seat long held by Georgia political Icon Jack Hill. Hickman said he feels a strong connection to Chatham County, as his wife is a native of Bloomingdale.

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Who is running for Georgia Senate in the 2022 primary? - Savannah Morning News

Republican governors and legislators have embarked on new campaigns to restrict the rights of their constituents and punish those who voice dissent, flexing the power of government run by a party that once pledged to keep government out of private life.

On issues ranging from transgender rights to cross-border trade and private business decisions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Republican lawmakers have advanced measures this year that insert government into many facets of American life.

Twenty-six years after a Democratic president declared an end to the era of big government, that era is back but now its being driven by the Republican Party.

As the right moves into post-liberalism and away from what traditionally has been defined as conservative, it is much more comfortable with wielding state power to own the libs, said Geoffrey Kabaservice, vice president of political studies at the Niskanen Center and author of Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party. They would say the state is the only major institution in American life that conservatives now control they have to make full use of whatever power is available to them.

Legislatures in Alabama approved measures barring doctors from providing medical care to transgender youth, over the objections of every major medical association in the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an order classifying the provision of gender-affirming care including the use of puberty-delaying hormones as child abuse.

Supporters of those measures focus on and, in one recent case in Michigan, even fundraise off of gender-affirming surgeries, glossing over provisions that would restrict a doctor from prescribing common medicines for treatment.

Lawmakers in two states have sought to ban people from seeking treatment in other states: An Idaho bill that died in the state Senate would have made a felon of anyone who helped a transgender child travel out of the state to seek treatment. A Missouri lawmaker has proposed a similar penalty for those who help women obtain an abortion in another state.

Republican opponents of abortion access have long carved out exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, or that endanger the life or health of the mother. Measures dropping exceptions for rape or incest have passed in Oklahoma and New Hampshire this year; the Utah Republican Party has proposed eliminating exceptions for the health of the mother in its official platform. The Oklahoma measure makes it a felony to perform an abortion.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last month signed legislation that will bar teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in front of young children, a bill opponents call the Dont Say Gay law. Officials in other states, led by Texas Gov. Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), say they will make a similar measure a priority when legislators reconvene next year.

When the Disney Corporation voiced its opposition to the Florida law, the Republican-controlled legislature voted to punish the company by eliminating its special tax district which may have the unintended consequence of providing Disney a massive tax break at a cost borne by Florida taxpayers.

Abbott, playing on fears of a tidal wave of migrants poised to cross the southern border, offered his own big-government plan to add new checks on cargo coming into his state. Eight days of inspections cost Texas consumers and businesses an estimated $4.3 billion in lost revenue and turned up no drugs and no undocumented immigrants.

Historians say it is not uncommon for parties to alter their views on government intervention when it suits their purposes. Eric Foner, a political scientist at Columbia University and author of Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, a history of the ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War, said the era marked a similar shift among Southern Democrats.

Before the Civil War Democrats advocated limited government.Yet when it came to protecting and expanding slavery they insisted on vigorous federal action for example the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the strongest federal intervention in the states of the entire era, Foner wrote in an email.

Other Republicans showed no qualms about the exercise of federal power. Kabaservice, of the Niskanen Center, pointed to Theodore Roosevelt, who used the Sherman Antitrust Act to break up Standard Oil and J.P. Morgans Northern Securities Company.

More recently, Republican presidents who dared stray from small-government orthodoxy were attacked as apostates. George H.W. Bush suffered the slings and arrows from the libertarian right when he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990. His son, George W. Bush, called himself a compassionate conservative and took heat from Republicans who opposed a Medicare expansion measure that bitterly divided his own party.

Todays Republican Party is more influenced by former President Trump, whose ideological inconsistencies have never troubled his most ardent fans and imitators. Trump never offered a paean to limited government, if power could be used to punish blue states and political opponents.

Kabaservice said he saw parallels between the recent Republican exercises in power and the McCarthy era, when conservatives like William F. Buckley and Brent Bozell approved of McCarthyism because they saw it as a template for a much more thoroughgoing government repression of dissent, Kabaservice said in an email.

They wanted to use the state as an instrument of coercion to enforce social conformity, to regulate and control human behavior, and to drill into Americans the principles of duty, order, obedience and authority, he wrote.

Rick Wilson, the onetime Republican strategist-turned-Trump critic, said Trump revived the clash between small-government conservatism and the inclination of those who hold power to exercise it.

Trumps natural leanings toward authoritarianism merged with the post-libertarian moment of conservatism. As nationalism and populism replaced it, the argument against using the power of the state for ideological ends became weaker and weaker, Wilson said. I fear that once the demon is out of the pentagram, its hard to put it back.

On The Trail is a reported column by Reid Wilson, primarily focused on the 2022 elections.

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On The Trail: The era of big government Republicanism - The Hill

Lincoln County Election Board

The Lincoln County Election Board offers the following information on upcoming deadlines, elections and candidate filing periods.

DEADLINE TO CHANGE PARTY AFFILIATION APPROACHES

Oklahomans who want to change party affiliation, must submit their change no later than Thursday, March 31, Lincoln County Election Board Secretary Melissa Stambaugh said. Voters may change their party affiliation online using the OK Voter Portal at oklahoma.gov/elections/ovp or by completing a new Voter Registration Application.

Stambaugh reminds voters that no party changes are allowed between April 1 and August 31 during an even-numbered year.

If we receive your request after March 31, we are required by law to hold that request and process it in September, Stambaugh said.

Oklahoma has three recognized parties: Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian.

In Oklahoma, voters must be a registered member of a party to vote in that partys primary election. Independents are permitted to participate in a primary election, only if a party officially requests its elections be opened to Independent voters. Currently, only the Democratic Party allows Independents to vote in its primary elections.

All registered voters, regardless of political affiliation, can vote for any candidate during a General Election.

Voter Registration Applications can be downloaded from the State Election Board website at oklahoma.gov/elections. Applications are also available at the Lincoln County Election Board located in the courthouse at 811 Manvel Avenue, Suite 15, Chandler. Office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For questions, contact the County Election Board at (405) 258-1349 or lincolncounty@elections.ok.gov.

APRIL 5 ELECTION DAY REMINDERS AND TIPS; EARLY VOTING BEGINS MARCH 31

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, 2022, for the McLoud School District and the Perkins-Tryon School District Board of Education General Election. Lincoln County Election Board Secretary, Melissa Stambaugh, offers these important tips to votersespecially those who will be casting a ballot for the first time.

Early voting for the April 5 election begins Thursday, March 31, 2022, for voters in Lincoln County. Voters who will not be able to make it to the polls on Election Day, have the option of voting early at their County Election Board.

***

CANDIDATE FILING TO BEGIN APRIL 13

The statewide candidate filing period officially begins at 8 a.m., Wednesday, April 13, said Melissa Stambaugh, Secretary of the Lincoln County Election Board.

Filing will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. The deadline for filing as a candidate is 5 p.m. Friday, April 15, no exceptions.

Candidates for state offices file with the Secretary of the State Election Board. Candidates for county offices file with the Secretary of the County Election Board.

Stambaugh said the following offices are expected to be filled this year in Lincoln County: Assessor, Treasurer, District 1 and District 3 County Commissioner.

Filing forms and information may be obtained by contacting the Lincoln County Election Board at (405) 258-1349 or lincoln

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Lincoln County Election Board: Deadlines, election dates and filing - The Shawnee News-Star

Telegram is the last major social network that refuses to moderate misinformation. The app, which has over 500 million users, is run by a libertarian founder and a small team of programmers who are philosophically opposed to taking down almost any content (unless it incites violence or spreads child porn). Its public channels have become a haven for conspiracy theorists and extremists who have been kicked out of other platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.

But a ban in Brazil has forced Telegram to reverse its position on content moderation. On March 18, Brazils Supreme Court ordered internet service providers and Apple and Googles app stores to block access to Telegram because it had ignored the courts orders to take down accounts spreading misinformation. Two days later, the court lifted its ban after Telegram deleted posts from Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, banned an account from a Bolsonaro supporter accused of spreading misinformation, and vowed to begin monitoring the 100 most popular channels in Brazil for viral lies.

Telegram has grown, in part, because it takes a more laissez-faire stance on content moderation than its competitors. The app saw its biggest spike in downloads in January 2021, shortly after Facebook and Twitter banned former US president Donald Trump for inciting a riot at the US Capitol; over the next few days, far-right influencers promoted their censorship-free public channels on Telegram and attracted millions of followers.

Telegram is grappling with its position on content moderation at a critical inflection point for the company. As the apps user base has grown quickly over the past year, its founders hope to capitalize on that growth with a stock listing in 2023. But their efforts to grow and monetize Telegram could be stymied if courts and lawmakers in important markets like Brazil block the app over its lax moderation practices.

Telegram does not yet generate revenue. Founder Pavel Durov has funded Telegram since its 2013 launch with the fortune he made developing VK, a Russian Facebook clone, as well by selling $1 billion worth of bonds that could be converted into stock upon an IPO to private investors last year. Telegram competes against encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp, but it also features public channels with millions of followers that fill a niche closer to platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Durov is reportedly planning to list Telegram on the stock market next year to raise money. Like right-wing Twitter clone Parler, Telegram appears to be learning the lesson that platforms cant survive long without meaningful content moderation. And like Reddit, Telegram is now taking steps to clean up its content ahead of an IPO.

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A ban in Brazil made Telegram change its stance on misinformation - Quartz