The Censor’s Burden

Censorship is not simply a matter of weighing harms and benefits—it carries a demanding epistemic responsibility. In this article, Hrishikesh Joshi argues that for censorship to be justified, the censor must hold an unusually strong level of justification, one that exceeds ordinary knowledge. Because evidence about complex issues unfolds over time, a censor would need to be justified not only in believing a claim is true, but also in believing that no future evidence could meaningfully challenge it. This standard is extraordinarily difficult to meet, especially on contested empirical matters. As a result, most real-world attempts at censorship fail to clear the epistemic bar Joshi identifies.