How ideas of a vast censorship network moved from the online fringe to Trump policy

"Mike Benz just revealed everything," the user wrote, including "how'democracy' was redefined to silence you." This marked the first time Musk, newly installed at DOGE, had posted specifically about USAID. But Benz and Musk were already acquainted. The two had exchanged tweets and threads about censorship and other conspiracy theories for years. Only a few weeks after Benz's Rogan appearance, Musk was using the "censorship-industrial complex" language directly--and USAID was on life support.