News Analysis While many Americans worry about ever-increasing censorship, those responsible for it have managed to amplify its effect by creating a climate of self-censorship. Due to the psychological mechanisms of self-censorship, a single account blocked, a single video deleted, or a book banned can result in a broad chilling of speech. Important policy debates don’t occur, news story ideas aren’t pitched to editors, and books aren’t accepted for publishing, or written to begin with. In some cases, it appears the censors employ the psychological tricks on purpose, achieving maximum suppression with minimal responsibility. These methods aren’t new—in fact, they have long been employed by totalitarian regimes. The principle of self-censorship is that people, just to be on the safe side, refrain from saying even things that aren’t outright banned by some applicable rules. An example is the effect of the Johnson Amendment, a law that prohibits tax-exempt nonprofits, including …