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Guardian columnist George Monbiot marked 40 years in journalism this week with a sobering message: journalism can’t “speak truth to power” if power controls the words.

He described how, as a young BBC reporter, he was encouraged to investigate powerful interests — until Margaret Thatcher’s government forced out director-general Alasdair Milne in 1987.

From that point, Monbiot says, investigative journalism at the BBC was effectively shut down.

So Tory politicians silenced journalists – out of fear that their own activities would be exposed. And no government since then has lifted this ban on free speech (to bring in a current debate).

Monbiot told us information alone cannot drive change, because the people who control media organisations also control what reaches the public.

He said he believed mainstream journalism today has become a “single-issue lobby group” defending the rights of the very rich.

But he does see hope in the rise of “citizen journalism” — new outlets like Double Down News, Novara Media, Declassified, and local start-ups such as the Bristol Cable and the Sheffield Tribune. I will try not to be offended by the notable omission of Vox Political from that list, despite This Site being among the architects of the kind of journalism he supports.

He argues that a potential revolt against the propaganda of power may be on the rise.

And Monbiot is right to highlight how journalism has been weakened by political and corporate capture.

But he misses the biggest threat facing independent voices today: algorithmic throttling by social media platforms.

The threat Monbiot didn’t mention

Here at Vox Political, I’ve experienced first-hand how platforms such as Facebook suppress independent publishers.

Posts that once reached tens of thousands of readers now vanish unless I pay to “boost” them – and because politics is a restricted topic, I must also pass a labyrinthine series of tests (I’m currently trying to work my way through these tests but appear to be stuck because the system refuses to recognise my ID details).

Traffic has collapsed from nearly six million annual visits in 2020 to as few as 1,000 a day.

Some readers have even told me they only see my content when travelling abroad — raising the possibility of country-specific suppression.

This is censorship by stealth.

Unlike Thatcher’s open war on the BBC, algorithmic throttling leaves no fingerprints.

Audiences don’t even know content is being hidden from them.

Regulators look the other way

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently admitted that Apple and Google use opaque processes and coercive practices to control the app market. It is considering intervention to protect app developers.

But when social media platforms use the same methods against independent journalists — opaque algorithms, forced payments, hidden suppression — regulators stay silent.

Why is one form of platform power recognised as anti-competitive, while the other is ignored?

Hope requires visibility

Monbiot is right that citizen journalism is growing. But what he has not addressed is how algorithmic throttling prevents those voices from reaching audiences.

The revolt he hopes for cannot happen if people never see the writing that promotes it.

As Monbiot put it: “Power is the rock on which truth founders.”

He’s right — but in 2025, that power looks less like a government minister and more like a social media algorithm.

What you can do

• Bypass the algorithm: join the Vox Political mailing list or RSS feed to guarantee you see every post.

• Support independent media directly: donations keep this platform alive.

• Demand fairness: write to your MP and ask why regulators protect app developers but not journalists.

If journalism is to survive, the fight cannot just be against politicians and media owners.

It must also tackle the silent censorship of Big Tech.

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