authoritarian

“Silencing dissent is unlawful, unjust, and authoritarian through and through.”

Expect poverty; expect the financial starvation of universities and of nongovernmental organizations; and expect unannounced raids, unreliable data and an America increasingly aligned with authoritarians worldwide.

Even more significant, this erasure places the Trump administration in a grim tradition, that of authoritarian regimes eager to control knowledge and rewrite history.

Pull the plug on Ukraine, and the message to every dictator, every authoritarian, every would-be invader around the world is clear: America can’t be trusted.

Jake Hurfurt, the head of research and investigations at Big Brother Watch, said pressurising police forces to retract data was "the practice of an authoritarian censor not an accountable public body".