Chilling effect

Censorship

Media regulation Books books banned Films banned films Internet circumvention Music Postal Press Radio Speech and expression Student media Televisions banned televisions Thought Video games banned video games
Methods Blacklisting Bleeping Book burning Broadcast delay By copyright Cancel culture Censor bars Chilling effect Collateral censorship Concision Conspiracy of silence Content-control software Damnatio memoriae Debanking Financial censorship Deplatforming Euphemism Minced oath Expurgation Fig leaf Fogging Gag order Gatekeeping Hallin's spheres Heckling Heckler's veto Hush money Internet police Malinformation Media blackout Memory hole National intranet News embargo Newspaper theft Non-disclosure agreement Opinion corridor Overton window Pixelization Political correctness Prior restraint Propaganda Purge Redaction Revisionism Sanitization Self-censorship Shadow banning Social rejection Speech code Spiral of silence Strategic lawsuit Super-injunction Surveillance computer and network mass Taboo Whitewashing Word filtering
Contexts AI Algorithmic Chinese censorship abroad Criminal Corporate Apple Facebook Google Hate speech Online Ideological Academic LGBT issues Media bias Moral police Moralistic fallacy Naturalistic fallacy Political censorship Banned parties Political prisoner Propaganda model Religious Blasphemy law Islamic Police Suppression of dissent Systemic bias Wikipedia
By country Censorship by country Blasphemy law Freedom of speech Internet censorship In the Middle East In South Asia
Counterthought and rights Academic freedom Artistic freedom Cognitive liberty Free-culture movement Freedom of information Freedom of speech Freedom of the press Freedom of thought Information wants to be free Intellectual freedom Internet freedom List of freedom indices Right to know Right to protest Right to sexuality Right to science and culture Right to truth

A chilling effect is the phenomenon in which an individual, organization, or group is prevented from exercising their legal rights, leading to self-censorship in the form of the restraint of information sharing or the abstinence from certain activities. This self-censorship is driven by the fear of potential repercussions and harm if actions are taken. In the absence of a legal context, the common use of coercion or threats of coercion (along with other undesirable consequences) can exert a chilling effect on a group of people regarding a specific behavior, and often can be statistically measured or be plainly observed. For example, the news headline "Flood insurance [price] spikes have chilling effect on some home sales," and the abstract title of a two-part survey of 160 college students involved in dating relationships: "The chilling effect of aggressive potential on the expression of complaints in intimate relationships."