# Outreach Letter: Index on Censorship

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** Index on Censorship
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Free Expression, Cultural Heritage, and Algorithmic Governance

---

Dear Index on Censorship,

We write to you with deep appreciation for Index on Censorship's five decades of defending free expression worldwide, from documenting banned books and imprisoned writers to challenging algorithmic content moderation and digital censorship. As the leading international advocate for uncensored creative expression, Index has been essential in ensuring that artists, writers, and journalists can create and publish without fear.

## The Palimpsest License: Expression Freedom in Algorithmic Systems

The **Palimpsest License** addresses a novel form of expression control in the age of artificial intelligence: the unconsented appropriation of creative works for AI training, the algorithmic stripping of political and cultural context from expression, and the erosion of creator autonomy over their own voice and message.

This is fundamentally a **censorship and free expression issue**—when AI systems extract creative works without consent and generate derivatives that distort, decontextualise, or commodify original expression, they undermine the expressive freedom that Index has long championed.

## Why This Matters to Index's Mission

### 1. Algorithmic Appropriation as Expression Control
Traditional censorship involves:
- State suppression of expression
- Corporate content removal
- Physical intimidation of creators
- Legal harassment of artists and writers

AI-era expression control involves:
- **Unconsented extraction** – Using works without creator permission
- **Context stripping** – Removing political, cultural, historical meaning
- **Voice commodification** – Training AI to mimic distinctive styles without credit
- **Meaning distortion** – Generating derivatives that flatten or misrepresent original expression

Both undermine creators' control over their expression.

### 2. Banned Books and Censored Works
Index's Banned Books project documents suppressed expression. AI training creates new challenges:

**Scenario:** A book banned in China, Iran, or Russia is used to train an AI without the exiled author's consent.

**Expression freedom concerns:**
- Author's censored work commodified without their control
- Political context that made the work dangerous is stripped away
- Author's stylistic patterns might be revealed, compromising safety
- Resistance narrative is flattened into "content"

**Palimpsest protection:** Requires consent (particularly for censored works), preserves political context, protects pseudonyms and safety.

### 3. Cultural Expression and Minority Voices
Index champions expression by marginalised communities—cultural minorities, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ communities, religious minorities, political dissidents.

AI training often:
- Appropriates minority cultural expression without community consent
- Strips political and cultural context from dissident art
- Commodifies marginalised voices without benefit-sharing
- Homogenises distinctive cultural perspectives

This constitutes a form of **cultural censorship**—erasing meaning and context even whilst technically preserving the work.

### 4. Satire, Parody, and Critical Expression
Index defends satirical and critical expression—cartoonists, comedians, political artists, parodists.

When AI trains on satire:
- **Critical edge is lost** – Satire becomes "humorous content" without political bite
- **Targets are obscured** – Who or what is being critiqued disappears
- **Risk is erased** – The danger satirists face for their work is commodified away
- **Meaning is flattened** – Layered critique becomes simple "funny writing"

### 5. Samizdat, Underground, and Dissident Expression
Index's heritage includes documenting samizdat literature, underground art, and dissident expression under authoritarian regimes.

AI training on underground expression raises questions:
- Should dissidents' works be used to train commercial AI systems?
- How can consent work when creators face imprisonment?
- What happens when resistance aesthetics become AI-generated commodities?
- Who benefits when dissident expression fuels corporate AI?

## How Palimpsest Protects Expression Freedom

### 1. Creator Consent as Expression Control
Creators explicitly decide whether their work can be used to train AI systems—asserting control over how their expression is appropriated and transformed.

### 2. Political and Cultural Context Preservation
Palimpsest mandates preservation of:
- **Political context** – The censorship, resistance, or dissent that shaped expression
- **Cultural meaning** – Community origin, symbolic significance, emotional resonance
- **Historical grounding** – Why this work mattered in its time and place
- **Creator risk** – The danger creators faced to produce and publish

### 3. Safety and Pseudonym Protection
For creators facing danger:
- **Pseudonym preservation** – Protecting anonymity from stylistic analysis
- **Consent with safety awareness** – Accounting for risks in authoritarian contexts
- **Delayed consent** – Allowing safe passage before works can be trained on
- **Community solidarity** – Collective protection for at-risk creators

### 4. Anti-Censorship Through Transparency
AI training opacity resembles censorship. Palimpsest requires:
- **Disclosure of training data** – Transparency about what expression trains AI systems
- **Attribution in AI outputs** – Synthetic lineage tags revealing sources
- **Audit mechanisms** – Independent verification of training data consent
- **Accountability** – Remedies when unconsented training occurs

### 5. Collective and Solidarity Expression
Supports:
- **Dissident movements** collectively managing their creative expression
- **Underground publishers** controlling how samizdat is used
- **Exile communities** governing their cultural narratives
- **Resistance movements** benefiting from their creative work's use

## Case Studies Relevant to Index

### Banned Book Appropriation
**Scenario:** Salman Rushdie's _Satanic Verses_, banned in multiple countries, is used to train an AI novel generator without the author's consent.

**Expression freedom concern:** Censored work commodified, author's risk and political context erased.
**Palimpsest protection:** Requires consent, preserves censorship context, ensures author control.

### Dissident Poetry Under Authoritarian Regime
**Scenario:** A pseudonymous poet in Belarus has their resistance poetry used to train an AI, potentially revealing their identity through stylistic analysis.

**Expression freedom concern:** Dissident safety compromised, political expression exploited.
**Palimpsest protection:** Pseudonym protection, safety-first consent, political context preservation.

### Indigenous Oral Tradition
**Scenario:** An indigenous community's oral narratives, collected and published, are used to train a "storytelling AI" without community consent.

**Expression freedom concern:** Cultural appropriation, community sovereignty violated.
**Palimpsest protection:** Collective indigenous consent, cultural heritage safeguards.

### Political Cartoons and Satire
**Scenario:** A political cartoonist's decades of satirical work is used to train an AI that generates "political humour" without crediting the original artist or preserving the critique.

**Expression freedom concern:** Critical expression commodified, political meaning flattened.
**Palimpsest protection:** Attribution, political context preservation, creator consent.

## Legal Framework

Palimpsest operates under:
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (strong free expression protections)
- **Enforcement:** Scottish courts + international arbitration
- **Bilingual:** Dutch + English (globally accessible)
- **Expression-first design:** Creator autonomy and context preservation paramount

The **Palimpsest Stewardship Council** could include Index representation or free expression advocacy expertise.

## Proposed Collaboration with Index

### 1. Free Expression and AI Governance
Collaborating on:
- **International standards** for AI training and expression rights
- **Algorithmic accountability** for creative work appropriation
- **Transparency requirements** for AI training datasets
- **Content moderation** vs. training extraction: distinguishing harms

### 2. Banned Books and Censored Works
Developing frameworks for:
- **Exiled author rights** in AI training contexts
- **Censored work protections** – Preserving political context
- **Pseudonym safety** – Protecting identities from AI analysis
- **Samizdat and underground expression** – Ethical AI training on dissident works

### 3. Cultural Minorities and Marginalised Voices
Exploring:
- **Minority cultural expression** protection from appropriation
- **LGBTQ+ creative work** – Context preservation and community consent
- **Religious minority expression** – Cultural safeguards
- **Political dissident art** – Safety and solidarity frameworks

### 4. Educational Resources
Creating materials on:
- AI training as expression control mechanism
- Creator rights and algorithmic systems
- Collective expression governance
- International expression rights in digital contexts

### 5. Policy Advocacy
Working together on:
- **UN freedom of expression mechanisms** – AI and creative rights
- **Regional human rights bodies** – Algorithmic expression control
- **National AI regulation** – Expression protections in AI governance
- **Platform accountability** – Training data transparency requirements

## Global Expression Freedom Implications

Index works globally, defending expression in every context. AI training raises distinct challenges:

### Authoritarian Contexts
- Extracting dissident expression without exiled creator consent
- Commodifying resistance narratives without supporting movements
- Potentially compromising creator safety through pattern analysis
- Eroding the meaning of expression created under oppression

### Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies
- Appropriating testimony and witness narratives
- Stripping trauma context from documentation
- Commodifying war literature without survivor consent
- Exploiting conflict journalism without journalist benefit

### Minority and Indigenous Communities
- Extracting cultural expression without community permission
- Appropriating indigenous knowledge and oral traditions
- Homogenising minority language literatures
- Eroding community control over cultural narratives

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with Index on Censorship to:

1. **Contribute to Index research and advocacy** on AI and expression freedom
2. **Develop educational resources** for creators facing algorithmic appropriation
3. **Collaborate on policy advocacy** regarding AI training and expression rights
4. **Support international initiatives** on algorithmic accountability and transparency
5. **Document cases** of AI-related expression control and creator rights violations

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We are flexible regarding format—video conference, written exchange, participation in Index events or working groups, or in-person meeting in London.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. Index on Censorship has demonstrated that free expression requires both defending against state suppression and protecting creator autonomy in all forms. We aspire to extend those principles to the AI era, ensuring creative expression retains its political context, cultural meaning, and connection to the creators and communities who risked everything to produce it.

In solidarity for free expression worldwide,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

---

## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- Banned books and censored works: AI training frameworks
- Pseudonym protection and creator safety provisions
- Cultural minority and indigenous expression protections
- Political context preservation mechanisms
- International expression rights and cross-border cooperation
