1675- English Cafe’s Banned

The English government declared that coffee shops were hot beds of political dissent, rumor-mongering and libels against the King’s merchants and banned them.‚  Evenetually the coffee merchants raised a petition and the government decided to allow coffee shops again on the condition that they “should prevent all scandalous papers, books, and libels from being read in tehm; and hinder every person from declaring, uttering or divulging all manner of false and scandalous reports against government, or the ministers thereof”.‚  Free speech wasn’t really a priority at the time.

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Joel Gross

Joel Gross is the CEO of Coalition Technologies.