NPR – “A federal judge in Iowa says it’s no longer a crime to go undercover at factory farms, slaughterhouses and any other ag-related operations. The 2012 law was a clear violation of the First Amendment, the judge said. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, one of the plaintiffs in the case, called the ruling “a… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Free Speech
An Interview with UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye
Digital Rights Monitor: “The latest 2018 Freedom House report presents a dismal picture of internet freedom. Out of 65 countries studied for the report, internet freedom deteriorated in 26 countries including United States of America. The study also noted that more than a dozen countries were putting in place restrictive measures in the name of… Continue Reading
Facebook’s New ‘Supreme Court’ Could Revolutionize Online Speech
Lawfare Blog: Facebook’s New ‘Supreme Court’ Could Revolutionize Online Speech – “The Supreme Court of Facebook is about to become a reality. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg first mentioned the idea of an independent oversight body to determine the boundaries of acceptable speech on the platform—”almost like a Supreme Court,” he said—in an April 2018 interview… Continue Reading
The Fresno Bee and the War on Local News
GQ: “Local newspapers like The Fresno Bee have long been an endangered institution in America, and that was before California Rep. Devin Nunes began waging a public campaign against his hometown paper. Zach Baron spent time with the reporters fighting to keep news alive in an age when the forces they cover are working equally… Continue Reading
International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles
Poynter: Commit to transparency — sign up for the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles. “The code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter is a series of commitments organizations abide by to promote excellence in fact-checking. We believe nonpartisan and transparent fact-checking can be a powerful instrument of accountability journalism…” “…The commitments… Continue Reading
TIME’s Person of the Year: The Guardians
“For taking great risks in pursuit of greater truths, for the imperfect but essential quest for facts, for speaking up and for speaking out, the Guardians — Jamal Khashoggi, the Capital Gazette, Maria Ressa, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo — are TIME’s Person of the Year…” The article includes a section on each of… Continue Reading
Federal Workers Warned Against Talk of ‘Impeachment,’ ‘the Resistance’
Reason.com: “Employees of the federal government were warned this week that both praising and criticizing the Trump administration while on duty may be considered illegal. Federal workers are specifically barred from “advocating” for or against impeachment and from expressing support for the so-called “resistance” to President Donald Trump. Such expressions could be considered violations of… Continue Reading
Concern for global democracy
Oxford University Press Blog: “A new report by the Democracy Project finds that a majority of Americans view democracy in the United States as weak and getting weaker. Even worse, nearly half of Americans express concerns that the United States is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.” Reports such as this one… Continue Reading
A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants
Clarke, Amanda and Piper, Benjamin, A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants (May 14, 2018). Clarke, Amanda & Benjamin Piper. 2018. “A Legal Framework to Govern Online Political Expression by Public Servants”, Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 21(1), 1-50. . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3251375 “This paper considers the extent to… Continue Reading
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker
“Journalists in the United States face hostility from local and federal governments, along with a number of legal threats to themselves and their sources. This nonpartisan website aims to be the first to provide reliable, easy-to-access information on the number of press freedom violations in the United States—from journalists facing charges to reporters stopped at… Continue Reading
Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security
Chesney, Robert and Citron, Danielle Keats, Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security (July 14, 2018). 107 California Law Review (2019, Forthcoming); U of Texas Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 692; U of Maryland Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2018-21. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3213954 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3213954 “Harmful lies are nothing… Continue Reading
DataKind – Harnessing the power of data science in the service of humanity
DataKind…use data to not only make better decisions about what kind of movie we want to see, but what kind of world we want to see: “This is, without hyperbole, a historic time for humanity. Mobile phones, sensors, and new software have created an abundance of data that can be mined, understood, and harnessed to… Continue Reading
