On December 14, 2017 the FCC voted to “roll back the 2015 rules that banned internet service providers from prioritizing certain internet traffic over others….[this has ended the] difference between a free and open online experience, and one where corporations dictate what you can see, and how fast you can see it. To understand the… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Free Speech
Video: How the Court System Is Abused to Chill Activist Speech
EFF: “One of the most pernicious forms of censorship in modern America is the abuse of the court system by corporations and wealthy individuals to harass, intimidate, and silence their critics. We use the term “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” more commonly known as a “SLAPP,” to describe this phenomenon. With a SLAPP, a malicious… Continue Reading
Jameel Jaffer: Government Secrecy in the Age of Information Overload
“Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and former Deputy Legal Director for the ACLU, delivered the tenth annual Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on October 17, 2017, entitled “Government Secrecy in the Age of Information Overload.” Following is a… Continue Reading
The State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America
Americans Say Political Correctness Has Silenced Discussions Society Needs to Have; Most Have Views They’re Afraid to Share “Nearly three-fourths (71%) of Americans believe that political correctness has done more to silence important discussions our society needs to have. A little more than a quarter (28%) instead believe that political correctness has done more to… Continue Reading
Carter Journalism Institute Launches “First Amendment Watch” to Highlight, Analyze Threats to Freedom of Expression
“The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute has launched First Amendment Watch —an online resource that goes beyond the headlines to provide much-needed coverage and context to the debate over freedom of expression. NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute has launched First Amendment Watch—an online resource that goes beyond the headlines to provide much-needed coverage and… Continue Reading
Twitter in the news – terms of service – tweet length increases to 280 characters – role in Russian election interference
Columbia Journalism Review – “This week, following an incendiary tweet by President Trump toward North Korea, Twitter is making an update to its terms of service. The social media company will now consider newsworthiness alongside its other criteria in determining whether to allow speech on its platform…By deciding what is newsworthy, Twitter will effectively be… Continue Reading
NYT – Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web
The web is not as open as it once was, with nation-states exerting their power over the internet: “…Facebook encapsulates the reasons for the internet’s fragmentation — and increasingly, its consequences. The company has become so far-reaching that more than two billion people — about a quarter of the world’s population — now use Facebook… Continue Reading
Paper – Freedom of racist speech: Ego and expressive threats.
Freedom of racist speech: Ego and expressive threats. Mark H White, University of Kansas; Christian S Crandall, University of Kansas. J Pers Soc Psychol 2017 Sep 17;113(3):413-429. Epub 2017 Apr 17. Department of Psychology, University of Kansas. “Do claims of “free speech” provide cover for prejudice? We investigate whether this defense of racist or hate… Continue Reading
Implementation of facial recognition technology widens across the world
The Economist: “…Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers’ attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters. This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of… Continue Reading
Online Employee Idea Forum at State Dept. Closed Down
Government Executive: “At the end of August, State Department employees will lose access to the in-house employee online forum called Sounding Board, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s staff announced in a departmentwide email on Aug. 17. Employees were told to archive any previous discussion items of interest because the past content will not be archived,… Continue Reading
Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online
Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University – “This collection of essays includes perspectives on and approaches to harmful speech online from a wide range of voices within the Berkman Klein Center community. Recognizing that harmful speech online is an increasingly prevalent issue within society, we intend for the collection to highlight… Continue Reading
Sunlight Foundation – On Trump, transparency and democracy
“In this report, we offer a comprehensive but not exhaustive accounting of the Trump administration’s record on open government to date…In the following report, organized into sections we consider the record to date, in context. Six months from now, we will compare and contrast the Trump administration’s progress — or further regression — with the… Continue Reading
