Is Threatening To Publish Bezos' Nude/Lewd Pics Criminal Blackmail?
When is a threat to reveal something embarrassing blackmail, and when is it permissible? Plus a special Bill Cosby (but non-sexual-assault) connection.
Free Speech
Illinois Seeks Social Media Accounts of Gun Owners: Reason Roundup
Plus: Nancy Pelosi on the "Green New Deal"; John Boehner, cannabis lobbyist
Nevada Fighters and the Right to Trash Talk
But the Nevada State Athletic Commission is considering restricting speech after taunts spark a brawl
Are You a Woman Traveling Alone? Marriott Might Be Watching You.
How big hotel chains became arms of the surveillance state.
Another Blow for Fake News About Fake News: Reason Roundup
Plus: Author Zadie Smith talking cultural appropriation, and Budweiser versus Big Corn
Attempted Vanishing of Online Posts, All the Way Down
Don Lichterman was convicted of forgery; I wrote about it. Someone using his name tried to get Google to vanish my article; I wrote about that. Now someone is trying to get Google to vanish that later article -- and to vanish online court records that refer to Mr. Lichterman's case.
Man Fined $210 in Switzerland for Saying "Allahu Akbar" to a Friend in Public
A police official said "manner in which the phrase had been spoken was key ... and added police officers would have acted in the same way if someone had run around a local square swearing loudly"; but the man denies he was shouting.
4 Cases That Show the Scope of Services, Speech, and Conduct Protected by Section 230
Gun buyers, gay lovers, cannabis customers, and Yelp users are just a few of the groups that benefit from this federal law.
Libel Law and the Covington Boys
Facts vs. opinions; compensatory/presumed/punitive damages; negligence, recklessness, and knowledge; libel per se; timing; choice of law; and more defamation law fun.
Attempt to Get Google to Vanish My Article About a Forged Court Order
The anatomy of two unfounded deindexing requests.
Arizona Legislator Wanted To Tax Online Porn To Pay for Border Wall
Behold HB 2444, which would have required a $20 fee to remove pre-installed porn filters on devices that connect to the internet.
How the Internet Is Now Making Us Less Free: Reason Roundup
Plus: FDA greenlights new 23andMe test, Kamala Harris gets the Onion treatment, and nobody likes Trump's new shutdown salve.
Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of High School Coach Fired for Praying on the Field
The conservative justices listed a key factor preventing them from hearing the case.
Can We Just Light Twitter on Fire After This Past Weekend?: Podcast
Covingtongate, Buzzfeed's bomb, Baby Hitler, Kamalamentum…maybe it's time to pull the plug.
Twitter Suspends User Who First Spread Covington Catholic Video: Reason Roundup
Plus: Kamala Harris officially enters the 2020 race and Google News may leave the E.U.
Appellate Court Rejects Cartoonist Ted Rall's Libel and Employment Claims Against L.A. Times
The claim stemmed from the Times' published statements "questioning the accuracy of a blog post plaintiff wrote for The Times," and the Times' decision not to publish more work from Rall.
The FBI Won't Say if It Spies on Your Social Media Posts. Cue the Lawsuit!
"We shouldn't have to think about self-censoring what we say online."
Roku Bans Alex Jones, InfoWars from Streaming Platform
Yes, the paranoid lunatic is a mega-troll, but the beauty of new media means never having to engage stuff you find awful or offensive.
The Shutdown and the First Amendment
What happens if a commercial speech licensing scheme is on hold -- and thus the speakers can't speak -- because of the federal government shutdown?
Alabama Judge Strikes Down State Law Protecting Confederate Monuments
But the decision seems wrong as a matter of federal constitutional law, because the law regulates only local governments -- and local governments lack any federal constitutional rights against their states.
N.Y. Bill Would Violate Gun Rights, Free Speech Rights, and Privacy
Among other things, it would call for investigators to review three years' worth of a would-be gun buyer's social media postings for "excessive discriminatory content."
Orlando-Area Lawyer Interested in Pro Bono Unsealing Case?
I'm trying to get access to the papers in an Orange County (Florida) case in which someone got a a restraining order that he is using to try to get online criticism deindexed by Google.
The 'Fake News' Epidemic Was…Fake News
It's "important to be clear about how rare this behavior is on social platforms," researchers say.
'We Are Fighting for Free Speech Every Single Day,' Says Students for Liberty's Wolf von Laer: Podcast
What to expect at LibertyCon, the annual meeting of the largest libertarian student group on the planet (plus how to get 40 percent off registration).
Are Boycotts Protected by the First Amendment?
Only if you like the cause they serve, according to supporters of laws that target the anti-Israel BDS movement
Verbal Harassment of Government Buildings Now Violates Twitter Rules, Apparently
Author and sex worker Maggie McNeill was suspended from Twitter Tuesday for a hyperbolic comment about burning the White House down.
Suit Against Grindr Over Harassment Is Part of a Trending Assault on Internet Freedom
On Monday, a federal appeals court considered Grindr's guilt in a case involving app-based impersonators.
First on Nancy Pelosi's Agenda: Attacking Free Expression
Campaign finance legislation is always about inhibiting someone's speech.
How Should Facebook (and Twitter, and YouTube, and…) Decide What Speech To Allow?
Social media platforms have every right to do whatever the hell they want, but they shouldn't really do much speech policing at all.
Texas School Acknowledges It Cannot Force Students to Stand for the Pledge of Allegiance
She was expelled and filed a federal suit. Texas' attorney general ignored the Constitution and defended the school.
If Spreading Fake News on Facebook Is a Crime in Ohio, They Will Need More Jails
A Barberton judge just sentenced a woman to jail, house arrest, and a year without social media for repeating a rumor about a pellet gun at school.
ACLU (N.H.) Challenging Criminal Libel Statute
The Supreme Court, though, has suggested that such laws, if narrow enough, are constitutional.
Stossel: Does Silicon Valley Manipulate Users?
New film The Creepy Line argues that tech giants sometimes silence conservatives and try to steer America left.
Everybody Wants To Regulate the Internet Except Ajit Pai: Podcast
One year after Net Neutrality, connection speed is up, the discrimination critics feared is non-existent, and the debate about Internet regulation is abysmal.
First Amendment Lawsuit Challenges U.T.-Austin's Prohibition of Speech That Is 'Offensive,' 'Biased,' 'Uncivil,' or 'Rude'
The university's definition of "harassment" is breathtakingly broad.
Fourth Circuit Rejects Libel Claims over Misleading Edits in Katie Couric's "Under the Gun"
The "questionable" "editing choices," the court said, weren't sufficiently injurious to reputation to qualify as libelous (whether or not they conveyed a false message).
"Free Speech Rules," My New YouTube Video Series -- Episode 1 (Speech in Schools) Now Out
Please share it widely -- there will be at least nine more in the upcoming months.
7 Things You Should Know About Free Speech in Schools
Episode 1 of Free Speech Rules, a new video series by UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh
Unconstitutional "Hate Speech" Prosecution in New York
"[SUNY] Purchase College student Gunnar Hassard was arraigned in Harrison Town Court for Aggravated Harassment in the First Degree, a class E felony, for hanging posters with Nazi symbolism in areas of the campus."
James Fields Killed Heather Heyer Because of Her Opinions, and Now the Government Is Trying to Do the Same to Him
The federal case against the Charlottesville murderer illustrates how hate crime laws punish people for their bigoted beliefs.
Plaintiff Can't Seal Case He Brought Against Ex-Employer
"Protection against the possibility of future adverse impact on employment does not overcome the presumption of public access."
Vape Shop Challenges Oregon's Nitpicky Censorship of E-Liquid Labels
A lawsuit argues that the state's elaborate restrictions, ostensibly aimed at preventing underage vaping, violate the right to freedom of speech.
