Free Speech
The Fox-Dominion Settlement Isn't a Good Argument for Cable News Speech Restrictions
Plus: Graphic novels at forefront of library culture wars, monopoly myths, and more...
FDA Head Wants 'Better Regulation' of What Government Considers Misinformation
Officials who often get it wrong can’t be trusted to reliably decree what’s true.
Cornell's President Defends Free Speech Against Illiberal Impulses
Martha Pollack rejects the pernicious premise that universities should protect students from offensive ideas.
"40 Officers of China's National Police Charged in Transnational Repression Schemes Targeting U.S. Residents"
"Defendants accused of creating fake social media accounts to harass PRC dissidents, and working with employees of a U.S. telecommunications company to remove dissidents from company's platform."
Reporter Detained in Russia Faces Arduous Path to Freedom
Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia last month on espionage charges. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in a penal colony.
Graphic Novels Bear Brunt of New Library Wars Over Access to Books
One of America's richest art forms suffers for seeming realer than other literature. But the war against "graphic imagery" is really a war against certain truths.
Meet Jane Doe [UPDATED]
[UPDATE: It turns out that the Maryland intermediate appellate court reached the opposite result for the same plaintiff; post bumped up so readers can see the update, which is available in the second half of this post.].]
Court Rejects Defendant's Request to Seal 9-Year-Old Libel Case
"By maintaining access to these records, the Court promotes the public's interest 'in ascertaining what evidence and records the District Court ... relied upon in reaching [its] decision,' and the Court provides 'the public with a more complete understanding of the judicial system, including a better perception of its fairness.'"
No Constitutional Right To Honk Your Car Horn, Court Says
Plus: DeSantis does better than Trump in swing-state poll, majority say abortion pill should remain available, and more...
Cornell Vows Free Expression–Themed Academic Year
"It is critical to our mission as a university to think deeply about freedom of expression and the challenges that result from assaults on it," said Cornell President Martha E. Pollack.
Ian Vásquez: COVID Accelerated the Global Decline in Human Freedom
Overall human freedom peaked in 2007, according to the Cato Institute, and governments' COVID response merely exacerbated the trend toward a radically less-free planet.
When Are Slurs and Vulgarities Defamation?
The Mississippi Court of Appeals splits 5-4 on the subject.
Satan Clubs Should Be Allowed in Schools
“After School Satan Clubs” cause no direct harm—they merely challenge the relationship between religious institutions and public schools.
Make Americans Debate Again
Intelligence Squared U.S. has a new name and ambitions to host presidential debates.
Elon Musk Throttles Substack, Clashing With Twitter Files' Matt Taibbi
Plus: Dueling court decisions on an abortion drug, an update from Riley Gaines, and more...
Taylor Lorenz, Peter Van Valkenburgh: Why Banning TikTok Is Stupid and Unwarranted
The bipartisan RESTRICT Act is an infringement on a host of civil and economic rights that will strangle free speech and cryptocurrencies.
Riley Gaines Says She Was Attacked by Trans Activist Students at SFSU
The college swimmer was reportedly forced to barricade herself in a room for three hours.
Cornell University President's and Provost's Statement Rejecting Student Assembly Call for Trigger Warning Mandate
The call was for trigger warnings for "any traumatic content that may be discussed, including but not limited to: sexual assault, domestic violence, self-harm, suicide, child abuse, racial hate crimes, transphobic violence, homophobic harassment, xenophobia."
5 Years After the Backpage Shutdown, Sex Workers—and Free Speech—Are Still Suffering
As former Backpage execs await their August trial, the shutdown is still worsening the lives it was supposed to improve.
Connecticut S. Ct. Sharply Limits State's "Racial Ridicule" Law
Prosecutors and police had read the law, which restricts "advertisements," as broadly banning racial slurs; the Connecticut court read it, as written, to restrict only commercial advertisements.
Is Telling Someone To 'Die' on Facebook Protected by the First Amendment?
A Colorado man was convicted under an anti-stalking law for sending hostile messages online.
A TikTok Ban Would Set a Dangerous Precedent. Live With Taylor Lorenz and Peter Van Valkenburgh
Join Reason on YouTube and Facebook Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern for a discussion about Congress' attempt to ban TikTok with the RESTRICT Act.
Divorced Father Inflicted "Mental Injury" on 12-Year-Old Son By Religious Criticisms of Son's Felt Homosexuality
The Appellate Court of Maryland just upheld the lower court's finding, and related protective order.
Plaintiff, Who Had Published an Article Describing Herself as Escort, Sues Newspaper for Calling Her an Escort
Plaintiff "asserts that her published work and other accounts describing life as an escort were part of an effort to build a career in writing and were entirely fictional. As for the websites and other internet advertisements cited by defendants, she claims that they were produced for the purpose of satisfying Medium’s 'fact-checking' requirements and possibly promoting a future fictional web series on the topic."
Apocalypse Tomorrow: Trump's Looming Indictment
Plus: the terrible case for pausing A.I. innovation
Hillsdale College Revokes Curriculum License to "Classical" School Over Its Objections to Michelangelo's David
"This drama around teaching Michelangelo's 'David' sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become ... a parody of ... the actual aims of classical education."
Communications Can Be Defamatory Even If Readers Realize There's a Considerable Risk of Error
And AI programs' "tendency [to, among other things, produce untruthful content] can be particularly harmful as models become increasingly convincing and believable, leading to overreliance on them by users. Counterintuitively, hallucinations can become more dangerous as models become more truthful, as users build trust in the model when it provides truthful information in areas where they have some familiarity."
