What Twitter's Suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptop Story Tells Us About the Media
Plus: The editors consider a listener question on the involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill.
Free Speech
New York Forces Websites To Monitor 'Hateful' Speech. A New Lawsuit Says This Violates the First Amendment.
"The state of New York can't turn bloggers into Big Brother, but it's trying to do just that," said FIRE attorney Daniel Ortner.
Supreme Court Debates Whether Web Designers Can Be Forced To Make Gay Wedding Pages
A million hypotheticals bloom in arguments over when and where the government may compel speech.
Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi Reveal Why Twitter Censored the Hunter Biden Laptop Story
The Twitter Files are interesting but contain few true surprises. A mix of incompetence and partisanship got the site in trouble.
Elon Musk Enforces Twitter's Ban on 'Hateful Conduct' As Critics Predict a Flood of Bigotry
The "free speech absolutist" is maintaining some content restrictions while loosening others.
David Lat on Hogan Lovells' Firing of Semi-Retired Equity Partner for Comments on Abortion and Race
"[T]here is increasingly no place for social conservatives in many large law firms."
Kanye's Suspension Shows Musk Twitter Might Look a Lot Like…Old Twitter
Plus: Freedom's Furies, SCOTUS to take up student loan forgiveness plan, and more...
Twitter Is More Like a Traveling Circus Than a Public Square
It's a private company. Its owner can do what he chooses, even if it seems crazy.
U.K.'s Awful Internet Bill Becomes a Bit Less Hostile to Free Speech
At a dangerous moment for the free exchange of ideas, civil libertarians can tally a win.
You Can Record Video of Police in Action. But Can You Livestream That Video?
Plus: Court rejects Biden plea on student loan plan, Ohio cops don't understand the First Amendment, and more...
Twitter Quits the Biden Administration's Ham-Handed Crusade Against COVID-19 'Misinformation'
Elon Musk's rescission of the platform's prior policy, which forbade dissent from official guidance, is consistent with his promise of lighter moderation.
Iran Attempted To Use the World Cup To Stoke Nationalist Pride
And their team wanted nothing to do with politics.
From Kansas S. Ct. Justice, About Univ. of Kansas Law School's Response to a Federalist Society Event
"Consider that—as reported in the local paper—several students were so distraught over this event and afraid for their 'physical and emotional safety' that they claimed they could not even be inside Green Hall at the same time as the speaker. Perhaps this should alert us to an institutional failure to cultivate the norms, habits, and skills necessary to the task of lawyering."
China's Lockdown Protests Show Why You Shouldn't Let Government Weaken Encryption, Anonymity
Too many Western governments want to follow in the footsteps of authoritarians when it comes to tech privacy.
Publius Publicola Must Make His Identity Public
to continue with his appeal, holds the Second Circuit; because he didn't do so, the appeal was dismissed.
Biden's Support for COVID Protests Hinges on What Country They're in
The president has urged the Chinese government to respect the rights of anti-lockdown demonstrators. He actively encouraged the Canadian government to end the trucker protests.
Abortion Rights Advocates Ask DOJ To Defend Section 230
While "the 26 words that created the internet" have been under fire from both sides, two groups argue that the 1996 law is essential to the future of abortion rights.
Slander Suit After "Two Wealthy … Men … Got Into a Fistfight While Trick or Treating with Their Families"
"Gimelstob and Kaplan were friends for a while, but their relationship soured when Kaplan got upset because Gimelstob did not show up to his birthday party."
Free Speech on Twitter? Not If Europe Has a Say
EU officials threaten to make their restrictive content rules a global standard.
California's COVID-19 'Misinformation' Law Chills Constitutionally Protected Speech
The state is threatening to punish doctors whose advice deviates from the "scientific consensus."
Mastodon's Content-Moderation Growing Pains
[I asked Prof. Alan Rozenshtein (University of Minnesota) to write a post about Mastodon and one particular recent controversy related to it, and he very kindly agreed. -EV]
Magistrate Judge "Openly Scoffed" at Former Press Secretary Jen Psaki's "Efforts to Escape a Deposition"
"in a suit over alleged pressure on social media firms to censor posts on topics like Covid-19 vaccines and election fraud."
Crime to Publicize Man's DUI (with Insults) as Part of "Feud," "Intended to Shame and Provoke"
So holds the Pennsylvania intermediate appellate court, rejecting a First Amendment defense.
A Federal Court Blocks Florida's Stop WOKE Act. Again.
On Thursday, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction against the portion of the law applying to higher education, with one judge describing the law as "positively dystopian."
"Enforcing the First Amendment on Campus Won't, by Itself, Address the Problem of Academic Freedom"
"We also need to improve university culture."
Amusing Passage from Gateway Pundit's Motion for TRO to Get Press Credentials
"Meanwhile, if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody there to hear it, everyone will still tell the public what it sounded like and what it means."
The ACLU Says California's Ban on COVID-19 'Misinformation' From Doctors Is Gratuitous and Unconstitutional
Two chapters of the organization say the law violates the First Amendment.
Defendant's "Cyber Campaign" "Was Multi-Faceted, Intricate and Extensive, Sly, Anonymous, and Horrible"
A court grants summary judgment in a #TheyLied case, after the defendant had stopped defending it, concluding that "Ms. Abid's refusal to litigate is purposeful and consistent with her malign, manipulative character shown in this record."
