Free Speech
October 13, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Harvard’s President Claudine Gay has rejected calls to name the university’s pro-terrorism students: Harvard president Claudine Gay pushed back on attempts to name students who signed a letter blaming Israel for the massacres committed by Hamas amid mounting criticism of her handling of the crisis. Gay said the Ivy League school “embraces a commitment to free expression” in a video released Thursday night — her latest attempt to quell outrage
»
September 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Democrats like to label Donald Trump an authoritarian. This is why he supposedly is a threat to “our democracy.” The charge is generally groundless. Trump was president for four years, so he has a track record as the least authoritarian president of recent years. But Trump, being Trump, can’t get out of his own way. So earlier this week, on Truth Social, he handed the Democrats all the ammunition they
»
September 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
This Real Clear Opinion Research survey has disquieting news about Americans’ tolerance of censorship. Carl Cannon comments on the results, including the partisan breakdown. Suffice it to say that not many Democrats are going to the wall for free speech these days. But I want to comment on just one aspect of that survey: It is remarkable that the number of people who think the government should censor “hateful posts
»
September 9, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Perhaps the most important case now wending its way through the federal courts is State of Missouri v. Biden. In that case, the states of Missouri and Louisiana, along with individuals including Jay Bhattacharya and Jim Hoft, allege that various federal agencies violated their First Amendment rights by leaning on social media platforms to censor their speech. Yesterday, in a 3-0 decision, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of
»
September 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
In Europe in general, and Denmark in particular. Mark Steyn recalls the Mohammed cartoon crisis of 2005 and the sequels that have played out over the ensuing years: In 2005 Jyllands-Posten, one of the biggest-selling newspapers in Denmark, as part of an exploration of the state of free speech, was willing to publish a dozen cartoons of Mohammed by prominent cartoonists. In 2010, on the fifth anniversary, I was given
»
August 9, 2023 — John Hinderaker
We now know that the federal government, led by the FBI, has engaged in a prolonged program of censorship that focused on social media. It began, as far as we know, during the Trump administration, and at that time was directed largely against the President. It has flourished during the Biden administration, in which the FBI and other agencies have acted as enforcers, suppressing dissent from the Biden administration’s line,
»
August 6, 2023 — John Hinderaker
This is truly extraordinary: Twitter (or whatever it is called now) will pay the legal fees of anyone who gets fired because of something he or she did on that platform: If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit. Please let us know. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023 Will such people
»
July 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Columbia Law School Professor Philip Hamburger and his New Civil Liberties Alliance colleague Jenin Younes write in their column “The Biden Administration’s Assault on Free Speech” in today’s Wall Street Journal: [T]he nation needs to come to terms with the reality and scale of the assault on free speech. Our government has established a vast system of censorship. By keeping it largely secret, it has been able to exert unconstitutional
»
July 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Rep. Jim Jordan’s House committee has been trying for some time to extract documents from Facebook relating to the Biden administration’s leaning on that platform to censor content. Jordan eventually threatened to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt, and Facebook finally produced the files. Jordan has now released some highlights on Twitter. These documents, similar to the Twitter files, clearly show the administration’s effort to use the social media companies to
»
July 16, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Matt Taibbi has made a valuable contribution to the documentation of the government’s suppression of heterodox and nonconforming speech on Twitter. He is an honest and dogged journalist. I have therefore sought to draw attention to his work in face of such denials and evasions as those to which FBI Director Christopher Wray testified under oath on July 12 before an occasionally showboating congressional committee last week. Taibbi wrote in
»
July 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
As Scott noted this morning, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, barring various Biden administration officials from communicating with social media companies for the purpose of suppressing free speech. This is a massively important case. Plaintiffs included the states of Missouri and Louisiana and several individuals. Plaintiffs alleged that various agencies of the Biden
»
June 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Along with its more remarked-upon cases on affirmative action and student loan forgiveness, the Supreme Court decided this morning the case of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. 303 Creative is an important First Amendment case, following in the footsteps of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc. and other precedents. The case arose out of a declaratory judgment action by a web site designer who creates
»
June 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Over the last few years, the establishment, including government agencies like the FBI, the hegemonic tech companies that control social media, and the press generally, has tried hard to suppress information on several topics. These topics include, among others, the effectiveness of anti-covid measures and treatments, the safety of covid vaccines, Joe Biden’s corruption, and the existence and prevalence of voter fraud. Wrongspeak on any of these topics has been
»
June 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Racket News has unlocked Andrew Lowenthal’s column “Twitter Files Extra: How the World’s ‘No-Kidding Decision Makers’ Got Organized.” Subhead: “The Atlantic Council is hosting its 360/0S Summit at RightsCon this week, and Twitter Files documents tell us more about how this VIP-room-within-a-VIP-room was formed.” Lowenthal describes himself as a writer and consultant focused on digital authoritarianism and civil liberties. He manages the Network Affects site on Substack and now works
»
June 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The documentary “What is a woman?” has been posted to Twitter, where it will remain available for viewing this weekend. The Daily Wire covers the appearance of the film on Twitter here. I have embedded the Daily Wire tweet embedding the video below. John Hinderaker posted the background to the film’s appearance on Twitter here along with his review: “[I]f you haven’t seen the movie, you should. It was produced
»
May 20, 2023 — John Hinderaker
It wouldn’t be if it were imposed by a private party, although there might be other problems with it. But can a government entity require its employees to assent to a series of political propositions, and to take what is effectively a loyalty oath? I don’t think so. That’s why my organization has moved to participate in the case of Henderson v. Springfield R-12 School District, now on appeal in
»
April 25, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Huge news these days in the media world, with Tucker Carlson, the most popular figure in the history of cable news, I believe, out at Fox, and Don Lemon–a marginal personality whom I have never seen in action–fired by CNN. But that is not all: Disney has also fired Nate Silver from the 538 franchise that Silver founded years ago. Nate Silver Out at 538, ABC News as Disney Layoffs
»
