I've only just got back in the studio for the new calendar year, and there's already yet another online mob forming against freedom of expression, this time targeting SubStack. I agree with #ElleGriffin;
TikTok CEO #ShouZiChew has said the company will take the fight against the new law to the courts, but some experts believe that for the #US#SupremeCourt, national security considerations could outweigh #FreeSpeech protection.
"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don’t like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of freedom of speech, that means you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of freedom of speech."
While it is known to everyone that Russia has jailed people who are against the Russia/Ukraine war, it is less known that the U.S. has accused people of being foreign agents who are also against the war on the other side. We may see anti-war people in the US jailed soon. It's all fun and games until it happens here too. See the Uhuru movement.
The controversy over university presidents who gave lawyerly answers in Congress about punishing students who call for genocide reflects the reality of college free speech codes that try to both encourage debate and stop hatred.
Idea: A certifying organisation for #FreeSpeech forums, kind of like the FSF.
Free speech for matters of physical reality, I mean. Not necessarily for moral or taste matters.
Radley Balko responds to Substack's argument that it cannot exclude Nazis from its platform:
"The problem is that Substack hasn’t been letting everyone in. They’ve been drawing lines all along. They do moderate some content — sex worker newsletters, for example — which makes it harder to swallow the argument that the decision to keep hosting newsletters by Nazis (yes — actual Nazis) is grounded in some purist devotion to free speech."
Has nothing to do with #Israel & #Gaza. #Jews around the world are not & do not speak for the government of Israel. #Antisemitism is antisemitism. It is not a legitimate protest against actions of a government with which one disagrees, not an exercise of #FreeSpeech. It is #HateSpeech & #hate directed against #Jewish people. Innocent civilians were targeted by #Hamas on October 7, not military targets. Don't conflate the two. No "but..."
something to think about re: #freespeech... when you encounter bad or harmful speech, you have an obligation to counter it. don't be a loser titty baby that just complains that someone said something harmful. stand up and counter the shit. drown it out so that people can clearly see the bad speech. not only is free speech important to let marginalized people speak freely, it is necessary to allow harmful speech so we can confront it in the open rather than whispered and nestled in our hearts.
A tão propalada liberdade de expressão só vai até a página 2. Já ouvi o relato de uns 3 usuários de que a Ursal.Zone é bloqueada em alguns servidores dos Estados Unidos e Canadá.
Da mesma forma que obviamente não aparece no diretório do Mastodon.social
E nem tem foice e martelo na descrição! A simples imagem do nosso querido ursinho vermelho causa horror para a galerinha neolib.
Enquanto isso, a nossa amiga @Ursalzona continua fazendo um excelente trabalho.
Ladies and Gents, I give you the totally clueless and tone deaf ACLU:
Now they've gone to Court in support of the NRA as well as Trump.
How dare a Federal Court impose a gag order on Trump. How dare the NY Dept. of Financial Svcs advise banks should consider the reputational risks of doing business with the NRA.
The ACLU can't see the forest for the trees. I'm glad I'm no longer a member or giving them any of my money. #nra #freespeech #news
With all the disinformation infused into our lives, I wonder whether we need to rethink First Amendment protections. Jeff Kosseff, author of Liar in a Crowded Theater, says absolutely not. I am not so sure. I understand the slippery slope of government regulation but I worry about the slippery slope we are on right now.
"Trumpworld’s unbounded view of free speech, if applied consistently, would eliminate most state and federal crimes. After all, perjury is speech. (That did not stop independent counsel Ken Starr from investigating Bill Clinton for it or the House for impeaching him over it.) Bribery is speech. Many types of fraud are speech. Insider trading is speech. Identity theft is speech. Forging checks is speech"
#Freespeech is not an inalienable right, or a moral virtue on its own. Its a social contract. When you decide that certain groups should be excluded from that right, you lose that right. If your entire ideology involved excluding or removing someone else's right to live or even exist, you are an outlaw in that social contract and as in medieval Europe you are no longer protected by the law and people may do with you as they wish.
Featured story: "The conservative campaign to harass the libs out of academia has already sent a chill through #Texas’ world-class public universities, making professors and administrators so fearful of setting off the lunatics in charge at the Capitol that they censor themselves—in scholarship or in their communications with students and the public."
“Hundreds of people have been arrested in California, Massachusetts, Texas and other states during the tense [student] protests, following several rounds of arrests in New York in recent days.”
Russell Brand has said that YouTube’s decision to demonetise him is in the ‘context of the Online Safety Bill’.
While ORG has concerns about the Bill’s powers for censorship and surveillance, it’s misleading to blame a Bill that's not yet received Royal Assent for this decision.