In the latest body blow to the social media industry, Massachusetts’ highest court on Friday ruled that the state can sue technology giant Meta over allegations its popular online sites Facebook and Instagram are too addictive to minors. The ruling comes in the wake of major courtroom defeats for the industry in other states. Just […]
Interviewer: Jillian York Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer, human rights advocate, and public commentator. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. His new book with Jeff Kosseff, The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential […]
By Miguel Angel Aguilar On March 11, the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced the launch of the tool “HODIO: Hate and Polarization footprint” that will have the function of measuring the presence, evolution and scope of hate speech on digital platforms. [ . . . ] As Jacob Mchangama has written in his […]
By Mike Masnick We’ve been saying for years now that Jonathan Haidt’s crusade against social media and kids is a moral panic dressed up in academic robes, and that the evidence simply does not support the sweeping claims he’s been making. A new piece in the Wall Street Journal by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff […]
From Socrates to social media, society has always worried about protecting the young. But the latest ruling about Meta and YouTube overlooks the upsides of free speech. By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff In 399 BCE, Socrates was put on trial before a jury of some 500 of his fellow Athenians. The indictment accused him […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou Hate speech is a real problem. But takedowns and deplatforming are ineffective and carry damaging side effects. A better and more liberal response is to confront hateful speech directly. Hate speech emerges in concrete moments that reveal how language can hurt, marginalize and affect public participation. One such moment occurred in Brazil […]
By Taylor Lorenz Over the past year, more than two dozen countries around the world have proposed bans on social media use for vast swathes of their public. These laws, often proposed under the guise of “child safety”, are ushering in an era of mass surveillance and widespread censorship, contributing to what scholars [like Jacob […]
By Andre Hiroki [ . . . ] Panelists focused on whether AI-generated outputs should be considered speech under existing legal frameworks, and what that means for Section 230 liability. Miers argued that a blanket rule denying Section 230 protection to AI systems could have consequences beyond chatbots, potentially affecting long-standing online practices such as […]
By Matt Pearson Recent revelations from news agency Reuters that the US is “developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including hate speech and terrorist propaganda,” as a method to counter what it sees as excessive censorship in other parts of the world […]
By Deltan Dallagnol You probably didn’t realize it, but this Tuesday (10) the right had a gigantic victory against the Lula government and the pro-censorship class, which does not tire of trying to muzzle the Brazilians. It passed beaten by many people, but those who were connected on social networks saw a frantic movement on […]