MSNBC: California’s Solution to Fight AI Disinformation Is Worse than The Problem

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in AI, Disinformation, First Amendment, News, Our Perspectives

By Jacob Mchangama  Democracy, California Gov. Gavin Newsom warns, is on the brink. The culprit? A wave of “disinformation powered by generative AI,” poised to “pollute our information ecosystems like never before.” With the 2024 election looming, Newsom and California Democrats argue that artificial intelligence-generated content threatens to warp public perception. In response, the Golden State has swiftly enacted two bold […]

Pirate Wires: Censorship for Profit

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in Disinformation, In the news, News, Online Content Moderation

By Ashley Rindsberg Demand for countering misinformation has exploded since 2016, with startups having raised over $300 million, often with governments as their first and primary customers The company NewsGuard, with over $21 million in funding, pressures advertisers, as well as third-party vendors, to blacklist outlets it deems untrustworthy Blackbird.AI, which last year raised a […]

Reason: Free Speech Coalition Slaps Censorious E.U. Commissioner Who Threatened Elon Musk

Posted on by The Future of Free Speech in Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, In the news, News, Online Content Moderation

By J.D. Tuccille Earlier this month, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton raised eyebrows when he publicly warned Elon Musk to respect the E.U.’s censorship laws during a then-pending interview with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Even for the E.U., which has been slipping not-so-slowly towards soft totalitarianism, the attempt to extend E.U. jurisdiction […]

Euractiv: Civil Society Criticises Commissioner Breton’s Approach to EU Digital Rulebook

Posted on by The Future of Free Speech in Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, In the news, News, Online Content Moderation

By Julia Tar Civil society groups and academics have criticised European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s recent letter to Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, arguing that it misinterprets the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and threatens free expression. The Open Letters In one of the letters, dated Wednesday (21 August), signed by The […]

The Lembit Öpik Show: Fake News Criminalization in Cyprus Threatens Free Speech

Posted on by Natalie Alkiviadou in Disinformation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, Global Free Speech, Hate Speech, Hate Speech, In the news, Multimedia, News, Press Freedom

Featuring Natalie Alkiviadou Senior Research Fellow Natalie Alkiviadou joins The Lembit Öpik Show for TNT Radio to discuss a proposed “fake news” bill in Cyprus. The bill, which Dr. Alkiviadou wrote about at Verfassungsblog, would impose a prison sentence of up to five years for those accused of spreading disinformation.  Alkiviadou expresses concern about the […]

Verfassungsblog: Prison for Fake News

Posted on by Natalie Alkiviadou in Disinformation, Global Free Speech, News, Our Perspectives, Press Freedom

By Natalie Alkiviadou A Proposal to Criminalize Fake News in Cyprus In Cyprus, a new legislative proposal introduces a prison sentence of up to five years on those spreading fake news. I argue that criminally punishing fake news is absolutely horrifying for free speech, for media pluralism, and for democracy. Criminalizing fake news is, to say […]

Reason: Should Free Speech Pessimists Look to Europe?

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in Disinformation, First Amendment, Global Free Speech, Hate Speech, News, Our Perspectives

By Jacob Mchangama Free speech pessimism is on the rise among America’s elites. “Free Speech Is Killing Us,” read a 2019 op-ed in The New York Times. Recently, an article in The New York Times Magazine concluded, “It’s time to ask whether the American way of protecting free speech is actually keeping us free.” George Washington University Law […]

Persuasion: How to Fight Misinformation Without Censorship

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, News, Our Perspectives, Tools for Empowerment

By Jacob Mchangama 2024 is a pivotal year for the future of global democracy, as some two billion—about half the adult population of the globe—will have the chance to vote. Even though more people will cast a ballot in 2024 than any previous year, the prevailing mood seems more fearful than celebratory. In the words of […]

Unherd: Beware the WEF’s new misinformation panic

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in AI, Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, News, Our Perspectives

AI-powered lies and manipulation constitute the gravest threat to humanity. At least this is the dystopian scenario espoused by the collective wisdom of 1,500 experts surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report last week. Unfortunately, such outbreaks of “elite panic” are a recurring phenomenon. Whenever the public sphere is expanded through new communications technology, […]

The Guardian: Democracy’s Super Bowl: 40 elections that will shape global politics in 2024

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in Disinformation, Global Free Speech, Hate Speech, In the news, News

Simon Tisdall mentions The Future of Free Speech’s new research on free speech developments in 22 democracies in the report “The Free Speech Recession Hits Home‘ “The principle of free speech, essential to fully functioning democracy, is also under attack, rights campaigner Jacob Mchangama argued in Foreign Policy magazine. “Even open democracies have imposed restrictive measures to […]