The Future of Free Speech Joins The Global Network Initiative (GNI)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NASHVILLE, Tenn. October 31, 2024 — Today, The Future of Free Speech is excited to announce its membership in the Global Network Initiative (GNI), joining an influential community of organizations dedicated to advancing free expression and privacy in the digital space. The Global Network Initiative sets a global standard for responsible company […]

Human Rights Here: Platform Liability, Hate Speech, and the Fundamental Right to Free Speech

By Natalie Alkiviadou  Introduction The rise of social media has fundamentally altered the landscape of information dissemination, bypassing traditional editorial and governmental controls. This has allowed for rapid global information sharing but has also raised concerns about the influence of social media platforms, even in democratic societies. Legislative responses, such as Germany’s Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) […]

Sacramento Bee: Judge Temporarily Blocks New California Election Deepfake Law, Citing First Amendment

By Gillian Brassil California’s new law that allows people to sue over election deepfakes was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The judge, in granting a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, wrote that the law likely violates the First Amendment given its broad scope, even if digitally-altered media such as by artificial intelligence poses “significant” risks. […]

Ars Technica: Elon Musk Claims Victory after Judge Blocks Calif. Deepfake Law

By Ashley Belanger Upholding the First Amendment, a senior US district judge has blocked California’s deepfakes law, AB 2839, which was designed to stop deceptive AI-generated content from impacting election outcomes. [ . . . ] A First Amendment scholar and senior fellow with the non-partisan think tank The Future of Free Speech, Jeff Kosseff praised […]

Techopedia: 50% of U.S. States Enact Deepfake Laws To Protect 2024 Elections

By Ray Fernandez 19 U.S. states have enacted laws regulating the use of generative AI in election communications, and seven more are considering bills. With no federal mandate, more than half of American states have enacted or are exploring laws designed to criminalize the creation and distribution of deepfakes in election-related content. [….] Deepfake laws […]

Pirate Wires: Censorship for Profit

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 […]

UnHerd: Meta Outshines Musk on Free Speech with ‘From the River to the Sea’ Decision

By Jacob Mchangama X is the bastion of free speech on the Internet. At least that’s what Elon Musk and his raucous supporters would like you to believe any time one dares to point out his hypocritical, arbitrary, and often self-serving content moderation actions after taking over the social media platform. This week’s decision from […]

Tech Policy Press: New United Nations Cybercrime Convention Sets Unprecedented International Anti-Human Rights Standard

By Joan Barata After two years of intense negotiations, the new United Nations (UN) Convention on “Strengthening international cooperation for combating certain crimes committed by means of information and communications technology systems and for the sharing of evidence in electronic form of serious crimes” (also known as the Cybercrime Convention) was adopted by consensus by […]

Reason: Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s Arrest Is Part of a Global War on Free Speech

By J.D. Tuccille It’s appropriate that, days after the French government arrested Pavel Durov, CEO of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, for failing to monitor and restrict communications as demanded by officials in Paris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that his company, which owns Facebook, was subjected to censorship pressures by U.S. officials. Durov’s arrest, […]

Techopedia: Telegram Arrest Leaves Other CEOs Nervous in Europe

By Tim Keary Key Takeaways Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has left Europe following the arrest of the Telegram CEO by French authorities. Pavlovski said French authorities have “crossed a red line”. The arrest of Durov has sparked a significant backlash from free speech advocates. Prominent figures like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin have criticized the […]