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 Karen Zraick A federal judge in Texas has dismissed Exxon Mobil’s bombshell defamation lawsuit against environmental groups that it had accused of trying to sabotage its recycling business in collusion with an Australian mining magnate. But the judge allowed a parallel case against California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, to proceed. [ . . . […]
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 […]
By Jacob Mchangama On October 17, 1961, tens of thousands of Algerians marched through the streets of Paris in peaceful defiance of a discriminatory curfew imposed by the French state. Police opened fire, beat protesters, arrested them en masse—and, in some cases, threw people into the Seine, where they drowned. Historians later called it “the […]
By Ashkhen Kazaryan Rand Paul is furious. That’s because someone posted a video falsely accusing the Kentucky senator of taking money from Venezuela’s Maduro regime. Paul should know that the First Amendment sets a deliberately high bar for defamation of public officials like him. Under New York Times v. Sullivan, he must show not just […]
By Adam Creighton The proposed additional federal hate law would lower the bar of criminality even further. It’s bound to massively chill political speech and pave the way for vexatious and politicised charges that will drag individuals through the courts even if they ultimately avoid conviction. Comedy and artistic expression will become all the more […]
By Jacob Mchangama and Samantha Barbas The Bondi Beach massacre of Dec. 14, in which 15 people were murdered during a Hanukkah celebration, has become a grim symbol of rising antisemitic violence across Western democracies. In Sydney, as well as in places like Paris, London, Berlin and Copenhagen, Jews have been living in fear of […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou George Gavriel and the Politics of Offence under Article 10 ECHR An art exhibition by Cypriot artist George Gavriel was cancelled last month following intense political and social reactions after its inauguration. Officials from the country’s conservative party DISY dismissed the paintings as obscenity and rejected freedom of expression as a justification. […]