From a Justice Department press release Tuesday: Two Virginia women and an Arizona woman, who verbally interrupted oral arguments inside the United States Supreme Court, each pleaded guilty January 13, 2023, to a single count of Speeches and Objectionable Language in the Supreme Court Building. The defendants were sentenced to one-year terms of probation with […]
Here’s the opening of what I wrote about the case in Tablet Magazine two years ago: In 2016, a Florida man named Douglass Mackey (using the online alias “Ricky Vaughn”) allegedly conspired to distribute a meme aimed at deceiving pro-Hillary voters. Four years later, Mackey is now being prosecuted (as to this and as to […]
From yesterday’s decision in In re Demetriades, decided yesterday by the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Richard Sullivan joined by Judges Robert Sack and Michael Park: Tara A. Demetriades appeals from orders of the Committee on Grievances of the Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of […]
For years, various branches and levels of the federal government tried their darndest to grab more control of what could be said on social media. Sex trafficking, election integrity, hate speech, Chinese influence—all served as fodder for legislation, regulation, or executive action geared toward seizing the means of content moderation, with some degree of success. […]
What do the confidential emails obtained by Reason’s Robby Soave reveal about the relationship between Facebook and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? The social media giant’s moderators were “in constant contact with the CDC, and routinely asked government health officials to vet claims relating to the virus, mitigation efforts such as masks, and vaccines,” […]
Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s most prominent authority on COVID-19, had his final White House press conference two days before Thanksgiving 2022. The event served as a send-off for the longserving director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who was finally stepping down after nearly four decades on the job. Read the […]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a direct role in policing permissible speech on social media throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Confidential emails obtained by Reason show that Facebook moderators were in constant contact with the CDC, and routinely asked government health officials to vet claims relating to the virus, mitigation efforts such as masks, […]
From Corso Ventures LLC v. Paye, decided Tuesday by the Ohio Court of Appeals (Judge Betsy Luper Schuster, joined by Judges William Klatt and Jullia Dorrian (affirming the decision I blogged about here): Jordan … publishes the website DelawareOhioNews.com. Jordan writes articles and other content published on the website, often using the pen name Ricardo […]
Hamline University, a liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has come under fire in recent weeks after it refused to renew the contract of an adjunct professor who had shown images of the Prophet Muhammad in an art history class. Now the professor at the center of the controversy is suing, alleging religious discrimination […]
Will the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) finally be declared unconstitutional? After years of being panned by sex workers, civil libertarians, tech companies, U.S. lawmakers, and even law enforcement, opponents of the 2018 law face the best shot yet of seeing its demise. That shot comes in the form […]