On today’s internet, the boundaries of acceptable speech are set by a few massive platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and a handful of others. If those companies find something unacceptable, it can’t travel far — a restriction that’s had a massive impact for everyone from copyright violators to sex workers. At the same time, vile content that doesn’t violate platform rules can find shockingly broad audiences, leading to a chilling rise in white nationalism and violent misogyny online. After years of outcry, platforms have grown more willing to ban the worst actors online, but each ban comes with a new political fight, and companies are slow to respond in the best of circumstances. As gleeful disinformation figures like Alex Jones gain power — and the sheer scale of these platforms begins to overwhelm moderation efforts — the problems have only gotten uglier and harder to ignore. At the same time, the hard questions of moderation are only getting harder.
A good piece at The Barbed Wire on Ya’akub Vijandre, one of multiple non-citizen journalists punished by the Trump administration in its war on the press:
It’s becoming clearer to me that the government is attempting to lay a foundation for dissenting political beliefs as grounds for terrorism.
And people like Ya’akub — non-white, non-Christian — have been made its primary examples.
As the Oregon National Guard lawsuit proceeds, it’s become clear that right-wing content creators have a direct line to the federal government and are shaping national policy itself.
A centerpiece of the Kids Online Safety Act is rumored to be at risk in the new version.
A PSF proposal to address vulnerabilities in Python and PyPi was recommended for funding, but it was declined because the terms barred “any programs that advance or promote DEI, or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws.”
The PSF, which you can donate to here, says it’s committed to the “growth of a diverse and international community of Python programmers.”
Sam O’Hara protested the deployment of the National Guard into DC by following soldiers around playing the Star Wars Imperial March on a bluetooth speaker, posting the videos he recorded of himself to TikTok. One guardsman was not amused and called the cops on O’Hara, who was handcuffed and (briefly) detained; the ACLU of DC is now suing.
The lawsuit opens with this sentence:
In the Star Wars franchise, The Imperial March is the music that plays when Darth Vader or other dark forces enter a scene or succeed in their dastardly plans.
You can read the rest below.
[ACLU-DC]
SB 2420 takes effect next year, but with app stores already complying, the First Amendment challenges are cropping up: one by trade group CCIA, another by a student advocacy group. California recently got its own app store verification law, so a legal showdown seems inevitable in America’s two most populous states.
The Verge has frequently quoted First Amendment experts from Columbia University’s Knight Institute, but Columbia hasn’t been doing great on the free speech front lately. This Guardian story is an interesting look at the tensions between the two organizations — and some reassurance the institute’s still worth trusting.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing the site of “left-wing bias.” As I wrote in a feature about the site last month, there is a growing campaign by the Trump administration and other powerful actors around the world to influence the encyclopedia.
Cruz’s letter exhibits many of the common traits of these attacks: citations of dubious studies from conservative think tanks, quotes from the disgruntled Wikipedia co-founder, complaints about right-wing sources deemed unreliable, and requests for information about Wikipedia policies that are publicly available -- in meticulous detail -- on Wikipedia itself.
Identifying faceless ICE agents. Mutual aid for jailed protesters. Calling JD Vance a fascist. The war on ‘antifa’ is a war on free speech, and it’s just getting started.
Last year, authorities arrested Burke on charges related to access of unaired portions of an interview between Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Tucker Carlson. A court dismissed the wiretapping charges on Thursday, calling the government’s argument “legally insufficient.”
The White House has released a national security presidential memorandum on fighting “domestic terrorism,” which apparently includes doxing ICE agents. The document outlines a sweeping strategy to investigate and harass a broad swath of organizations and institutions that the White House claims are anti-American.
There are common recurrent motivations and indicia uniting this pattern of violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described “anti-fascism.” These movements portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as “fascist” to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution. This “anti-fascist” lie has become the organizing rallying cry used by domestic terrorists to wage a violent assault against democratic institutions, constitutional rights, and fundamental American liberties. Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.
[The White House]
Government officials are pledging to go after alleged left-wing organizations they believe are funding political violence.
Here’s Nilay, writing about the FCC going after Kimmel: “All that talk about the media being the enemy of the people is turning into concrete legal action against publishers, broadcasters, and platforms that don’t do what the Trump White House wants.”
Oh, wait! That’s actually Nilay talking about FCC overreach back in February, just one month into the Trump administration. This Decoder episode about how we got here is a worthwhile re-listen this week.
Is now really the time to put up ID checkpoints on the internet?
They’ve sent a letter asking for any communications the FCC had with ABC and other parties involved with Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, and asked Carr to detail exactly how he defines the “public interest” that broadcasters must adhere to. “Under your leadership, the FCC appears to be discarding Congress’s clear directive in the Communications Act to ensure broadcasters act in the “public interest” — and is instead requiring them to act in ‘Trump’s interest,’” they write.
The First Amendment matters, even if Disney and ABC were cowards, too.
With Jimmy Kimmel off the air for now, several party leaders issued a statement over the FCC Chairman’s actions, but what will they do about it?
The Vice President of the US has blessed hunting people down for Charlie Kirk wrongthink.
After Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called out Roblox for allegedly hosting a game referencing Kirk’s slaying, CEO David Baszucki said its policies “prohibit content and behavior that re-enacts specific real world violent or sensitive events.” Several lawmakers have pressured platforms to remove posts making light of Kirk’s death.
A teen died by suicide after being convinced to send explicit messages to someone he met on Roblox, who turned out to likely be an adult, The New York Times reports. Now, his mom is suing the platform for allegedly failing to provide adequate guardrails, hoping to overcome Section 230.
[The New York Times]
Another 200 or more were injured during demonstrations, The New York Times reports based on local news accounts. Police used rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse protesters who occupied a security building, witnesses told The Times. Nepal blocked 26 social media platforms that did not register with the government.
[The New York Times]
Online safety laws keep ordinary people from expressing themselves, while companies like xAI cause real harm.
Nazis’ presence on Substack has only grown. “Sending out Nazi push alerts may not have been the company’s goal,” write Marisa Kabas and Jonathan Katz, the latter of whom sounded the initial alarm in November 2023. “But it is more of a feature than a bug.”
[The Handbasket]
