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Tag: Free Speech

TikTok’s future hangs in balance at Friday’s Supreme Court arguments 
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Approved, National, THE HILL

TikTok’s future hangs in balance at Friday’s Supreme Court arguments 

By Zach Schonfeld and Julia Shapero  | The Hill TikTok’s future will hang in the balance Friday when the Supreme Court hears oral arguments over a federal law that could ban the video-sharing platform nationwide in less than 10 days.  In its waning days, the Biden-era Justice Department will square off in the courtroom against lawyers for TikTok and several creators in a seismic battle that pits national security against free speech.  “The whole point of the First Amendment is that the government can’t shut down speech that it thinks is against its interests,” said Liberty Justice Center President Jacob Huebert, a member of the creators’ legal team.  READ THE FULL STORY AT THE HILL
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Supreme Court to weigh case on possible TikTok ban
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Approved, National, Newsmax

Supreme Court to weigh case on possible TikTok ban

By Newsmax The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear arguments next month over the constitutionality of the federal law that could ban TikTok in the United States if its Chinese parent company doesn't sell it. The justices will hear arguments Jan. 10 about whether the law impermissibly restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law, enacted in April, set a Jan. 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold or else face a ban in the U.S. The popular social media platform has more than 170 million users in the U.S. READ THE FULL STORY ON NEWSMAX
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Benson: Kamala Harris sidesteps free speech concerns while advocating for top-down control
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Approved, Commentary, National, TownHall.com

Benson: Kamala Harris sidesteps free speech concerns while advocating for top-down control

By Guy Benson | Commentary, Townhall.com In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris lamented America's divisive politics, arguing that her desire to 'turn the page' is really about "closing the page" -- whatever that means -- on "an era that suggests Americans are divided."  It's true that Americans are divided.  Figures in both major political parties and across the political spectrum bear some responsibility for that reality, including both her and her opponent.  Part of the polarization and acrimony is stoked and fueled for cynical purposes.  But a lot of it is simply a reflection of profound differences on policies and values.  Voters have divergent views on what they want the country to look like, what sort of leaders t...
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‘Release the memes’: Babylon Bee scores free speech win after Newsom tried to make parody illegal
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Approved, National, TownHall.com

‘Release the memes’: Babylon Bee scores free speech win after Newsom tried to make parody illegal

By Leah Barkoukis | Town Hall Free speech advocates are celebrating after California agreed it would not enforce one of its new censorship laws targeting political satire and parody. The development comes less than a month after Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, on behalf of The Babylon Bee and attorney Kelly Chang Rickert, sued the state over two new laws that aim to censor online content.  “All of it’s on a knife’s edge. It’s on a knife’s edge right now. So this is really, really, really, really important right now. Folks, look, think about it. He is talking about doing away with the entire Department of Education — he means it, this is not a joke. This [is] a guy who also wants to replace every civil servant, every single one,” Biden said. "Because one of ...
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Kilpper: Hillary Clinton says quiet part out loud on free speech
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Approved, National, The Daily Caller

Kilpper: Hillary Clinton says quiet part out loud on free speech

By Gage Kilpper | Daily Caller The catch-and-release migrant programs created by President Joe Biden and endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris have increased national security risks, according to the independent watchdog that oversees the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS Office of Inspector General released a report last week finding that Customs and Border Protection is releasing noncitizens without identification into the United States, contrary to federal law, in a manner that “inadvertently increases national security risks.” The same report also found that the Transportation Security Administration then lets these same unidentified noncitizens onto airplanes, where they are free to fly wherever they wish in the U.S. According to t...
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Turley: John Kerry says 1st Amendment is the enemy, as elites try to stamp out free speech
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Approved, Commentary, National, New York Post

Turley: John Kerry says 1st Amendment is the enemy, as elites try to stamp out free speech

 By Jonathan Turley | New York Post If you want to know how hostile the global elite are to free speech, look no further than John Kerry’s recent speech to the World Economic Forum. Rather than extol the benefits of democratic liberty versus dictatorships and oligarchs, Kerry called the First Amendment a “major block” to keeping people from believing the “wrong” things. The former secretary of state and aide to the Biden-Harris administration told the sympathetic audience: “You know, there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts, etc. But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinfor...
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Babylon Bee sues California over unprecedented crackdown on satire, parody
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Approved, Daily Wire, National

Babylon Bee sues California over unprecedented crackdown on satire, parody

By Zach Jewell  | Daily Wire The Babylon Bee filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Monday after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of “deepfake” laws that target outlets that publish satire and parody. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and shared exclusively with The Daily Wire, begins by noting that in July of this year, Newsom tweeted that a parody video of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris should be “illegal.” “The legislature heard the call and passed two laws that forbid political expression under the label of ‘materially deceptive content,’” the lawsuit asserts. The complaint explains that one of California’s new laws will require social media platforms to become “state snitches...
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Colorado law on disclosing AI-generated political ads raises free speech concern
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Approved, Kiowa Free Press, State

Colorado law on disclosing AI-generated political ads raises free speech concern

By Joe Mueller| Kiowa Free Press Weiser’s two-page public advisory refers to House Bill 24-1147, which took effect July 1. It created new regulations and penalties for using  artificial intelligence and deepfake-generated content in  communications about candidates for elected office. The law requires anyone using AI to create election communications featuring images, videos or audio of candidates to include a disclaimer explaining the content isn’t real. Candidates who have their appearance, actions or speech depicted in a deepfake can pursue legal prohibition of the distribution, dissemination, publication, broadcast, transmission or other display of the communication. The bill provides for compensatory and punitive damages and the possibility of criminal charges. "Much false sp...
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Shrier: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and our government censors
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Approved, Commentary, National, The Free Press

Shrier: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and our government censors

By Abigail Shrier | Commentary, The Free Press When asked why he robbed banks, legendary fugitive Willie Sutton replied, “That’s where the money is.” Governments coerce social media platforms into censorship for the same simple reason: That’s where the objectionable speech is.  Thanks to a recent Supreme Court case, in America, there’s also little to stop them.  Social media platforms—but not their users—can sue the government to stop the impermissible suppression of speech, according to Murthy v. Missouri, decided in June. The Court held that social media users could not establish a causal link between government pressure and the suppression of their posts because “the platforms had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgm...
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Elon Musk says Brazilian judge should go to prison in latest attack after X ban upheld in country
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Approved, Fox Business, National

Elon Musk says Brazilian judge should go to prison in latest attack after X ban upheld in country

By Brie Stimson  | Fox Business Elon Musk didn’t mince words on Monday, writing on his X platform that Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes should be arrested.  "De Moraes deserves prison for his crimes," the tech billionaire wrote on X on Sept. 2 after the country’s high court upheld a ban on the social media platform.  The temporary ban was imposed over the weekend after Musk didn’t name a legal representative before a deadline in a case going back months in which the country demanded some accounts be suspended that had been implicated in probes of so-called digital militias accused of spreading misinformation and hate. READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX BUSINESS
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