The Global Government Affairs department at X has posted that the company is offering legal support in the case of a far-right Republican activist in Texas who posted just such a photo on X in 2023. Michelle Evans, who is now head of the Williamson County Republican Party, is being investigation and facing criminal charges for posting the photo. She in turn has sued the Travis County district attorney for violating her free speech rights.
Alaa Abd el-Fattah came to global attention because he was a leading figure in the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that turned Cairo's Tahrir Square into a surging sea of young people. The demonstrators chanted Down with corruption, Down with autocracy and Down with dictators. When the uprising succeeded in toppling Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak, the world rejoiced, including Europe and North America. Abd el-Fattah was all over the media, a voice for the part of the movement that was committed to building an accountable, participatory democracy
You may have read in your colourful newspapers that my country's president would like to shut me up because I don't adore him in the way he likes to be adored. The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September. It was a September miracle.
Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek. We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people. Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee's inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content, and he was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.
For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech. The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA).
Tech visionary, Kremlin dissident, FSB agent, free speech absolutist, health guru. These are just some of the labels admirers and critics have attached to Pavel Durov over the past decade. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur founded Russia's version of Facebook before going on to create the messaging app Telegram, launch a cryptocurrency ecosystem and amass a multibillion-dollar fortune, all while clashing repeatedly with authorities in Russia and beyond.
This guy who [Brendan] Carr who runs the FCC, he had the nerve to say that Kimmel, if he wanted to get back on television... he had to pay Charlie Kirk's Turning Points USA Foundation money to get back on. Think about that: Elon Musk bought the election for Trump because the Supreme Court said money was free speech. But if they make [Kimmel] pay money for some shit he doesn't believe in, they are compelling him to say something he does not mean....
In this March 2024 file photo, members of the Berkeley school community packed a BUSD board meeting in support of ethnic studies programs focusing on Palestinian history. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight
Mayday Health, a New York-based "reproductive health education nonprofit" founded after the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade in 2022, is one of countless organizations that have refused to abandon Americans who live in states where abortion is banned. Over the summer, they ran more than 120 mifepristone and misoprostol ads on billboards, trucks, gas stations, and in newspapers in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas-all of which have a near-total or total abortion ban.
The newest flashpoint comes with the U.S. and its European allies also at loggerheads over Ukraine and the future of European security. The EU penalized X on Friday after regulators found the platform had misled users, obscured key advertising information and blocked researchers from accessing public data. A furious Musk responded by accusing the EU of stifling free speech through "bureaucratic tyranny" - rallying far-right leaders and millions of followers behind the hashtag #AbolishTheEU.
The letter, seen by the Guardian, demanded Kimberley stop publishing or sharing videos, posts or commentary about the Reform leader and the wider Reform party. It also claimed Kimberley's videos contained content that misrepresents Monk and contributed to her harassment by members of the public. Kimberley denied the claims and told the Guardian there was no legal basis for the demands, adding the letter was written as if someone fed into ChatGPT write me an angry legal letter'.
The developer of ICEBlock, an iPhone app that anonymously tracks the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, has sued the Trump administration for free speech violations after Apple removed the service from its app store under demands from the White House. The suit, filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, asks a judge to declare that the administration violated the First Amendment when it threatened to criminally prosecute the app's developer and pressured Apple to make the app unavailable for download, which the tech company did in October.
The Uncensored host then told Carlson he did not feel compelled to say derogatory stuff about gay people to make his points. Carlson said he agreed, but that f*ggot had become a magic word that people are not allowed to use anymore. Morgan then asked him if he would use it. F*ggot? I just did, Carlson said, before firing the word off several times. F*ggot, f*ggot, f*ggot. And I'm using it because you're not allowed to.
In a San Jose courtroom on the morning of November 19, attorneys for The Stanford Daily and two anonymous international students argued that President Donald Trump's administration has used federal law as a weapon against political dissent. The lawsuit, filed against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asserts that the plaintiffs' First and Fifth Amendment rights have been fundamentally violated-but that it's the statutes themselves, not just the administration enforcing them, to blame.
But no: What you find instead in the case of Larry Bushart is one of the most plain and egregious examples of police overreach and punishment of free speech you'll hopefully ever encounter. The injustice of it is both frightening and deeply relevant to our current sociopolitical landscape ... as is the curious indifference of national news, who seemed to largely miss the story entirely.
We examine whether the increased concentration of media ownership will create a more restrictive narrative. Recent developments in United States tech and media have prompted concerns about media consolidation and its impact on free speech. The US government is pushing ByteDance to reduce its control over TikTok, with Oracle proposed to oversee the platform's algorithm for national security reasons. Meanwhile, Skydance Media's $8bn merger with Paramount Global raises further concerns about media ownership centralisation.
Our family is overjoyed that, after four long years, our father, Saad Almadi, is finally on his way home to the United States! This day would not have been possible without President Donald Trump and the tireless efforts of his administration. We are deeply grateful to Dr. Sebastian Gorka and the team at the National Security Council, as well as everyone at the State Department. We also extend our thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh for keeping our father safe these past four years.
