Articles about Free Speech

The Guardian’s recent decision to stop posting on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, is a move that screams weakness. The outlet, which proudly touts itself as a champion of bold reporting, announced it would cease activity on the platform due to “often disturbing content,” such as far-right conspiracy theories. But instead of taking a stand and contributing to the conversation with balanced reporting, The Guardian is turning tail and walking away.

This move doesn’t look like a show of strength. In fact, it comes across as a cop-out, a move fueled by fear rather than the backbone you’d expect from a major news organization. By withdrawing, The Guardian is giving up any chance to challenge misinformation head-on or offer perspectives that counter the narratives it finds so troubling. It’s ironic, really -- an organization that prides itself on being fearless and forthright suddenly choosing the path of least resistance.

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Is Kanye West (aka Ye) mentally ill? While I am not qualified to determine such a diagnosis, it does seem that way to me. That is purely my opinion. He is certainly erratic and prone to posting inflammatory statements.

Over on Twitter, West recently declared in a now deleted tweet "I’m going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE." Yes, the self-proclaimed "genius" showed his stupidity by confusing "death con" and "DEFCON." That ugly tweet is not up for interpretation -- it is pure hate. And it is unacceptable, which is why Twitter temporarily suspended Kanye West's account.

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The latest development in the ongoing 'PayPal-gate' story is that the fintech giant has now reversed its decision and apologized for closing the Free Speech Union's account.

The FSU tweeted news of the decision yesterday evening following several days of people closing down their accounts and the stirring up of a political storm with questions asked in the UK parliament.

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Donald Trump has lashed out at Twitter, accusing the site of not only interfering in the 2020 presidential elections, but also of standing in the way of free speech.

The accusations came after the site added a fact-checking link to a tweet Trump posted suggesting that mail-in ballots in California would be "substantially fraudulent". Twitter added a "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" to a pair of his tweets, causing the president to react angrily. The site, did not, however, censor or delete the tweets.

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YouTube's on-going battle against hate speech on its platform continues, and the site has just announced new policies that it hopes will help to further curb the problem.

As part of its new rules, YouTube is now taking a tougher stance against discriminatory material, banning supremacist videos such as those that promote Nazism. Also banned are videos that seek to spread misinformation by denying that "well-documented violent events", such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, ever occurred. Holocaust denial is also banned.

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Spotify is the latest company to come down on Infowar's Alex Jones. The music streaming service has taken down multiple several episodes of The Alex Jones Show for violating its policies on hate speech.

The removals come after Alex Jones was hit with another strike by YouTube for policy violations, and after Facebook also took action against him.

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Following on from a strike for violating YouTube policies, Infowars founder Alex Jones has been hit with sanctions by Facebook for contravening its community standards.

The social network -- which just dropped in value -- removed four of Jones' videos for violating its policies and banned the right-wing conspiracy theorist from using his account for 30 days. In the event of further policy breaches by Jones or his admins, his page could be permanently banned.

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YouTube has taken action against Infowars' Alex Jones, hitting him with a strike and removing four of the right-wing conspiracy theorist's videos from its platform.

The videos -- two about Muslims, one about transgender people and one about "preventing liberalism" -- were removed for violating YouTube policies about hate speech and child endangerment. Infowars has hit back by saying that YouTube is violating its own policies in taking down the videos.

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Twitter has blocked an ad campaign by Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn after it was "deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction."

In the ad, Blackburn says she "stopped the sale of baby body parts" from abortions by defunding Planned Parenthood -- a false claim. The pro-lifer claims Twitter is censoring her, but the company has said the ad campaign can run without the "body parts" claim.

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Following the violence that took place in Charlottesville last weekend, technology companies have done everything they can to distance themselves from neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other right-wing groups. It led to numerous companies dropping right-wing sites such as The Daily Stormer, which was ultimately pushed to the dark web.

Digital rights group the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) -- well-known for speaking out about privacy and legal issues -- has criticized the ban on neo-Nazi sites and groups saying it poses a threat to free expression online. Google, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Reddit and Facebook are just a handful of technology companies to have banned The Daily Stormer, but EFF says that "no one -- not the government and not private commercial enterprises -- should decide who gets to speak and who doesn't."

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The Department of Justice is trying to force a web host to reveal the IP addresses of over 1.3 million visitors to an anti-Trump website. The DoJ is also requesting contact information, email content and photos.

The site -- #DisruptJ20 -- was used to organize protests against Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration. DreamHost says that it is fighting the warrant that has been issued, because the "information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone's mind."

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VPNs and proxies are now illegal in Russia after Vladimir Putin signed a new law which prohibits technology that can be used to access websites that are banned in the country. The law also prevents people from using tools to stay anonymous online, and a second law requires users of messaging tools to be identifiable through their phone numbers.

As Russia hardens it implementation of government-imposed censorship, Apple has explained the sudden disappearance of around 60 VPN tools from the Chinese version of its App Store. The actions of both countries are seen as attempts to further thwart freedom of speech.

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China's control of the internet is no secret, and the Chinese government has just introduced new regulations that require all audio and video content to be vetted by officials before it can be posted online.

The aim is to check that content adheres to the government's "core socialist values" and don’t stray into out-of-bounds topics such as homosexuality and drug-taking. The new regulations take immediate effect, and bloggers, media outlets, and filmmakers are concerned that they will be either censored or shut down.

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Currently barred from telling three of its users about government search warrants seeking to gain access to their information, Facebook is fighting back. The social network is challenging what it says is a threat to freedom of speech.

Documents filed at a Washington DC appeal court show that Facebook wants to notify the users about the warrants so they have an opportunity to object to them. The company cites the First Amendment in seeking to let users know about the warrants, at least one of which relates to protests against Donald Trump.

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A lawsuit filed by Twitter shows that the US government has been trying to force the company to reveal the identity of a user behind an account that is critical of Donald Trump and government policies.

The lawsuit reveals that Customs and Border Patrol hit Twitter with a summons in the middle of March relating to the @ALT_uscis (Alt US Citizenship and Immigration Services) account. The account is one of many "alt" accounts that sprang up after Trump inauguration, purportedly set up by disgruntled civil servants, and it is critical of immigration policy and plans to build a wall on the Mexican border.

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