The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech July 10, 2023 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. New from the Institute for Free Speech Comments on WinRed, Inc.’s FEC Petition on Conduit Reporting Threshold By Bradley A. Smith and Eric Wang .....On July 7, the Institute for Free Speech submitted comments to the Federal Election Commission in support of WinRed Inc.’s petition for rulemaking on REG 2022-05: Conduit Reporting Threshold. Read the PDF of the comments here. Read WinRed’s petition here. Read the FEC Record Notice here. The Courts Washington Post: Social media injunction unravels plans to protect 2024 elections By Cat Zakrzewski, Naomi Nix and Joseph Menn .....A July 4 injunction that places extraordinary limits on the government’s communications with tech companies undermines initiatives to harden social media companies against election interference, civil rights groups, academics and tech industry insiders say. Politico (West Wing Playbook): Biden’s former disinfo czar would like a word By Adam Cancryn, Eli Stokols, and Lauren Egan .....[The July 4 injunction] is an unprecedented ruling that First Amendment scholars and disinformation researchers largely characterized as alarming and unwarranted. For Nina Jankowicz, it also represented something else: the inevitable next step in a concerted effort to weaken defenses against the conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns that could run rampant over the next year... “Unfortunately, the Biden administration hasn’t seen disinformation as the crosscutting threat that it is,” Jankowicz said. “The same mistakes have been repeated over and over.” Online Speech Platforms Washington Post: Why are government social media takedown requests secret? Make them public. By Michael W. McConnell .....Social media platforms should make government takedown requests public. That was the recommendation this spring by the Oversight Board of Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The board (on which I serve), is a global body, independent of the company, with authority to review its content moderation policies. Meta, the board proposed, “should be transparent and report regularly on state actor requests to review content” under various policies, including the coronavirus misinformation policy, foreign government attempts to suppress discussion of the treatment of political prisoners and requests from police departments. The board noted that government requests to remove material are “particularly problematic where governments make requests to crack down on peaceful protesters or human rights defenders, to control conversations about the origins of the pandemic, and to silence those criticizing or questioning government responses to the public health crisis.” If Facebook and other social media platforms followed this recommendation, it would ameliorate the problem of government-induced censorship without the need for court intervention. Mashable: Threads backtracks flagging right-wing users for spreading disinformation By Matt Binder .....If you regularly spread "false information" online, Threads already knows. The platform apparently flagged those accounts on launch, warning users that considered following them, before backtracking. When Threads launched on Wednesday, numerous right-wing users shared their dissatisfaction with Twitter's biggest competitor — on Twitter of course — over having their accounts flagged for disinformation. Political Parties Election Law Blog: “The Associational Rights of Political Parties” By Tabatha Abu El-Haj .....Sharing a chapter I have written for The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Eugene Mazo, ed.) (2023, forthcoming). The chapter, among other things, stresses the ways that the U.S. Supreme Court’s current approach to the associational freedom of political parties significantly constrains party reform strategies. Given the manifest need for party regulation in the interest of a healthy democracy and the recent buzz around Lee Drutman’s report and op ed arguing for more and better parties, this seems a good time to share. The States Politico: Former NYPD colleague of Mayor Eric Adams at center of alleged straw donor scheme By Joe Anuta and Julia Marsh .....An acquaintance of New York City Mayor Eric Adams is at the center of an alleged straw-donor scheme, announced by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Friday, that funneled tens of thousands of dollars in illicit contributions to the Democratic mayor’s campaign. Read an article you think we would be interested in? Send it to Tiffany Donnelly at [email protected]. For email filters, the subject of this email will always begin with "Institute for Free Speech Media Update." The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the political rights to free speech, press, assembly, and petition guaranteed by the First Amendment. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org. Follow the Institute for Free Speech ‌ ‌ ‌ The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]