August 8, 2024

In the News

Thisiscommonsense.org: Campaign Finance Folly Foiled

By Paul Jacob

.....The Institute for Free Speech and its clients, Connecticut State Senator Rob Sampson and former Connecticut State Senator Joe Markley, have won a long-awaited judicial victory.

The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed that it was okay for the senators to criticize the state’s governor at the time, Dannel Malloy, in a campaign mailer. The State Election Enforcement Commission had contended otherwise.

In 2014, Markley and Sampson had collaborated on a mailer to defend their anti-big-spending, anti-big-taxing views against those of the governor. According to the Commission, the mailer thereby violated the state’s campaign finance law. The reason: it benefited the governor’s political opponent. 

Congress

The Hill: Schumer pushes harder for AI regulation: ‘Deepfakes are a serious, serious threat

By Lauren Sforza

.....Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a recent interview he will continue to push for the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in elections.

“Look, deepfakes are a serious, serious threat to this democracy. If people can no longer believe that the person they’re hearing speak is actually the person, this democracy has suffered — it will suffer — in ways that we have never seen before,” Schumer said last week in an interview with NBC News. “And if people just get turned off to democracy, Lord knows what will happen.”

FCC

Bloomberg Law: FCC Election Deepfake Ads Proposal Sparks Turf Fight With FEC

By Jorja Siemons

.....Proposed rules for disclosing when AI-generated content appears in radio and television political ads have spurred debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission is the best government agency to regulate on the topic.

The FCC’s proposed rules, released July 25, would require broadcast radio and television stations and cable operators to provide on-air announcements when content generated using artificial intelligence is used in political ads. Depending on its timeline, it could outpace Federal Election Commission efforts to regulate AI-created content in campaigns that have been under consideration since last year.

Free Expression

The Independent: ‘Repost hateful messages about disorder online and you could end up in court’

By Flora Thompson

.....Reposting hateful messages about violent disorder on social media could mean you end up in court, Britain’s top prosecutor has warned.

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson also said extradition would “of course” be considered for people posting online about inciting UK riots while out of the country if it is “serious criminality”.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: “Anyone stirring up hateful or threatening activity on social media is potentially contributing to the violent disorder on our streets.

“You may be committing a crime if you repost, repeat or amplify a message which is false, threatening, or stirs up racial/religious hatred.

“Be mindful of what you are saying and sharing online, as you could face prosecution.”

Candidates and Campaigns

Free Beacon: WATCH: Walz Says 'There's No Guarantee to Free Speech' for Misinformation, Hate Speech

By Matthew Xiao

.....A resurfaced clip that has gone viral shows Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly announced running mate, saying that free speech should not always be guaranteed in a democracy.

"There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy," Walz said in December 2022 on MSNBC when asked about penalties for spreading election misinformation.

New York Post: Ousted ‘Squad’ Rep. Cori Bush vows revenge against pro-Israel group after primary loss: ‘All they did was radicalize me’

By Victor Nava

.....Far-left “Squad” Rep. Cori Bush declared that she’s been radicalized after losing her Missouri Democratic primary race Tuesday and vowed revenge against the pro-Israel group that backed her opponent.

“Pulling me away from my position as congresswoman — all you did was take some of the strings off,” Missouri’s 1st District rep told supporters after being defeated by local prosecutor Wesley Bell. 

“Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear. Let’s be clear,” Bush shouted into the mic. “Let’s talk about what it really is.

“As much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me — and so now they need to be afraid.

“Let me say this, AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” Bush said, referring to the pro-Israel super PAC that shelled out almost $9 million to unseat the incumbent rep.

Online Speech Platforms

Washington Post: Elon Musk’s X accused of bias after pro-Harris accounts labeled as ‘spam’

By Trisha Thadani

.....Prominent X accounts advocating for Vice President Kamala Harris have been labeled as spam or restricted in recent weeks, triggering alarm among some Democrats that Elon Musk’s social media platform is tilted in favor of his chosen candidate, former president Donald Trump.

Only a handful of pro-Harris accounts, including one called “White Dudes for Harris,” appear to have been affected. But the recurring issues are raising questions about whether Musk’s platform is intentionally censoring the pages, or if the deep staff cuts he made after buying the company in 2022 have left the platform ill-equipped for the surge in political speech ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Washington Post: Inside Trump’s TikTok team: Courting fans of an app he tried to ban

By Drew Harwell and Josh Dawsey

.....Trump’s bid to harness TikTok for his campaign shows how the app he once sought to demolish has become a nerve center for American social and political debate. TikTok is one of America’s most popular online platforms, with more than 170 million U.S. accounts. A third of adults between 18 and 29 told Pew Research Center last year that it’s increasingly where they get their news.

But his rise there also reflects how the lines have blurred between political leaders and online influencers, who now must compete for attention and relevance in a social media landscape where viral trends can shift by the day.

“TikTok is one of the only social media platforms that serves political content to people who don’t follow political accounts, and it has an incredibly powerful distribution and discovery engine,” said Kyle Tharp, a former Democratic operative who writes FWIW, a newsletter about digital politics. “In terms of the online battlefield in American politics, TikTok is it.”

The States

Reason: Florida Public Colleges Ordered To Check Courses for 'Anti-Israel Bias'

By Emma Camp

.....Last week, officials ordered several public universities in Florida to examine courses for "antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias," reported The Chronicle.

The directive, issued on Friday, ordered the leaders of 12 public universities in the State University System of Florida to provide the system's board of governors with a list of "related instructional materials" for any course whose description or syllabus contains the keywords Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, and Jews.

The Tennessean: Leaders wrestle with solving Nashville's neo-Nazi problem while protecting free speech

By Angele Latham and Evan Mealins

.....A proposal to prohibit Metro Nashville Police officers from associating with hate groups was introduced to the Metro Council in July, following a recent rash of neo-Nazi gatherings in downtown Nashville and triggering a debate over free speech rights in the face of racist and antisemitic rhetoric.  

The bill, which would disallow MNPD officers from any kind of association with hate groups and paramilitary gangs, including prohibiting display of any tattoos or "posts, 'likes,' jokes, memes, retweets, and other statements that advocate racism, violence, misogyny, homophobia, or other kinds of hate or discrimination," was filed by District 25 Council Member Jeff Preptit.

At the meeting when it was introduced, Preptit said that many hate groups intentionally recruit from law enforcement, though there is no evidence the recent neo-Nazi activity is related to law enforcement. The bill was deferred for weeks after multiple council members brought up concerns regarding First Amendment infringement.