This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact Luke Wachob at [email protected].
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The Courts
By Kolbie Peterson
.....A Southern Utah University theater professor is suing university leaders after he was instructed to use they/them pronouns when referring to a nonbinary student or face sanctions, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Richard Bugg, a tenured professor at the public university in Cedar City, alleges that his right to free speech is threatened by SUU’s request that he engage in “politically sensitive speech to which the professor is politically and educationally opposed,” the complaint filed in federal court in Utah states.
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By Douglass Dowty
.....A ruling by a federal judge in Syracuse tonight will allow New York’s sweeping gun control law to go into effect Thursday as planned.
But, the judge warned, several parts of the law were likely unconstitutional and could be challenged again in the future...
In regards to the state’s requirement of “good moral character,” Suddaby opined that such “vague, subjective” criteria should not be allowed and that objective criteria like background checks, fingerprinting, a mental health check and training were more effective.
In regards to the disclosure of social media accounts, Suddaby opined that such a requirement could endanger a law-abiding citizen’s First Amendment right to free speech.
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By Michael Roberts
.....Activist Brian Loma and fellow plaintiff Mikel Whitney recently received $128,000 to settle their lawsuit against the City and County of Denver and several Denver Police Department officers over a September 2020 incident during which the pair were essentially arrested for using variations on the word "fuck."
But Loma has two other active lawsuits against Denver, along with various law enforcement officers and other city officials, and they could have a major effect on policing and prosecutions in the Mile High City. One complaint filed last month seeks to modernize the definition of journalists to include individuals who independently produce online content, particularly in the context of alleged Denver Police Department misconduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests. The other, filed in October 2021, decries the Denver City Attorney's Office practice of imposing so-called "area restrictions" that have essentially banned Loma and others from practically all of downtown.
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Online Speech Platforms
By Brian Flood
.....TikTok, the popular social media app with close ties to Communist China and Chinese state media outlets, has silenced at least 11 pro-free speech organizations, according to the Media Research Center.
The Media Research Center’s CensorTrack database tracked bans on TikTok and found "many groups came under fire for supposedly running afoul of TikTok’s leftist apparatus" in recent years.
"The Chinese Communist Party-tied TikTok is muzzling conservatives and free thinkers by shutting down their accounts, typically with no explanation," MRC researcher Gabriela Pariseau wrote.
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By Sara Fischer
.....Google hasn't yet approved Truth Social's Android app for distribution via its Play Store because of insufficient content moderation, a Google spokesperson tells Axios…
A source says that Google's concerns relate to content such as physical threats and incitements to violence...
Because Truth Social isn't available on Android operating systems, around 44% of U.S. smartphone users can't download it.
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By Beatrice Frum
.....Shadow banning is a temporary solution to the question that consumes all social media companies: How can we moderate the activity on our platforms and maintain a healthy internet ecosystem? But if shadow banning proves anything, it’s that arbitrary, wide-scale censorship cannot be the answer to the internet’s problems. It seldom works for long. Prolific social media users will always figure out a means to say what they want to say and post what they want to post. The human brain can come up with enough synonyms to get its message across. Despite TikTok’s efforts, the algorithm cannot control what their users talk about—and nor should it.
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The States
By Leo Wolfson
.....Last year, tech mogul Barre Seid quietly gave a $1.6 billion political donation to a little-known conservative group called the Marble Freedom Trust...
“Things are getting weirder and weirder out in election world, as we’re all aware,” said State Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, during a Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions committee meeting last Thursday, mentioning the donation.
The committee is considering a bill that calls for a U.S. Constitutional amendment banning corporations from making independent campaign expenditures.
The bill calls for improved transparency in corporate political donations. It would require an individual be tied to every corporate donation made...
Political transparency group Wyoming Promise has pushed forward this bill. The group wants Wyoming to join other states in endorsing a Congressional amendment that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision...
During a June discussion on this topic, Steve Klein of Wyoming Liberty Group, a nonpartisan group that encourages citizen participation in government and free speech, criticized the validity of legislation like this. He said the only change Citizens United initiated was to prevent the banning of a movie about former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and said that the passage of a resolution like this could threaten the First and Fourth Constitutional amendments.
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By Dana DiFilippo
.....In the early days of the pandemic, when conspiracy theorists were ranting about things like the government injecting trackable microchips into people via vaccine, New Jersey launched a disinformation portal to counter the craziness.
In the two years since, the portal — run by the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness — has put out warnings on everything from deepfake technology to the war in Ukraine to, most recently, monkeypox. Just a handful of other states, including Colorado, California, and Connecticut, have launched state-run websites intended to dispel disinformation on elections, COVID-19, and other issues.
But is government — one of the most distrusted entities around — the best resource for debunking disinformation?
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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."
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The Institute for Free Speech is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes and defends the First Amendment rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government. Please support the Institute's mission by clicking here. For further information, visit www.ifs.org.
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