The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech September 14, 2022 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 Luke Wachob at [email protected]. Free Expression RealClearPolicy: Time to Scrap the Espionage Act of 1917 By Ivan Eland .....More recently, using the Espionage Act to abuse the First Amendment has taken another form. Elected politicians and civil service officials regularly leak information to the media, some of it very sensitive. Yet recent presidential administrations, frustrated in their attempts to stanch such violators of the rules, have used the statute to threaten and even prosecute journalists for doing their job of merely reporting the leaked information to the public. The administration of Barack Obama, a constitutional lawyer, was especially aggressive in such harassment of journalists. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Carnegie Mellon professor’s critical tweet about the queen causes firestorm over social media and free campus speech By Bill Schackner .....It took just 19 words (less than 100 characters) to land a Carnegie Mellon University professor squarely in the middle of yet another firestorm over social media and the boundaries of free campus speech. Uju Anya’s tweet wishing a dying Queen Elizabeth II “excruciating” pain has faced an avalanche of criticism and calls that she be disciplined or fired since she posted it early Thursday. Some, though, are rallying to her defense. The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression confirmed Friday that it has urged Carnegie Mellon President Farnam Jahanian in a letter not to sanction her, even if the words were offensive. Online Speech Platforms Reason: Cloudflare Can Cancel Service to Terrible Websites Like Kiwi Farms. But Should It? By Elizabeth Nolan Brown .....There's been ample cheering over the internet intermediary company Cloudflare canceling services to the controversial 8chan heir Kiwi Farms. If history is any indication, however, Cloudflare's decision will do little to stop online hate and harassment. Meanwhile, it moves us yet another step further from the sort of neutrality that's typically guided internet infrastructure companies (that is, things like web hosting, cybersecurity, and newsletter services). And the further we stray from this neutrality, the worse the consequences for all sorts of online speech and organizing. Cloudflare is a private business, and perfectly free to drop services to any entity it likes. But whether it should—and whether it made the right call with Kiwi Farms—is up for debate. Candidates and Campaigns Politico: Weekly Score By Madison Fernandez .....More regulation and transparency is needed in programmatic political advertising, according to a brief from the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy. The report looks at programmatic advertising, or the automated process of buying and selling ads, beyond major tech companies like Meta and Google. While the two serve the majority of digital political ads, programmatic advertising on other platforms accounts for a growing share of political ads, in part because of restrictions imposed by major tech platforms. The States 6 ABC: Allentown School District teacher accused of being at January 6th riot speaks out By Chad Pradelli and Cheryl Mettendorf .....The Allentown School District is facing a legal battle after it alleged a teacher took part in the Capitol riots of January 6th. The teacher has sued for defamation and the civil lawsuit puts the spotlight on the hot-button issue of politics and the workplace. Jason Moorehead doesn't deny he is an unabashed Trump supporter... Moorehead also doesn't dispute that he attended Donald Trump's 'Stop the Steal' rally on January 6, 2021... Moorehead said the day after the January 6th riots, the Allentown School District suspended him and put out a press release that read in part that a staff member was "involved in the electoral college protests that took place at the United States Capitol Building." The only problem? Moorehead said he was never at the Capitol when the violence erupted and only attended Trump's speech about a mile away. 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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