October 20, 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 [email protected].

FEC

University of Chicago Law School: Sean Cooksey, ’14: Protecting Free Expression and Serving the Public

By Jerry de Jaager

.....In the later months of 2020, Sean Cooksey, ’14, was nominated by President Trump, confirmed by the Senate, and sworn in as a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, the youngest commissioner in the agency’s 47-year history.

“The FEC is the only agency solely charged with regulating the exercise of a constitutionally protected right, our First Amendment freedom of speech,” he said. “It’s a very sobering responsibility.”

Online Speech Platforms

Washington Post ("Technology 202"): Democrats bashed Google’s plan to ease spam filters— then signed up

By Cristiano Lima

.....As Republican lawmakers attacked Google over claims its spam filters disproportionately suppressed their emails, the tech giant in June proposed a potential solution: It would create a pilot program allowing qualified candidates and campaigns to bypass its algorithmic filters.

Democratic officials hammered Google over the plan, accusing the company of buckling to a GOP pressure campaign to the detriment of consumers.

“Not only do we find this policy unnecessary and harmful to the email ecosystem, we believe it is designed to appease one side of the aisle over another,” the Democratic National Committee's Sam Cornale wrote early August in a letter to the company, obtained by The Technology 202. “We hope that Google reconsiders this pilot program.”

Cornale added that loosening Gmail’s spam filters for politicians “will result in more fraud.”

As regulators were poised to weigh in on whether the program violated campaign finance laws, Democratic leaders were noncommittal about whether they would join it if launched...

Now that Google has launched the program, the DNC confirmed it has signed up.

Daily Wire: PayPal’s Scheme To Sanction Users For ‘Misinformation’ Tied To Chinese Contractor

By Luke Rosiak

.....A PayPal worker based in China was the apparent author of a since-rescinded legal document that said the company could deduct thousands of dollars directly from people’s accounts if it deemed that they engaged in “misinformation.”

Free Expression

People United for Privacy: The Worst of 2022 in Free Speech and Citizen Privacy

.....In recent years on Capitol Hill, efforts to pierce citizen privacy and chill free speech have mostly originated from the Democratic side of the aisle. Until now, Republicans have often taken up the mantle of free speech in opposing legislation like H.R. 1 and S. 1 that would expose the personal information of nonprofit supporters.

But in 2022, we saw more Republicans adopting Democrats’ strategy of attacking so-called “dark money.” Their goal was to delegitimize specific groups on the left that protect the privacy of their supporters while speaking about public policy and judicial nominations. The long-term effect of Republicans’ misguided attacks, however, may be newfound momentum in Congress and at the state level for proposals that threaten First Amendment rights to privately support nonprofit causes.

Daily Caller: Federal Advisory Group Suggested Charging All Employees Of Libertarian Think Tanks With Treason

By John Hugh DeMastri

.....A federal advisory group recommended members of two libertarian think tanks be charged with treason in 2020, according to documents released Tuesday by the Cato Institute.

Candidates and Campaigns

Philadelphia Inquirer: Mehmet Oz said he wouldn’t take corporate PAC money. Then he did.

By Jonathan Tamari

.....When Mehmet Oz starting running for Senate in Pennsylvania, he made a promise: He wouldn’t accept “one dime” from corporate political committees.

“For too long, Washington’s been run by special interests and corporate donors,” Oz said in a video posted on Twitter in January. “I’m making this pledge: I will not take one dime of corporate PAC money, not one dollar. I cannot be bought.”

Except he did.

The States

Honolulu Civil Beat: Ban On In-Session Campaign Donations Gets Thumbs Up From Hawaii Standards Commission

By Blaze Lovell

.....The Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct is recommending that lawmakers stop accepting campaign cash while doing their work during the legislative session.

A bill to do that along with nine other measures focused on reforming campaign finance laws will head to lawmakers for consideration during the 2023 session, set to start in January. The commission previously recommended banning any donations during the legislative session, but state lawmakers only banned fundraising events instead.

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 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.

Follow the Institute for Free Speech