October 21, 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].

Congress

Daily Caller: House GOP Set To Investigate PayPal For Its Plan To Fine Users For ‘Misinformation’

By Arjun Singh

.....House Republicans are likely to launch an investigation of PayPal for a now-retracted policy that would fine users up to $2,500 for spreading “misinformation” or posting content that it deemed “objectionable,” per a letter sent to PayPal Tuesday.

The letter demanded that PayPal send House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee and Financial Services Committee written answers to 15 questions about the circumstances surrounding the “Acceptable Use Policy,” which was published by PayPal on Oct. 8. The questions demand PayPal to name those who drafted the policy, who had the authority to approve it, and whether PayPal had coordinated with the Biden administration regarding it.

RCFP: Bill to conceal judges’ personal information raises First Amendment concerns

By Grayson Clary

.....But as well-intentioned as [the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act] may be, the law as currently drafted would create serious obstacles to accountability reporting on the judiciary — and raise difficult First Amendment questions in the process.

Boston Globe: Senator Whitehouse: Chapter and verse on how the US Supreme Court was ‘captured’

By Edward Fitzpatrick

.....[Senator Whitehouse:] There are two features of dark money spending: One is you can say filthy and horrible things without any accountability because the group that is spouting your message is a phony and disposable front group. You can throw it away like toilet paper once it has done its dirty work. The second is obscuring who the speaker is deprives voters of knowing what the motives are. If Exxon Mobil or Marathon Petroleum want to spend $10 million against me in an election, and their dirty ads say they’re brought to you by Exxon Mobil and Marathon Petroleum, I might gain votes because Rhode Islanders would get the joke — they’d see what’s going on. But if they spend money through a group called Rhode Islanders for Peace, Puppies and Prosperity, you end up with the ability to have your message separated from your motive. That is a bad place to leave citizens, who are the deciders in our democracy.

Free Expression

Knight Institute: Knight Institute Publishes First Essays from “Lies, Free Speech, and the Law” Symposium

By Katy Glenn Bass

.....Today the Knight Institute is publishing the first of four sets of essays presented at our “Lies, Free Speech, and the Law” symposium held at Columbia Law School in April 2022. This symposium, the culmination of a year-long project on lies and the law spearheaded by our 2021-22 Senior Visiting Research Scholar Genevieve Lakier, explored how the law regulates, or should regulate, false and misleading speech.

The four essays just published, by the legal scholars Helen Norton, Deborah Pearlstein, Mark Tushnet, and Eugene Volokh, focus on doctrinal and definitional questions about the regulation of lies in public discourse: What is the First Amendment status of false speech? What rules do or should apply to different kinds of false speech, like intentional lies, mistaken statements, or opinions based on falsehoods? What justifications exist for those rules? These are critically important questions to answer because the First Amendment provides the primary constraint on the government’s power to punish speakers who deceive.

People United for Privacy: Lunch Hour Podcast: Agreeing on the Right to Disagree

.....People United for Privacy Foundation’s Executive Director Heather Lauer sits down with Andrew Langer, President of the Institute for Liberty and host of the “Lunch Hour” podcast, to discuss the latest developments in citizen privacy and free speech. Their conversation covers the latest news from Washington, D.C. and the states, a troubling wave of donor exposure and harassment, and Heather’s life and career in political advocacy.

Online Speech Platforms

Persuasion: The Internet’s Ultimate Censors

By Elizabeth Nolan Brown

.....Debating whether social media platforms should suspend or ban offensive users has become a national pastime. It's only rarely that the behind-the-scenes services powering the internet get caught up in this—and thank goodness, since the stakes for free speech are much higher in this scenario. But there's worrying evidence that internet infrastructure companies — entities that provide essential tools and services that other websites and applications need to stay online and accessible — will soon be subject to the same scrutiny as their more forward-facing counterparts in social.

Candidates and Campaigns

OpenSecrets: Following Supreme Court decision, self-funding candidates are using campaign funds to pay themselves back

By Anna Massoglia

.....A rule change after the Supreme Court’s Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate decision opened the door for elected officials to raise even more money to pay themselves back post-election for loans to their own campaigns.

Cowboy State Daily: Cheney Spent Six Times More Per Vote ($255 vs $43) In Massive Losing Effort

By Leo Wolfson

.....In total, Cheney’s campaign spending tallies out to about $255 per vote received based on the $12.6 million she spent during the campaign and the 49,339 votes she got...

Harriet Hageman, who beat Chaney by a huge margin with 113,079 votes, reports about $1.6 million in campaign donations during the third quarter of the year, a time period that includes her final push of the primary campaign season.

The $4.9 million she reports spending overall during her campaign against Cheney comes out to about $43 per vote.

Washington Examiner: Democratic hopeful pocketed $205,000 from special interests despite campaign finance claims

By Gabe Kaminsky

.....Democratic Illinois House nominee Eric Sorensen accepted hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from special interest groups and Democratic leadership PACs despite claiming only people are bankrolling his congressional bid, records show.

The States

KTAR News: Proposition 211 would get rid of ‘dark money’ for Arizona political advertisements

.....A proposition on the ballot for next month’s midterm election aims to rid Arizona of “dark money” in political advertisements…

Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy Action, opposes the measure.

She believes that there could be a constitutional free speech challenge if the proposition passes.

“Prop 211 is a clear attempt to chill speech of some individuals, opening them up to harassment and bullying and is likely unconstitutional,” Herrod said.

If passed, it could be difficult for the organization that would oversee the initiative, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, to enforce the rule.

The Oregonian: Interest groups behind misleading ‘Oregon voter guide’ face complaint of campaign finance violations

By Hillary Borrud

.....An Oregon voter has filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office alleging that public employee unions, Democrats and their political allies violated state campaign finance and ad disclosure rules with the design and funding of their official-looking website, “The Oregon Voter Guide.”

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