The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech November 1, 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]. In the News PBS "VPM News Focal Point": Nina Jankowicz & Gary Lawkowski .....Watch Nina Jankowicz and Gary Lawkowski talk about issues surrounding government’s role in combating disinformation and whether that impacts freedom of expression rights. [Ed. note: Interview with IFS Senior Fellow Gary Lawkowski begins around the 8min40 sec mark in the linked video.] The Courts ABA Journal: 6th Circuit blocks ethics probe of judicial candidates who touted GOP links, anti-abortion endorsements By Debra Cassens Weiss .....A federal appeals court has blocked the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission from investigating two judicial candidates accused by citizens of touting their Republican background and their endorsements from anti-abortion groups. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati granted an injunction pending appeal Oct. 28 in a lawsuit by Kentucky judicial candidates Joseph Fischer and Robert A. Winter Jr. Fischer is running for the state supreme court, and Winter is running for the state court of appeals. The 6th Circuit said the preliminary ethics investigation chills the candidates’ First Amendment rights, and they had shown a likelihood of success in their suit for injunctive and declaratory relief. The Gazette: A software glitch? A fake candidate? Judge weighs unusual facts of campaign finance lawsuit By Michael Karlik, Colorado Politics .....A federal judge is considering whether to block Colorado's constitutionally-embedded campaign spending limits from being enforced against a single Republican candidate, little over one week before the 2022 election. While the outcome may hinge on a pair of legal doctrines without much reliance on the facts of the case, the circumstances are nevertheless unusual. After a seven-hour hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang on Friday, there was no definitive explanation for why Paul Archer, who is running to represent House District 37 in the south metro area, became subject to the state's voluntary spending limits in the first place. DHS New York Post: Feds keep Facebook censorship portal despite DHS Disinformation Board demise By Steven Nelson .....Government and law enforcement officials are able to request censorship of Facebook and Instagram posts using a special portal — despite the Biden administration’s failed attempt to establish a Disinformation Governance Board, according to a new report. The previously unknown portal allows officials with .gov or law enforcement email addresses to request censorship in the name of fighting “disinformation,” The Intercept reported. Facebook reportedly created the portal for the Department of Homeland Security and other entities to squelch content. The link remains live despite the public furor over the proposed board to police domestic political speech, which was scrapped earlier this year due to backlash and questions about its legality. Congress Axios: Sen. Chris Murphy calls for probe into Saudi Arabia's stake in Twitter By Jacob Knutson .....Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday called for a congressional investigation into the national security implications of a company partially owned by Saudi Arabia maintaining its stake in Twitter following Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of the platform. The Media NPR: Right-wing 'zombie' papers attack Illinois Democrats ahead of elections By David Folkenflik .....Schoenburg first noticed these papers several election cycles ago, born out of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, which crusaded against greater taxation and regulation. Since then, they have spread across the state, presenting themselves as down-home newspapers in multiple communities with names that hark back to times before people relied on social media to find out out about developments in their communities. Washington Post: James Bennet was right By Erik Wemple .....Controversy over an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) consumed the New York Times in June 2020 and claimed the job of then-editorial page editor James Bennet. Two-and-a-half years later, Bennet has shared some thoughts about the episode — and, in particular, the role of Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger. Free Expression Glenn Greenwald: The Consortium Imposing the Growing Censorship Regime .....There has been some reporting — by me and others — on the new and utterly fraudulent “disinformation” industry. This newly minted, self-proclaimed expertise, grounded in little more than crude political ideology, claims the right to officially decree what is “true” and "false” for purposes of, among other things, justifying state and corporate censorship of what its “experts” decree to be "disinformation.” The industry is funded by a consortium of a small handful of neoliberal billionaires (George Soros and Pierre Omidyar) along with U.S., British and EU intelligence agencies. These government-and-billionaire-funded “anti-disinformation” groups often masquerade under benign-sounding names: The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensics Research Lab, Bellingcat, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. They are designed to cast the appearance of apolitical scholarship, but their only real purpose is to provide a justifying framework to stigmatize, repress and censor any thoughts, views and ideas that dissent from neoliberal establishment orthodoxy. It exists, in order words, to make censorship and other forms of repression appear scientific rather than ideological. Candidates and Campaigns Washington Post: As midterms loom, TikTok faces its next political test By Cat Zakrzewski, Naomi Nix and Taylor Lorenz .....Three years ago, TikTok imposed strict rules prohibiting campaign advertising as the video-sharing app tried to avoid the scandals over political content that have long dogged its social media rivals. But with Election Day fast approaching, TikTok can’t manage to stay on the sidelines. Nearly 30 percent of all major-party candidates in Senate races have TikTok accounts, and one-fifth of all major-party House candidates have an account on the platform, according to a new analysis from the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that examines efforts by foreign nations to interfere in democratic institutions. Forbes: Congressman Spends $540 Of Campaign Money At Insane Asylum By Zach Everson .....On Sept. 1, the campaign for Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.V.) spent $540 on event tickets at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The 160-year-old former hospital for the mentally ill in Weston, West Virginia now offers historic and paranormal tours. The States Los Angeles Times: Commentary: A fight for power in Sacramento tests boundaries of campaign finance law By Laurel Rosenhall .....Rendon’s supporters see the PAC as evidence that Rivas is trying to buy votes. They point to the fact that the new PAC is spending most of its money to help candidates in seats Democrats are sure to win, and much less to support Democrats in swing districts. 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 ‌ ‌ ‌ The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected]