#SocialMedia#Twitter#Censorship#FreedomOfSpeech: "Elon Musk is taking an increasingly combative approach against what he claims are government efforts to censor posts on his social media platform X, as the billionaire engages in public battles with political figures over the issue.
X has attacked “takedown” requests in Brazil, India and Australia in recent weeks, after authorities demanded the removal of content on the site they deem as illegal or harmful.
Its owner, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, has gone further, labelling Brazil’s supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes a “dictator” and Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, a former Twitter employee, a “censorship commissar”.
In one of these disputes, an Australian legal hearing began on Friday to determine whether X must scrub footage of a violent attack in Sydney from the platform."
Every single Columbia person who agreed to this should be ashamed & leave education, as they're clearly unfit for any campus or the welfare of the students they are responsible for
“We are seeing the illusion of American freedom, the illusion of American freedom of speech, crumbling behind us. The system and this university have decided to showcase that they would rather subjugate, oppress and silence students than allow us to have a peaceful demonstration where we hope to educate each other. We will not be silenced.”
Hadi, a student demonstrator at the University of Texas, Austin
#EU#France#Israel#Palestine#FreedomOfSpeech#Censorship#FranceInsoumise: "Since October 7, France Insoumise’s position on the Israel-Palestine conflict has turned it into the target of much of the French political class, including a pro-Israel faction on the center left, who have used the crisis to pursue the ostracization of the left-wing force founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. They’ve pointed to statements like France Insoumise’s October 7 communiqué as definitive proof of the “antisemitic,” “Islamo-leftist” extremism that supposedly runs rampant on the Left — making it into a threat on par with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, or perhaps an even more dangerous one.
The prosecutor’s office has yet to publicly explain its reasons for summoning Hassan or Panot. Panot’s press release, however, claims that the cause is indeed the party’s October 7 communiqué, a text which referred to the day’s attacks as an “armed offensive of Palestinian forces led by Hamas,” one coming in “the context of an intensification of Israel’s policy of colonization in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
“We mourn the lives of dead Israelis and Palestinians,” the October 7 statement continued, before calling for an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations."
Watching the most recent music video of #ToomajSalehi who has been sentenced to death by the government of Iran basically for protesting them and rapping.
#SocialMedia#Twitter#Musk#FreedomOfSpeech#Brazil: "In his response to Musk’s tweets refusing to comply with court orders, Justice de Moraes argued that Twitter/X’s actions were “not only abuse of economic power, by trying to ILLEGALLY impact public opinion, but also flagrant induction and instigation to maintain various criminal conducts practiced by the digital militias under investigation.” In short, Brazil would not stand for it, and it seems one of Musk’s yes men dared to talk some sense into him.
On April 15, Reuters reported that Musk’s lawyers contradicted the previous statements of their boss. “As already communicated to the federal police, X Brasil informs that all orders issued by this Supreme Court and the Superior Electoral Court will continue to be fully complied with by X Corp,” they wrote in a letter to de Moraes. This could lead to Musk’s brief Brazil saga fading out of people’s memories as he undoubtedly gets himself embroiled in other scandals in the coming weeks, but it doesn’t change the fundamental point.
The internet is entering a new era. It may not yet be fully clear what it will look like, but we can be certain that social media platforms are in for more regulation than they’ve seen in the previous two decades as people are no longer falling for the hype and deception they relied on to get away with degrading and capitalizing on our communications for so long. That isn’t inherently a violation of free expression, as understood by many countries, but a necessary correction to align their operations with the laws and values of the countries in which they operate.
Brazil is right to challenge Musk’s policy changes designed to turn Twitter/X into a haven and organizing ground for the global far right — and it shouldn’t stop there. Communications platforms aren’t just profit machines for major corporations or political playthings for US billionaires." https://disconnect.blog/elon-musk-is-already-losing-his-battle-with-brazil/
you may not agree with Jodi Dean's position. but the attempt to silence here, punish her for speaking about her viewpoints, is beyond the pale. anyone who cares about #FreedomOfSpeech or #AcademicFreedom should sign this petition
#SocialMedia#ContentModeration#Censorship#FreedomOfSpeech#Authoritarianism: "I worry that liberals and some on the left routinely downplay the threat to speech that these platforms and the prospect of government control over them present. This is in part because there are few staunch defenders of free speech among their ranks these days. It’s not hard to see why this is. The bad faith invocation of free speech has been used by some heinous characters to defend online harassment, doxxing, and surveillance-based micro-targeting. Moreover, the past two decades have witnessed the gauche instrumentation of the First Amendment to argue for corporations’ rights to do whatever the fuck they want, including the tech industry’s brandishing the constitution to defend their metastatic business model.
It’s true, there is a lot of disingenuous nonsense when it comes to free speech discourse. But this doesn’t mean we should confuse these essential rights with the actors who speciously invoke them — something we often see in the liberal tendency to deny that centralized platform control of speech is a significant problem. The real problem, much liberal policy implies, is too little control of speech — too little monitoring, surveillance, and age-gating; too little trust, and too little safety; too many criminals hiding in shadows with not enough national security oversight; and too little U.S. ownership and “control.” The all-too-commonly proffered solution to the harms that flow from platform surveillance practices and business models is to ensure that they are wisely governed by upstanding people applying appropriate norms and standards. The fight, in other words, is aimed at expanding power over these platforms to governments and sometimes NGOs. With the counterfactual vision of an ordered and just state standing in for any critical thinking about who will actually exercise such power, and how." https://lpeproject.org/blog/social-media-authoritarianism-and-the-world-as-it-is/
From The Times. I will believe it when I see it. This has gone on too long. I have no respect for much of Assange's behaviour and subsequent stupidity, but this has clearly been a malicious and dangerous prosecution/rendition with dangerous precedents for journalism and freedom of speech.
ICYMI, #SCOTUS has heard oral arguments in 5 cases involving questions about how the First Amendment applies to social media posts – and it’s all part of a larger effort by conservatives to block what they claim is government censorship
@arstechnica United States must respect human rights and freedom.If someone doesn't like TikTok,they can avoid using it.And anyone who wants to use it should be free to use it.It must be the people's choice.That is human freedom.
The government can impose any sanctions on ByteDance or any other company.But they can't ban tiktok in a way that people can't use it on their personal smart phones.If they do that America is the same as Russia, China and Iran.
After the announcing new repressions, reduction of retirement funds for all the population, layouts of hundreds from several institutions including, national airline company and disabilities agency, the autocrat #Milei just started closing press organizations and censoring journalists. The buildings are getting militarized.
This is what constitutes his office being "stormed" for Paul Sweeney, Labour MSP. A lady and a gentleman with placards.
Police Scotland later dismissed his fictitious claims.
On such slim threads are our police resources being wasted and our democracy being undermined, by our own politicians.
@fkamiah17
The Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson made a similar twist to reality a while ago, when there were some protesters and hecklers at a public meeting he held. He blew it up as a major threat to democracy, that some people spoke up against his politics. ❄️ #UlfKristersson #svpol #Sweden #FreedomOfSpeech
#BlackMastodon#BlackTwitter#FreedomofSpeech#NotInKansasAnymoreDorothy@blackmastodon
I try not to be a petty person but today I can't help it. My former dean who was a DeSantis sycophant and agreed to let our campus be the example that there would be no adopting COVID protocols for safety. She was handsomely rewarded by DeSantis. FOr some reason...Barnard College hired her to be President. As I told the NYT reporter, just watch her for six months. 1/2