Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “free speech”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Even The Most Well-Meaning Internet Regulations Can Cause Real Harm'
- kudos:I’ve only skimmed this so far, but while I firmly believe that the fetishizing of freedom of expression is causing real issues in our world, I appreciate Masnick’s critique. I expect I’ll always be more keen on regulation than he is, but that doesn’t make him wrong in the points he’s making here. link to “Even The Most Well-Meaning Internet Regulations Can Cause Real Harm”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes to the Dangerous Kids Online Safety Act '
- kudos:Look, it’s hard to oppose legislation that purports to be “for the kids,” but with the EFF, Mike Masnick, and other voices I respect still firmly against this, I’ll be calling my reps—and encouraging others to do the same. link to “Don’t Fall for the Latest Changes to the Dangerous Kids Online Safety Act “
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Bill Ackman: Nazis On ExTwitter Are Just The Price Of Free Speech; But Marxist Theory Or Anti-Israel Claims On Campus Are Beyond The Pale'
- kudos:Masnick’s perspectives on free speech are always helpful. link to “Bill Ackman: Nazis On ExTwitter Are Just The Price Of Free Speech; But Marxist Theory Or Anti-Israel Claims On Campus Are Beyond The Pale”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Promises To Sue Media Matters To Silence Their Speech | Techdirt'
- kudos:Masnick’s frustration here is fun to read. link to “‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Promises To Sue Media Matters To Silence Their Speech | Techdirt”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The U.S. Government Wants To Control Online Speech to “Protect Kids” | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:There’s so much inane blathering about free speech on the internet that it’s easy to sometimes forget that it can be a real concern. Here’s one such example. link to ‘The U.S. Government Wants To Control Online Speech to “Protect Kids” | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Something odd is happening when you try and search Twitter for Threads links - The Verge'
- kudos:It appears that Musk’s “free speech absolutism” continues to be selective and self-serving. link to ‘Something odd is happening when you try and search Twitter for Threads links - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots | Ars Technica'
- kudos:I get that it’s straightforward language that everyone will get, but I think “uncensored” is the wrong word here. Content moderation is not (necessarily) censorship, and content moderation is good and helpful for tools like generative AI. link to ‘ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter ‘Shadowbans’ Bellingcat After Musk Attacks Them, Then Tries To Retcon A Nonsense Explanation | Techdirt'
- kudos:Bellingcat does good work; Twitter continues to be a joke. link to ‘Twitter ‘Shadowbans’ Bellingcat After Musk Attacks Them, Then Tries To Retcon A Nonsense Explanation | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Once Again, ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Caves To Authoritarian Censorial Bullies | Techdirt'
- kudos:I know I can always count on Masnick to write this article when a story like this comes up. link to ‘Once Again, ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Caves To Authoritarian Censorial Bullies | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Substack writers say Twitter’s newsletter ban is bad for business — and worse for Twitter - The Verge'
- kudos:How does this acquisition continue to get dumber and dumber? link to ‘Substack writers say Twitter’s newsletter ban is bad for business — and worse for Twitter - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.'
- kudos:Free speech is genuinely important, but it’s hard to take the ideal seriously when its advocates twist it to mean something specific and self-serving. link to ‘Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter - The Verge'
- kudos:I mean, I’m willing to wait a bit and see what Twitter and Musk have to say about this, but this sure doesn’t seem like the approach that a free speech absolutist would take. link to ‘Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account | Techdirt'
- kudos:How does such an already bad story get so much worse over the course of a single day? link to ‘Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Goodbye, Twitter - by Ken White - The Popehat Report'
- kudos:I haven’t been following Ken White as much as I used to, but this reminds me why I appreciate his perspective. This is someone who knows what free speech is and advocates for it, not someone who uses it as a buzzword justification for reprehensible behavior, à la Musk. link to ‘Goodbye, Twitter - by Ken White - The Popehat Report’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge'
- kudos:They’re so obvious as to almost not be worth pointing out, but two points: First, this is why making verification a paid feature is dumb; and second, penalizing parody because your business model is dumb is not what free speech absolutism looks like. link to ‘Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge'
- kudos:Choosing not to do business with someone isn’t an assault on free speech—it’s the very definition of the marketplace of ideas. link to ‘Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt'
- kudos:Interesting read here from Masnick. I’m not familiar with everything he writes about here, but I always appreciate his perspective. link to ‘Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas has teed up a Supreme Court fight for the future of the internet - The Verge'
- kudos:We need to do more work to divorce free speech from content moderation. The world without content moderation would be a much worse world, and we don’t want to live in it. Sure, social media platforms are too powerful, but this is not the answer. link to ‘Texas has teed up a Supreme Court fight for the future of the internet - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Platforms Are Censoring Nude Content. Here’s Why You Should Care | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:Here’s the EFF pointing out that “free speech” on these platforms means something very particular rather than a broad, deep commitment to legally-protected expression. link to ‘Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Platforms Are Censoring Nude Content. Here’s Why You Should Care | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Arizona Makes It Illegal To Record Cops From Less Than Eight Feet Away | Techdirt'
- kudos:It’s funny how conditional the GOP’s concerns about free speech are. That’s not to say that free speech isn’t a complicated topic to be weighed in conjunction with other concerns—it absolutely is. But if a party wants to use a simplistic view of free speech as a rallying cry, stunts like this show how just how simplistic that view is. link to ‘Arizona Makes It Illegal To Record Cops From Less Than Eight Feet Away | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Social Network, Truth Social, Is Banning People For Truthing The Truth About January 6 Hearings | Techdirt'
- kudos:This is a peak example of what performative concerns about “free speech” boil down to. link to ‘Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Social Network, Truth Social, Is Banning People For Truthing The Truth About January 6 Hearings | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites - The New York Times'
- kudos:Content moderation is a good thing, and ‘free speech’ should not be our primary concern when it comes to social media platforms. link to ‘Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites - The New York Times’
interview with WEKU on Buffalo shooting and social media content moderation
- kudos:Last week, I was interviewed by a reporter at WEKU about social media and content moderation in the context of the horrific recent shooting in Buffalo, and I was pleased to see the interview appear on the WEKU website this morning. I wish that the headline didn’t frame this as a question of “free speech”—and that I’d perhaps been more forceful in emphasizing that these really aren’t questions of free speech so much as content moderation.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times'
- kudos:Say it together now: Content moderation and free speech are different things. link to ‘Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge'
- kudos:The quotes in here underline how often ‘free speech’ is used to mean ‘problematic right-wing talking points.’ link to ‘Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:EFF cares about and actually understands free speech and content moderation, so their voice is especially important today. link to ‘Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt'
- kudos:I have only been reading Techdirt for a short amount of time, but I increasingly appreciate Masnick’s perspectives on issues like this. link to ‘Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times'
- kudos:Content moderation is a necessity, and Musk’s take here is wildly irresponsible. link to ‘Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times’
- kudos:
Please be skeptical of anyone who describes platform content moderation as censorship.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why Moderating Content Actually Does More To Support The Principles Of Free Speech | Techdirt'
- kudos:Really appreciate Masnick’s perspective here—especially the point that EVERYONE believes in content moderation even if there are disagreements on how to do it. It’s irresponsible for so many (on the right) to describe moderation as censorship. link to ‘Why Moderating Content Actually Does More To Support The Principles Of Free Speech | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK for posting ‘offensive’ tweet - The Verge'
- kudos:Very uncomfortable with this. Tweet wasn’t great, but not sure if it’s criminal. I’m sympathetic to the idea that we underpolice social media, but this is a fantastic example of why so many (including me) are worried about attempts to police it more. link to ‘Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK for posting ‘offensive’ tweet - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times'
- kudos:Glad to see reporting on Rumble, but disappointed to see uncritical repeating of claims about “free speech,” “neutrality,” and “censorship.” There are no neutral platforms, and content moderation is the real key idea here. link to ‘Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt'
- kudos:I have been waiting for days to see what Techdirt would have to say on this, and it doesn’t disappoint. link to ‘The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Devin Nunes, CEO Of Trump's TRUTH Social, Confirms That 'Free Speech' Social Media Will Be HEAVILY Moderated | Techdirt'
- kudos:This inconsistency is mind boggling. link to ‘Devin Nunes, CEO Of Trump’s TRUTH Social, Confirms That ‘Free Speech’ Social Media Will Be HEAVILY Moderated | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Podcast Episode: Who Should Control Online Speech? | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
- kudos:Such a good conversation on such an important topic. link to ‘Podcast Episode: Who Should Control Online Speech? | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'OnlyFans Says It Is Banning Sexually Explicit Content - The New York Times'
- kudos:This is the sort of thing that Gab will decry if they’re serious and consistent about their supposed pro-free speech, anti-deplatformization stand. My bet, though, is that Torba writes a blog post in the next week arguing that porn isn’t free speech and good on banks for cracking down on OnlyFans. link to ‘OnlyFans Says It Is Banning Sexually Explicit Content - The New York Times’