The rapper, podcaster, and author talks about "freedom, liberty, and all of that good stuff."
The lawsuit alleges that the Biden Administration – more specifically President Biden, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the Department of Homeland Security’s “Disinformation Governance Board” Nina Jankowicz, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and others – both pressured and colluded with social media giants Meta, Twitter, and Youtube to censor free speech in the name of combating so-called “disinformation” and “misinformation,” which led to the suppression and censorship of truthful information on several topics, including COVID-19.
Today, the United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana granted Missouri and Louisiana’s motion for discovery in their lawsuit against top-ranking Biden Administration officials for allegedly colluding to suppress freedom of speech, paving the way for the attorneys general to collect discovery and documents from both top-ranking Biden Administration officials as well as social media giants like Twitter, Meta, and others. The lawsuit was filed on May 5.
Our free and democratic society isn’t possible if citizens cannot voice their opinions about politics and elected officials. That’s why the First Amendment safeguards people’s rights to participate in the political process, to criticize government officials and to advocate for political change. That’s just what William Fambrough was doing in his home city of East Cleveland in 2021 when he used his step van—outfitted as a sound truck with a candidate poster—to campaign for a challenger to the incumbent mayor.But rather than respecting his basic rights, the city government, angered at its political competition, used its police and law departments to retaliate against William in the months leading up to the election. Police officers repeatedly showed up at William’s home and claimed that parking the van there violated an old city ordinance—an ordinance that is never enforced against anyone else. They ultimately fined him and towed his van, doing thousands of dollars of damage in the process. And they cited William for “noise pollution,” despite his obtaining a permit to broadcast campaign messages from his van throughout East Cleveland.
“Free speech is now treated like STDs and violence on campus with its own trauma-related or protective program,†Professor Turley wrote.
FIRE is (not so) proud to announce our 10 worst colleges for free speech for 2022.
In an unusual and brazen act of censorship, the University of Florida blocked three political science professors from testifying as expert witnesses in a lawsuit challenging a Florida law which places restrictions on voting.
What innovation recruits strangers as allies and recasts our opponents as guardians? In this episode of Johan Norberg’s New and Improved, Norberg explains the historical impact of free speech and how it curates a feast of knowledge we would otherwise miss.By securing the freedom to openly and loudly disagree, the best of what we miss is amplified, improved, and stress-tested. In the 17th century, this unleashed the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.In a climate of free speech, strangers expand our awareness, and critics sharpen our views. Perhaps most importantly, the most powerful authorities are subordinated to constant tests of truth.
Now, we are quick to point out in this column that the government is generally incapable of doing anything right. Or at a minimum, incapable of doing anything quickly or efficiently.But I have been really surprised at how quickly and efficiently they’ve been able to commandeer total control of the narrative.They have the media and tech companies in line. They have major medical associations in line. They’ve convinced hundreds of millions of people that they are the only source of truth and information, regardless of their obvious lies and bias.And anyone who publicly expresses independent thinking, or dares to challenge this narrative (no matter how strong the evidence) is canceled off the Internet with a Chinese-level of efficiency.This is the topic for today’s podcast as we assess the incredibly bewildering year that we’ve all just experienced. You can listen in here.
In late 2019, a team executive for the NBA’s Houston Rockets Tweeted a very brief statement of support for pro-freedom protesters in Hong Kong.Hardly anyone should have noticed; he didn’t have much of a following, and it was an incredibly harmless comment.Yet that single Tweet caused a massive firestorm. The Chinese government lost its mind — how dare this American peasant say anything that’s counter to our interests?!?!And like that… poof… China’s government censors erased the Houston Rockets off the face of their Internet.
