Monday, March 26, 2018
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: MARCH 26, 2018
As the Citadel of Free Speech here in Cleveland, we work to protect and promote the basis of our democracy by sharing related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century. Here's what's making the news – and what you should know about – in the past week.
1.) No, Emma Gonzalez did not tear up a photo of the Constitution
A doctored photo of Emma Gonzalez, Parkland shootingandgun reform activist, went viral over the weekend depicting the teen ripping up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
The photo was posted to a Gab, a free speech social network from an account featuring Pepe the Frog—imagery common among white supremacists. After it was posted to Gab, it also went viral on Twitter.
The unedited photo originally appeared in a spread in Teen Vogue that included Gonzalez and other activists. In it, Gonzalez is actually ripping up a firearm target practice poster and not the U.S. Constitution.
2.) The 'Heckler's Veto' v. The First Amendment
The constitutional rights of lawyers have come into question in Tennessee, where Attorney General Herbert Slatery says a new change in conduct rules would infringe on them.
According to the new rules, lawyers cannot “engage in conduct that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or socioeconomic status in conduct related to the practice of law.”
The change is approved by the Tennessee Bar Association and the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility.Slateryargued that including gender identity and sexual orientation in the new rule goes beyond the scope ofanti-discriminationlaw and restricts religious beliefs.
The final decision on the new rule will be made in several weeks.
3.) PACIFIC for March 26: Apple fires on Facebook
Apple is taking advantage of Facebook’s recent free speech and privacy struggles. CEO Tim Cook and SVP Eddy Cue made statements targeting the social media platform while bolstering Apple’s own image:
• On privacy abuse: "[Facebook's misuse of data] is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary."
• On data harvesting: "The ability of anyone to know what you've been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life -- from my own point of view it shouldn't exist."
• On fake news: "We want [our articles] to be from trusted sources so that we don't have a lot of the issues that have been going around in the marketplace."
• On hate speech: "I think in today's world companies have to take responsibility... We do think free speech is very important, but we don't think white supremacy or hate speech isimportantspeech to be out there."
Aside from Apple, the FTC has confirmed it is investigating Facebook’s data practices, ArsTechnica says the platform takes data from Android phones, Elon Musk has publicly criticized the company and has joined the #DeleteFacebook movement and Senator Mark Warner says Mark Zuckerberg should testify before Congress.
