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Want to know what is on our minds? Find blog posts written here, by the City Club staff, members, and partners. Every week you can find a new edition of #FreeSpeech in the News — a collection of related stories, commentary, and opinions on free speech in the 21st century that’s making the news. You’ll also find takes on current events, past forums, and issues surrounding Northeast Ohio. Read on for all things City Club.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2019

#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Bliss Davis, Content and Programming Coordinator, The City Club of Cleveland

#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: FEBRUARY 19, 2019

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.) WhatsApp is at risk in India. So are free speech and encryption.

India is WhatsApp’s biggest market. It’s also suddenly one of the company’s biggest threats.

Regulators in India, where both WhatsApp and parent company Facebook have more than 200 million users, are proposing what amounts to a radical change to the country’s internet privacy and liability laws.

The new set of rules, first published in late December and still under consideration, would require, among other things, that internet companies proactively screen user posts and messages to ensure that people don’t share anything “unlawful.” It’s an attempt by the Indian government to hold technology companies accountable for the content that appears on their platforms — content that can be misleading, create confusion, and has even led to real-world violence in India.

2.) Supreme Court declines to hear Connecticut speech case

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a Connecticut man who said his free speech rights were violated when he was arrested and convicted of threatening the judge in his divorce case. The court released its decision Tuesday without comment.

Edward Taupier, of Cromwell, recently finished an 18-month prison sentence for threatening Judge Elizabeth Bozzuto, now the state's deputy chief court administrator. Prosecutors say Taupier sent an email to six acquaintances in 2014 that described Bozzuto's home and how certain rifles could be fired at it from a nearby cemetery. Taupier argued the email was a "hyperbolic expression of vitriol" protected by free speech rights.

Taupier’s prison sentence also included four months for Facebook posts urging people to kill judges and employees at the Middletown courthouse.

3.) UM housing staff leaves dorm doors alone in protecting free speech

When a group of black University of Michigan students had name tags on their dorm room doors vandalized with racist language in fall 2017, it was labeled by many during campus protests as hate speech. Despite many finding the language offensive, a UM policy wouldn’t allow university or student housing staff to erase or remove the language - and it still doesn’t.

Yet, UM has been under scrutiny since a lawsuit was filed against it by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group Speech First alleging the university’s disciplinary codes prohibiting harassment and bullying limit "staggering amounts of protected speech and expression.”

A federal judge denied Speech First’s effort to immediately end UM’s use of a Bias Response Team that it claimed hindered free speech on campus. In response to the lawsuit, however, the university has provided clarity to its definitions of bullying and harassment with an emphasis on the protection of free speech, including in its residence halls.

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