Monday, December 02, 2019
#FREESPEECH IN THE NEWS: December 2, 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.) Jackson State becomes 6th Mississippi college to earn FIRE’s top rating for free speech
Jackson State University becomes the sixth institution in Mississippi to earn the highest, “green light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Only 51 other colleges and universities around the country earn an overall green light rating in FIRE’s Spotlight database.
FIRE rates more than 470 institutions nationwide to determine whether their policies restrict speech that is protected by the Constitution. Almost 90% of colleges maintain policies that restrict and chill protected expression.
Mississippi is the second state to have all of its top universities earn a green light rating from FIRE. Mississippi is home to more green light schools than any other state except North Carolina.
2.) YouTube CEO on censoring content: 'Balance responsibility with freedom of speech'
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki met with 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl to discuss the site’s attempt at policing controversial content while maintaining an open platform. Social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have come under scrutiny for allowing misinformation to be promoted on their platforms.
YouTube attempts to guard against videos that promote hate and violence, but the site also polices political ads that are blatant lies. “Politicians are always accusing their opponents of lying,” said Wojcicki. “That said, it's not OK to have technically manipulated content that would be misleading.”
YouTube has made major efforts to try and curb controversial content, including 10,000 employees who sole purpose is to locate and flag misinformation, according to Wojcicki. But the process can be daunting because more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
3.) Facebook urges Singapore government to respect ‘free expression’ as it complies with fake news law
Facebook on Saturday urged Singapore’s government to respect free expression and implement the country’s new fake news law transparently, after it complied with an order to correct a dissident blogger’s post.
The social media giant attached a label to the November 23 post by the “States Times Review” page that said it was “legally required” to tell users that “the Singapore government says this post has false information.”
The notice was linked to an official website outlining the government’s detailed assertions on why the post, wrote by the Australia-based blogger Alex Tan Zhi Xiang, contained false statements of fact.
