Tuesday, June 07, 2016
#FreeSpeech in the News: Week of June 6, 2016
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 - this week.
The Economist's cover story this week is a call to action against curbs on free speech that asks why the right is coming under new pressures.
"Never try to silence views with which you disagree. Answer objectionable speech with more speech. Win the argument without resorting to force."
The Christian Science Monitor explores why some advocates for free speech also purport to "stand with hate speech" as concerns of censorship over theEuropean Union's new digital code of conduct grow.
"They [Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, and Google] take down perfectly legal content out of concern that otherwise they themselves could get in trouble... Moving that determination out of the court system, out of the public eye, and into the hands of private companies is pretty much a recipe for legal content getting deleted."
Bloomberg View writes that we shouldn't expect social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to be protectors of free speech.
" These social media giants are private actors, not the state. They can’t be trusted to protect free speech, nor is it their obligation, whether in Europe or the U.S. Those of us who care about preserving free speech need to keep that in mind, while maintaining other venues for free speech that aren’t controlled by private companies"
