Freedom of speech

Lawsuit reveals vast censorship scheme by Big Tech and the federal government

A little noticed federal lawsuit, Missouri v. Biden, is uncovering astonishing evidence of an entrenched censorship scheme cooked up between the federal government and Big Tech that would make Communist China proud.

So far, 67 officials or agencies — including the FBI — have been accused in the lawsuit of violating the First Amendment by pressuring Facebook, Twitter and Google to censor users for alleged misinformation or disinformation.

Victims of the Biden-Big Tech’s “censorship enterprise” include The Post, whose Hunter Biden laptop exposé was suppressed by Facebook and then Twitter in October 2020 after the FBI went to Facebook warning them with great specificity to watch out for a “dump” of Russian disinformation, pertaining to Joe Biden, with an uncanny resemblance to our stories.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Big Tech Oligopoly", Big Brother, Big Government, Freedom of speech

The US supreme court case that could bring the tech giants to their knees

… Now spool forward to November 2015 when Nohemi Gonzalez, a young American studying in Paris, was gunned down in a restaurant by the Islamic State terrorists who murdered 129 other people that night. Her family sued Google, arguing that its YouTube subsidiary had used algorithms to push IS videos to impressionable viewers, using the information that the company had collected about them. Their petition seeking a supreme court review argues that “videos that users viewed on YouTube were the central manner in which IS enlisted support and recruits from areas outside the portions of Syria and Iraq which it controlled”.

The key thing about the Gonzalez suit, though, is not that YouTube should not be hosting IS videos (section 230 allows that) but that its machine-learning “recommendation” algorithms, which may push other, perhaps more radicalising, videos, renders it liable for the resulting damage. Or, to put it crudely, while YouTube may have legal protection for hosting whatever its users post on it, it does not – and should not – have protection for an algorithm that determines what they should view next.

Or bring free speech to its knees.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Big Tech Oligopoly", Freedom of speech

Ye, Parler Reach Agreement for Embattled Rapper to Buy Platform

Censored on one platform? No problem. Just buy another. That seems to be the situation for the rapper and fashion designer, “formerly known as Kanye West.”

Parler, on Monday, announced that Ye will acquire Parler from Parlement Technologies, which is expected to take effect by the end of this year.

Parler bills itself as “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom of speech

The tech tyrants are out of control

PayPal’s fantasy about fining speechcriminals is a terrifying sign of the times.

Our corporate overlords are out of control. Just look at PayPal. It appears to have flirted with the idea of fining people for saying problematic things, for dealing in wrongthink. A briefly published new policy said users might have a whopping $2,500 seized from their coffers if PayPal believed they were engaged in ‘misinformation’ or ‘hate speech’. Just think about what an egregious affront this would have been not only to freedom of speech but also to the fundamentals of justice. Without a trial, presumably even without the right of representation, an individual or organisation could have been subjected to severe financial punishment on the say so of some hip moderator in California who didn’t like something they said. Tech tyranny is getting serious now.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Big Tech Oligopoly", Freedom of speech

New York Times: We Should Criminalize Speech Like Germany

The New York Times has been running an extended crusade for some years now to dispense with freedom of speech. It’s run op-eds arguing that speech is violence, that the First Amendment has been misunderstood… and that we should be more like Germany.

This lunatic is all for it…

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Freedom of speech, Germany, New York Times

Do you want free speech to thrive? Then it has to be regulated, now more than ever

Freedom of speech is one of the most slippery concepts in political philosophy. John Stuart Mill pronounced it absolute but qualified it, as he did all liberties, where it causes “harm” to others. On that tenuous footing has grown an edifice of laws on slander, libel, incitement and, more recently, the causing of offence.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted in"Cancel Culture", "Criminalizing Dissent", Censorship, Freedom of speech, Hypocrisy

Rushdie stabbing prompts Canadian literary figures to highlight author’s free speech fight

Canadian writers, publishers and literary figures doubled down on the right to freedom of thought and expression on Saturday, one day after an attack in the U.S. on award-winning author Salman Rushdie that has left him on a ventilator in hospital.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inCanada, Censorship, Censorship in Canada, Freedom of speech, Freedom of speech - at risk in Canada

Smoking Gun: USG, Free Speech, Big Tech

Doctors working on the front lines providing early COVID treatment and raising concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID genetic vaccines have long suspected that the US Government Department of Health and Human Services was colluding with Big Tech to censor, defame, gaslight and deplatform anyone who veers from the government-approved narrative regarding these matters. But now we finally have hard evidence which documents this blatant infringement on the right to free speech by the US Government.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease", "Comply!", "Experts", Big Pharma, Big Tech, Freedom of speech, Government is never your friend

Read the Real Romeo and Juliet, Not the Kid-Friendly Version

Though book banners may try to convince otherwise, students don’t need protection from the passion portrayed in Shakespeare’s classic.

In ninth grade, like high school freshmen all over America, I was assigned Romeo and Juliet to read for my English class. As a longtime literature geek even at the age of 14, I was thrilled to be entering the big leagues. We’d read some Charles Dickens and a little John Steinbeck. But this? This was William Shakespeare. This was serious, complicated stuff.

You’ll have to imagine my excitement as I took the book home to show it to my father, a professor of American literature. The look of irritation on his face as I passed him the book is something I’ll never forget.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom of speech

Jamil Jivani: Trudeau has damaged the Liberal party’s commitment to free speech

Trudeau has spent the last few years cultivating support from a subset of Canadians who do not place as much value in free expression as liberals have in the past

For Canadians who believe in free speech, it’s time we recognize the damage that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has done to the Liberal Party of Canada. He has abandoned voters at the centre and appeals to an increasingly left-wing base that breaks from the federal Liberal party’s past support for free speech.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom of speech

Survey suggests Right leaning Canadians’ more likely than totalitarian leaning Lib-left to hold only acceptable stance on free speech

Survey suggests Canadians’ stance on free speech is swayed by their political views

A new survey suggests there is a strong relationship between a person’s political perspective and their views on free speech in Canada.

Respondents who lean right were more likely to believe there should be no limits on speech, including the right to express hateful and offensive opinions.

The national phone survey by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan was done between June 1 and June 27. It asked 1,000 people about their political leanings and their views on free speech.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFreedom of speech

Police investigate Ontario town council meeting where speech against LGBTQ2+ community was made

Ontario Provincial Police are looking into the Tuesday council meeting in tiny Norwich, Ont., where a man facing criminal charges for taking down Pride flags spoke for half an hour about his opposition to the LGBTQ2+ community, particularly transgender people.

“I can tell you that we are aware of the council meeting and information is being reviewed at this time,” said Oxford OPP Const. Patti Cote.

Norwich Township council has released a statement saying it had asked for legal advice before allowing businessman Jacob (Jake) Dey to address the Tuesday meeting, leaving many “hurt and unsafe” by “what many consider hateful comments.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inBig Gay, Freedom of speech

Stupid students want more restrictions on free speech

Students want more restrictions on free speech and safe spaces on campus compared with six years ago, a survey suggests.

It reveals that far more undergraduates want to be protected from difficult viewpoints and see certain groups or issues banned from discussion.

Universities should set out explanations of “academic norms” to new students in freshers’ week, the report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) recommends. It also suggest that institutions should be careful not to invite too many controversial or inflammatory speakers.

While this is a UK survey I feel certain the same would hold true in North America. You have to wonder at the quality of education provided these young geniuses and whether it’s worth society’s continued investment.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Cancel Culture", Censorship, Education Bubble, Freedom of speech