In January 2017, after far-right extremist Richard Spencer was attacked on Inauguration Day, a semi-rhetorical question began trending on social media. Is it okay to punch the Nazi? While I would tend to say that it is rarely ethical to throw the first punch at anyone, can we at least agree that it is not only fair, but morally imperative, ...
I guess this is the digital-age equivalent of defenestration: rather than an authoritarian getting thrown out a window, he gets thrown off Twitter. And now that the major platforms have closed the proverbial barn door while the cows run amok on Pennsylvania Avenue, calling the decision to deplatform Trump too little too late is itself saying far too little, and ...
As has been widely reported, the law called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996) has featured in a political cacophony that has been becoming more ridiculous since the day Twitter first presumed to label Trump’s disinformation for what it was, and which has continued to exacerbate legislative dysfunction down to the final hours in this toxic year. After ...
Right after Mark Zuckerberg delivered his 40-minute address at Georgetown University on October 17, articulating his views on the speech right and the role of Facebook, several very good editorials appeared almost immediately. Most recognized the speech for what it was—PR for a corporation by a CEO who has no particular reason to be expounding on constitutional rights or history. ...
It remains a popular talking point among copyright skeptics to say that copyright limits free speech. When this refrain was played a little over a week ago on Twitter by ReCreate’s Joshua Lamel, I responded that those who keep saying it are “hair-splitting to the point of pedantry.” Lamel replied with the assertion that everyone agrees with this trope—all copyright scholars across the spectrum ...
