Free Speech Roundup: Week of June 10th, 2018

snaves (39)in #freespeech • 7 years ago

A summary of the top free speech related news and events from the past week. This week we have news on a Supreme Court ruling, a federal lawsuit, the EU's proposed online copyright legislation, and an online crackdown in Tanzania.

Freedom of speech is the right from which all other human rights follow because it allows people to address grievances and protest for their other rights. It is therefore of the utmost importance to protect the right to express oneself freely from those who seek to restrict it.

Justice Department Backs Free Speech Lawsuit

https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2018/06/11/doj-lawsuit-michigan-speech-code/691414002/
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/06/15/university-michigan-dismissal-request-free-speech-lawsuit/705875002/
The Justice Department filed a statement supporting the lawsuit by the group Speech First against the University of Michigan. The lawsuit claims the university’s speech code violates the First Amendment by using overly broad language that has a chilling effect on student speech and expression. In the statement, Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio asserts the Justice Department’s commitment to protecting freedom of speech on public university campuses. The statement attacks the bias response policy saying, “Unfortunately, the portions of the Statement and the Bias Response Policy that Plaintiff challenges stretch far beyond the objective, well-established legal definitions of 'harassment' or 'bias,' and prohibit broad swaths of speech protected by the First Amendment. In particular, the Statement and the Bias Response Policy proscribe and punish core protected speech based upon nothing more than the listener’s subjective reaction.” UM filed a motion of dismissal based on the fact that the policies in question have been revised and that there was no threat to students of facing disciplinary action for merely expressing controversial opinions.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Polling Place Apparel Law

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-apparel/supreme-court-voids-minnesota-ban-on-voter-political-apparel-idUSKBN1JA23A
The Supreme Court ruled that a Minnesota law prohibiting people from wearing apparel with political messages, such as T-shirts and buttons, at polling places was unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged the good intentions of the law while noting it went too far. He stated, “While that choice [to promote voting “in a setting removed from the clamor and din of electioneering”] is generally worthy of our respect, Minnesota has not supported its good intentions with a law capable of reasoned application.” The ruling sends the case back to the lower court to decide what limits can be placed by the states on what should or should not be allowed in a polling place. The Minnesota law was ruled unconstitutional while other laws regulating election campaign clothing and activity in and around polling places remain constitutional because it was overly broad in banning anything deemed political.

UN Free Speech Expert Denounces Article 13

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180614/13211740041/un-free-speech-expert-eus-copyright-directive-would-be-attack-free-speech-violate-human-rights.shtml
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4516209-OL-OTH-41-2018.html
David Kaye, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, has issued a report denouncing the proposed Article 13 legislation in the European Union Parliament. Article 13 would impose significant restrictions on the internet, requiring content filters for potential copyright violations. In his report, Kaye details the problems with this legislation and argues it would violate the UN's Declaration on Human Rights in regards to free expression. He says that it would result in people being wrongly censored for fair use works with no proper judicial review. Algorithms are not equipped to determine context for fair use and content sharing platforms may just avoid remedies by designating content blocking as terms of service violations. It also places an undue burden on smaller platforms trying to establish themselves and compete in the marketplace.

Tanzania Blogs Shut Down In Government Crackdown

http://www.africanews.com/2018/06/11/tanzania-orders-all-unregistered-bloggers-to-shut-down-their-sites/
A new Tanzania law passed in March requiring online blogs and forums to register and pay a fee has gone into effect. In a veiled effort to crack down on dissent, the law requires registration with the government along with up to a US$900 fee, an amount greater than Tanzania’s per capita income. Legal action will now be taken against unregistered sites posting new content. As a result, websites are shutting down. The government claims the new regulation is intended to target online crimes including hate speech, cyberbullying, and pornography.