A new piece in The Free Press, the release of the first National Speech Index, and more!

Bringing you the latest free speech news (3/3/2024)

Stories of the week

• Angel Eduardo
  and I wrote for The Free Press on how “If Berkeley Wants to Protect Free Speech It Will Expel Its Rioters” 

Contrary to what many students—and embarrassingly too often, grown adults—argue, violence, heckling, and shutdowns of events are not free speech, but its hideous and counterproductive opposite. The principles enshrined in our First Amendment were meant to allow us to solve our differences through vigorous dialogue and debate, without resorting to acts of violence and intimidation. Our institutions of higher education must actively preserve and defend these principles. Doing otherwise will lead to more of the mayhem we witnessed this week at UC Berkeley, and which we’ve witnessed on campuses across the country in the last few years.

• Why is an Indian court order determining what you can read on the internet? By Sarah McLaughlin

The story begins in June 2022, when Reuters published an article about India’s emerging hacking industry that mentioned Appin as an alleged example. A lawsuit followed that November in India against Reuters and three of its journalists by the Association of Appin Training Centers, a group operating under the Appin franchise name, whose authenticity Reuters has reportedly contested, citing its incorporation “only months after it named itself as the plaintiff suing Reuters.”

This week in ERI

• Online censorship in the UK has led to far more arrests than the Red Scare by

  Adam Goldstein
  and me

This week in FIRE’s blog

• Big win for students, faculty as Furman University adopts free speech statement

• Gov. Ron DeSantis must veto social media censorship bill

• ‘CNSRD AF’: PennDot’s weird and inconsistent vanity plate rejections by

  Angel Eduardo

• FIRE tells Ninth Circuit that social media companies cannot be forced to weigh in on culture war by Joshua House

• First National Speech Index shows a mixed bag for free speech by Sean Stevens

• Supreme Court Justices raise First Amendment concerns in NetChoice oral argument by Talia Barnes

• POLL: 69% of Americans believe country on wrong track on free speech

First Amendment News

• Certainty and uncertainty: The tech platform cases — First Amendment News 413 by Ronald K. L. Collins

FIRE’s ‘So to Speak’ podcast

• Free speech news: NetChoice, Taylor Swift, October 7, and Satan

And don’t forget to subscribe for the new So to Speak Substack!

Song of the month

• “Big Love” by EARTHGANG, Louis The Child, and MNDR