WSJ plugs FIRE’s SM report, Lesson 2 in keeping FIRE nonpartisan, & more!

Bringing you the latest free speech news (11/17/24)

Stories of the week

• How Trump Can Combat Censorship (WSJ) by Andrew M. Grossman & Kristin A. Shapiro

A transparency-based approach targets true government censorship without triggering these externalities. As a 2024 report[*] from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression explains, transparency would “enable the public to know when the federal government is communicating with social media companies and what it’s communicating about,” which “would help prevent overreach and empower Americans to challenge it when it occurs.” The risks are minimal: Even if the definition of the conduct subject to a reporting requirement is overbroad, nothing is actually being prohibited.

*FIRE Report on Social Media

• My visit from police on Remembrance Sunday is living proof of our two-tier justice system (The Telegraph) by Allison Pearson

PC S, the one on the left, who did all the talking, told me that they were here to inform me that I had been accused of a non-crime hate incident (NCHI). It was to do with something I had posted on X (formerly Twitter) a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes. Stirring up racial hatred, apparently.

This week in FIRE’s blog

• FIRE statement on congressional leaders smuggling unconstitutional Antisemitism Awareness Act into a must-pass defense bill

For more on why FIRE opposes the Antisemitism Awareness Act, check out this piece I wrote for ERI back in July.

This week in ERI

• Lesson 2: Promote and preserve viewpoint diversity by me

The FIRE team is now about 120 strong, and I often get positive notes from staff about how ideologically and politically diverse we actually are. We’re made up of full-blown anarcho-capitalists, socialists, libertarians, liberals, conservatives, atheists, the devoutly religious, and everything in between. FIRE Senior Writer/Editor and ERI contributor

Angel Eduardo

frequently mentions that he’s never worked in a place where people are so varied in their politics and ideology but can still get along so well. He chalks it up to the fact that to work at FIRE, you only need to agree on one thing: free expression. With that as the uniting principle and primary focus, you can differ on pretty much anything else and still work together.

This week on ‘So to Speak’

• This week on

  So to Speak
  ,
  Nico Perrino
  is joined by free speech hero, and outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism,
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  .

International free speech stories of the week

• 2 New York Men Charged in Monthslong Plot to Kill Iranian Activist (NYT) by Harubie Meko

• Hongkonger charged with sedition under Article 23 security law over social media posts (HKFP) by Irene Chan

Podcast of the week

• I was thrilled to join the “Growing Up with Delia Burgess” podcast to talk about my upbringing, time at Stanford, and career in free speech advocacy.

Note: Please consider a gift to FIRE to support our litigation efforts including this newly launched lawsuit defending Oklahoma historian James Gregory’s academic freedom and this recent victory for Kimberly Diei.