Censorship

Failing to renew VOA foreign staffers’ visas would devastate one of its core functions

Michael Pack, the alt-right filmmaker installed by President Donald Trump to run US foreign broadcasting operations, remains on course to dismantle the independent journalism that has been their calling card. Apparently, Voice of America sources say Pack is refusing to renew the visas of foreign-born journalists who are vital to its mission of producing news reports in 47 languages. Pack has also frozen all VOA contracts, under which some 40 percent of its staff are employed.

Could President Trump claim a national security threat to shut down the internet?

“I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about,” President Donald Trump said in a 2020 Oval Office exchange. One of those powers is his authority to shut down radio, television, both wireless and wired phone networks, and the internet. It is not a big step from using the power of the government to threaten free expression to actually doing something to curtail that expression. All it takes is a unilateral “proclamation by the President” of the existence of a “national emergency.”

Lots of Policymakers Hate Section 230 — But They Can't Agree On Why

Building a consensus to change Section 230 will be harder than it looks. The law’s critics have vastly different and sometimes incompatible ideas about how the law should work. Republican and Democratic policymakers alike have called for sites to bear more legal liability if users post illegal content.

Appointment of Michael Pack as CEO of US Agency for Global Media has put internet freedom projects in crisis mode

One of the US government’s strongest forces for internet freedom is in danger, and supporters are calling on the public for help. The Open Technology Fund (OTF), a small US organization devoted to protecting digital speech across the world, has helped support nearly all of the most prominent encryption projects at various points — including Signal, Tails, Qubes, and the Tor Project. But after the abrupt firing of the fund’s entire leadership team, current recipients say their contractually promised funding is now at risk.

Commissioner Starks Remarks on Section 230

Concerning President Donald Trump's Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship, I first want to talk about process and why the FCC needs to keep it from dragging out. Second, I want to move on to the question of the FCC’s rulemaking authority here. And finally, I want to raise some key questions around the substance of the Executive Order. 1) Given the role Section 230 has played in shaping American life online, we have to get this right. And we need to act quickly. 2) I am skeptical that there’s any role for the FCC here.

Sen Cruz Blasts Google for ‘Transparently Politically Motivated’ Move to Target Conservative Media Outlet

Senate Subcommittee on The Constitution Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) sent a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai raising concerns about Google's latest actions to censor political speech with which it disagrees.

Attacks on Voice of America Undermine Press Freedom

Voice of America is one of the largest and most trusted independent news agencies in the world. Efforts to blacklist VOA journalists from interview requests to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are an unprecedented attack on press freedom in the United States. VOA is often one of the few critical and independent voices available in countries without a free press, such as Russia and China.

Senator Markey, Colleagues Introduce Press Freedom Resolution

Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a Senate resolution condemning attacks against members of the media and reaffirming the centrality of a free and independent press and peaceful assembly to the health of democracy in the US. The resolution comes in the wake of the arrest on May 29 of CNN reporters covering protests in Minnesota. This was just one of dozens of reported instances of journalists and photographers being roughly handled by police officers while covering nationwide protests even after having identified themselves as members of the press.

Sens Rubio, Loeffler, Cramer, Hawley Urge FCC to Clarify Section 230 Protections for Social Media Companies

Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) requested that the Federal Communication Commission take a fresh look at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and clearly define the criteria for which companies can receive protections under the statute.

Freedom Is Not Free License: Freedom House’s Flawed Measurement of “Internet Freedom”

Every year, the advocacy group Freedom House releases a survey and analysis of Internet and digital media freedom around the world.

The Complex Debate Over Silicon Valley’s Embrace of Content Moderation

The existential question that every big tech platform from Twitter to Google to Facebook has to wrestle with is the same: How responsible should it act for the content that people post? The answer that Silicon Valley has come up with for decades is: Less is more. But now, as protests of police brutality continue across the country, many in the tech industry are questioning the wisdom of letting all flowers bloom online.

Suit Challenges President’s Executive Order Targeting First Amendment Protected Speech

The Center for Democracy & Technology filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship,” signed May 28, 2020. The suit argues that the Executive Order violates the First Amendment by curtailing and chilling the constitutionally protected speech of online platforms and individuals. 

FCC Commissioner Carr is President Trump's unexpected ally in the fight against tech

He rails against the "far left's" hoaxes. He says the World Health Organization has been “beclowned” over its response to the coronavirus. And he describes a “secret and partisan surveillance machine” run by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA). Those aren't President Donald Trump's words. They came from Brendan Carr, the junior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, who is embracing a flavor of distinctly Trumpian rhetoric that could help him leapfrog his way to the chairmanship of the five-member regulatory agency.

Trump's Social Media Regulation Push Faces Key Hurdle at the FCC

President Donald Trump's effort to regulate social media companies' content decisions may face an uphill battle from Federal Communications Commission regulators who have previously said they cannot oversee the conduct of internet firms. In August 2018, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, "The government is not here to regulate these platforms. We don't have the power to do that." Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican, wrote on Twitter that the review ordered by President Trump is "based on political #speech management of platforms.

How President Trump got the FCC involved in his war against Twitter

President Donald Trump is asking the Federal Communications Commission to review Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that gives social media companies their legal protection. The president wants rules that'll let the agency investigate complaints that social media companies discriminate against certain speech on their platforms. Any role in policing social media will be awkward for the FCC, which has cast itself as anti-regulation under Ajit Pai, its Trump-appointed chairman.

Joe Biden doesn’t like President Trump’s Twitter order, but still wants to revoke Section 230

Former Vice President Joe Biden still wants to repeal Section 230, the pivotal internet law that provides social media companies like Facebook and Twitter with broad legal immunity over content posted by their users, a campaign spokesperson said. Still, the campaign emphasized key disagreements with the executive order signed by President Donald Trump May 28.

Trump Social Media Liability Order Opens Partisan Divide at FCC

The Federal Communications Commission split along party lines on President Donald Trump’s social media executive order, previewing a potential battle to come as the agency weighs action. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Trump wants to turn the FCC into “speech police.” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said he’s troubled that “voices are stifled by liberal tech leaders.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who controls the agency’s agenda, said that the agency will “carefully review any petition for rulemaking filed by the Department of Commerce.” “This debate is an important one,” Chairman Pai added. Com

White House Press Secretary: Social Media Order is About Anti-Conservative Bias

White House press secretary Kayleigh NcEnany used a May 28 press conference to give journalists "the facts" about Twitter and other social media platforms, which she said were "targetting their bias against President Trump and conservatives online." "There are various shields in place that essentially shield these social media companies and allow them to censor conservative users and we're are not able to see what happens behind those shields. That section was one of those.

Reactions to President Trump's Executive Order on Section 230

On May 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order cracking down on "censorship" by social media sites. Here's the reaction.

FCC Commissioner Carr Slams Twitter for Tagging President Trump Tweets

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed social media and their Sec. 230 exemption from liability for how they handle third-party content--both taking it down and leaving it up. Tucker Carlson asked Commissioner Carr why the White House and Congress had not done anything about the exemption. Commissioner Carr cited the reports that the President's executive order would be "addressing some of these issues," then went off on social media himself.

President Trump Considers Forming Panel to Review Complaints of Online Bias

Apparently, President Donald Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anticonservative bias on social media, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others. The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine allegations of online bias and censorship. The administration could also encourage similar reviews by federal regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Election Commission, apparently.

Congress needs to clarify mission and oversight of Voice of America

President Donald Trump’s attack on the Voice of America, calling its content anti-American, has led to polarized battle lines that are common now on national issues. President Trump supporters say the US needs an unabashedly pro-American voice to rally world publics to its side.

Reps Curtis, Engel, McCaul, and Malinowski Introduce Bill to Bolster Internet Freedom Globablly

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY), Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX), and Rep Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) joined Rep John Curtis (R-UT) in releasing the bipartisan Open Technology Fund Authorization Act (HR 6621). The legislation will bolster US efforts to respond to oppressive censorship and internet restriction worldwide by authorizing the Open Technology Fund (OTF) as an independent grantee within the US Agency for Global Media.

The race to save the first draft of coronavirus history from internet oblivion

As lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, and social distancing threaten to stretch out into the weeks, months, and even years ahead, there is a scramble to collect, in real time, the overwhelming abundance of information being produced online. Without it, the record of how we lived, how we changed, and how we addressed the global pandemic would be left incomplete and at the mercy of a constantly shifting internet, where even recent history has a tendency to get buried or vanish.