Free Expression
…“In a free country like the Netherlands, everyone has the freedom and space to behave and dress as he or she desires. Sometimes, limits can and must be imposed on that freedom. In the case of face-covering clothing, this applies in particular if mutual communication is impeded or safety is jeopardized.
“Mutual communication whereby people can look each other in the face is so important that uniform rules have now been laid down by law. This makes it clear to everyone what is and is not allowed in those situations.”…
EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — The founder of a Kentucky creationism museum will appear at an Oklahoma university, after all, after the student body president initially canceled the event over objections of female and LGBTQ students and their supporters.…
The People's Cube entry has just been purged from Wikipedia.…
YouTube on Wednesday terminated the account of Danney Williams, the 30-year-old man who has claimed since the 1990s to be the black son of former President Bill Clinton.
But YouTube suddenly reversed its decision on Thursday amid public outcry and reinstated the account in the early morning hours, posting a notice that said only: “After a review of your account, we have confirmed that your YouTube account is not in violation of our Terms of Service. As such, we have unsuspended your account.”
When it terminated the account on Wednesday, YouTube cited unspecified “repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use and/or Community Guidelines” and declared the account “cannot be restored.”…
WikiLeaks Director Gavin MacFadyen, the 76-year-old Wikileaks diirector and founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism has died.… passed away from “a short illness.” The line about the “short illness” was removed and no further word has been given on his exact cause of death. However, postings indicate he may have been ill in the days leading up to his death.…
Twitter blocked conservative journalist James O’Keefe’s account on Wednesday evening, shortly after he tweeted that he was about to release new video about a candidate for the U.S. Senate.…
The conservative nonprofit organization Prager University announced Tuesday that it has no choice but to “go public” over YouTube’s attempts to muzzle its educational videos. …says much of its all-ages content is being classified under “restricted mode” for objectionable content.…
Infogalactic, an online encyclopedia branding itself as a censorship free alternative to Wikipedia without “bias or thought police,” has launched.…
…Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s chief policy adviser, said in a Wednesday statement:
Donald J. Trump is committed to preserving Internet freedom for the American people and citizens all over the world. The U.S. should not turn control of the Internet over to the United Nations and the international community.…
…Authorities say the banned satellite dishes are morally damaging, despite high-level calls for reform of the law.… …part of a widespread crackdown against illegal devices they say "deviate morality and culture".…
Internet giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft signed up Tuesday to a new EU code of conduct against hate speech, the European Commission said.
The US-based firms have agreed to speed up their reactions when illegal material is flagged up, with the aim of looking at all suspicious material within 24 hours.…
Atheist activist Patrick Greene lost his lawsuit today against Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Corpus Christi, Texas… admitting that his lawsuit was “baseless,” and submitting to a court order never to bring such a frivolous lawsuit in the future. …Pastor Rick Milby started building a 230-foot cross on his church’s property. Greene’s lawsuit claims that a church’s erecting of a cross on private property is unconstitutional because a local mayor and city council members attended the church’s groundbreaking ceremony.…
Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at DePaul University had to be cut short Tuesday night after protesters stormed the stage, blew whistles, grabbed the microphone out of the interviewer’s hand, and threatened to punch Yiannopoulos in the face.…
Speech Restriction Stories I Have Read in Just the Last 24 Hours…
Bikers for Trump rolled in to Wisconsin and upset some anti-Trump protestors that think the first amendment isn’t for all citizens. They heard the ROLLING THUNDER coming from afar and dang….their shouts just weren’t loud enough to earn their George Soro’s cash for the day!…
…Students at the University of Southern California protested a speech by David Horowitz last Wednesday, not by shouting him down or otherwise disrupting the event, but by duct-taping their own mouths shut and linking together in a pointless human chain at the side of the room in what has been described as the “lamest protest ever.”…
…The officers, reportedly under orders from the administration, did nothing to prevent the protesters from obstructing access to the auditorium. Let me repeat: a state-run institution apparently told state-paid police officers to allow protesters to violate the free speech and free assembly rights of conservatives and those who wish to hear them. In the United States.
By the time we arrived, hundreds of students had mobbed virtually every entrance and exit. And all hell was breaking loose…
Those who wanted to hear me speak were blocked completely. A line eventually formed outside a secret back entrance, where students were sneaked in three and four at a time – a smuggling ring of free speech.…
We reported earlier this week that conservative author Ben Shapiro was banned from speaking at California State University LA by the school’s president.
The school then relented and said Shapiro could come after all. Then things got crazy.
Students who wanted to hear Shapiro speak had to be ushered quietly into the lecture hall through a back door while unhinged student activists and faculty members screamed and tried to force their way through a police barricade protecting the front door.…
“A new strategy is aiming to counter an unacceptable level of toxic commentary on our website”, an opinion piece began in yesterday’s Observer – the Sunday edition of the Guardian newspaper.
The article, written by the Observer’s “reader’s editor” Stephen Pritchard, outlines how the paper – which recently announced a massive cost cutting exercise – is going to start censoring its readers on articles about race, immigration, and Islam.…
…The legal lexicon, in discussions of freedom of expression, often uses the term chilling effect. That’s the Left’s goal: to make objective delivery of facts and candid expression of opinion seem too dangerous, or too expensive, for a private citizen to undertake it. They can’t shut down the huge pipe of Internet communication, so they strive to lower the temperature therein to the freezing point.
They’ve been having an appalling degree of success.…
A protestant pastor in Northern Ireland now faces up to six months in jail for having previously spoken out against Islam, denouncing the religion as a "satanic" heathen "spawned in hell." … "The logic of the decision to prosecute Pastor McConnell means that many clerics - including Catholic priests and other evangelical pastors - could now find themselves under investigation for preaching with passion," said Rice. "My client's remarks weren't addressed at individual Muslims but at Islam in generic terms." …
Google Inc should not have to remove an anti-Islamic film from its YouTube website because a woman complained that she was duped into performing in the film that depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a pedophile, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday.…
Brett Kimberlin’s lawsuit against Mandy Nagy and other conservative bloggers has been, for the most part, dismissed in federal court.
He will be allowed to file in state court if he chooses.
ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT MUHAMMAD ART EXPO IN GARLAND, TEXAS
Here is a clarification of great importance. Regarding submissions not being anonymous:
Submissions cannot be made with a pseudonym, or anonymously, but this does not mean your name will be released to the public.
You have to supply your real name for AFDI so you can be paid if you should win the $10,000, for tax purposes, but they will not be giving ISLAM, THE LEFT or any other maniac, a roadmap to your house.
Anonymity? They'd better not put the names on a computer. Or write them down. Or… Entrants better accept that their names may be discovered and broadcast!
“At that point, I took a step and attempted to cross,” Faust outlined. “Once I stepped into the street, [the officer] put my hands behind my back.” Faust and a second member of his congregation, Ramon Marroquin, were then charged with “interfering with public duties." … “Thankfully, the Texas Appeals Court recognized that the beauty of the First Amendment rests in its tolerance of all viewpoints, no matter how politically incorrect, unpalatable or inappropriate they might appear to others,”
Dan McCall, of Sauk Rapids, sued the NSA and Department of Homeland Security last fall after they issued cease-and-desist orders over the merchandise, which includes T-shirts bearing the NSA's official seal and the slogan, "The only part of the government that actually listens."
On today’s college and university campuses, students are repeatedly being punished for expressing the “wrong” opinion on just about any controversial topic. At the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), we’ve won battle after battle against schools that restrict student speech, yet campus censorship continues to flourish
Over the weekend, Facebook took down a message by the Special Operations Speaks PAC (SOS) which highlighted the fact that Obama denied backup to the forces being overrun in Benghazi. … Facebook pulled the re-posted meme down within 7 or 8 hours and suspended the SOS account for 24 hours. In other words, Facebook put the Navy SEALS in timeout in order to shield Obama.
A northeast Kansas newspaper has been ordered to identify a person who posted a comment on its website about a story on a murder trial for which that commenter was serving as a juror.
Andrew Napolitano weighs in on a new federal law that could result in felony charges for those trying to petition our rulers for redress of our grievances as if this were still America [video]