Category: first amendment

White House calls on Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s Twitter blocking

[ad_1] The case was first filed by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute in July 2017, and has since kicked off both a protracted legal battle and a wider conversation about the nature of the president’s Twitter account. About a year later, Judge Naomi Buchwald of New York’s Southern District ruled that President Trump’s ceaseless […]

Army pauses recruiting on Twitch after First Amendment criticism

[ad_1] During a July 8th Army stream, Uhl typed into the channel’s chat, “what’s your favorite u.s. w4r cr1me?” and linked to a Wikipedia page listing war crimes by the US military. The Army promptly banned Uhl from the channel. A video of the interaction has surfaced on Twitter. The Knight First Amendment Institute responded […]

Lawsuit claims Trump’s social media order violates free speech rights

[ad_1] In a statement, CDT chief Alexandra Givens added that Trump’s move was a “direct attack” on free speech. “The government cannot and should not force online intermediaries into moderating speech according to the President’s whims,” she said. Twitter unsurprisingly supports the lawsuit. It pointed Engadget to a statement calling the order a “reactionary and […]

Judges toss lawsuit alleging anti-conservative bias on social media

[ad_1] In 2018, the nonprofit organization Freedom Watch and a conservative YouTuber named Laura Loomer tried to sue social media companies. They alleged that Twitter, Facebook and Google — which owns YouTube — broke antitrust laws and violated their First Amendment rights by conspiring to suppress conservative viewpoints. Their case was dropped last year, but […]

Judges rule that YouTube isn’t bound by the First Amendment

[ad_1] Prager argued that since Google runs YouTube as a public forum, it should be subject to First Amendment scrutiny. However, a US District Court judge disagreed and tossed his lawsuit. The three judges who oversaw the appeal clearly share the first judge’s opinion, writing in their decision: “Despite YouTube’s ubiquity and its role as […]

Court reinstates lawsuit challenging online sex trafficking law

[ad_1] Critics have argued that FOSTA-SESTA’s language is too vague and affects many more people than sex traffickers, including sex workers looking for support, people advocating for legal prostitution and services like massages that are sometimes thinly-veiled ads for sexual services. The law has led Craigslist and other sites to shut down sex-related categories and […]

Federal appeals court rules Trump can’t ban critics on Twitter

[ad_1] It’s not yet known if Trump and the Justice Department will try to escalate the appeal, although that appears likely. The White House has maintained that Trump’s personal account (the one he uses most often) isn’t covered by the First Amendment like an official account would be, and that muting Twitter users wouldn’t be […]