What’s caught in the wide net cast by hate speech policies?
Facebook has a right — and, according to many users, a responsibility — to police its content to protect users from harassment or threats. But does it judiciously exercise that power? Now that Facebook is deleting nearly 300,000 posts it marks as “hate speech” each month, it’s worth asking that question — and recent coverage detailing the way Facebook removes this content suggests that its policies, and similar ones employed in other forums, deserve closer scrutiny.
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So to Speak podcast: “After Charlottesville” with former ACLU President Nadine Strossen
On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, Strossen discusses the fallout from Charlottesville and argues forcefully that, yes, even neo-Nazis deserve free speech and assembly rights ― and yes, the ACLU should defend those rights.
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Category: Newsdesk, So To Speak
Harvard professors sign, resubmit faculty motion against social club ban
Harvard professor Harry Lewis has filed a motion with the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences that could, if adopted, counteract the proposal to ban all social clubs on campus. Lewis posted the full motion, which is co-signed by 20 other Harvard faculty members, to his personal blog this morning and confirmed the development to FIRE.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story
Schools: Harvard University
Cases: Harvard University: Blacklisting of Final Club, Fraternity, and Sorority Students
Montclair State University, ignoring questions about Twitter controversy, penalizes another professor
Earlier this month, Montclair State University claimed that it had “never” hired Kevin Allred, a gender studies professor whose tweets expressing hope that someone might assassinate President Trump sparked criticism across conservative media outlets. Although Allred’s tweets were quite clearly protected by the First Amendment, Montclair State University is ignoring questions about its dubious claim — and retaliating against the director of the academic program Allred had been hired to work in.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: Montclair State University
Public universities must resist pressure to discipline students for attending Charlottesville rally
Last weekend’s protests — and tragedy — in Charlottesville, Virginia, have left many grappling with the question of how to confront speech that offends their deepest-held values and beliefs. FIRE has always argued that the answer is to use one’s own expressive rights to counter ideas one finds offensive or harmful, rather than demanding reflexive censorship or, worse yet, resorting to violence. As the role of social media in our society grows, many have taken to that broad platform in attempts to combat hateful speech.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of Nevada, Reno University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
After students speak up, Southern Methodist University backs down from memorial lawn display policy
Southern Methodist University says it will update the memorial lawn display policy it cited earlier this summer to justify moving the SMU Young Americans for Freedom’s annual lawn display commemorating the September 11 attacks.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: Southern Methodist University
University of Rhode Island’s contradictory values and policies chill speech
Before I entered FIRE’s summer internship program, I knew that my university, the University of Rhode Island, was dubiously designated FIRE’s Speech Code of the Month in December 2016 — an award given to campuses with particularly restrictive and/or ridiculous rules about what students can and cannot say on campus. Upon taking a closer look at URI’s student handbook, my recently developed eye for problematic university policies helped me spot some troubling contradictions between my school’s stated philosophy and its policies.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of Rhode Island
Berkeley plans multi-platform free speech initiative for new academic year
The University of California, Berkeley has grappled with, and sometimes stumbled, managing its obligations under the First Amendment in recent months. But the start of a fresh academic year brings new chancellor Carol Christ at the helm. And on Tuesday, Christ announced that Berkeley is going to put free speech at the very forefront of campus conversation with a variety of initiatives this year, meaning that the home of the ‘60s Free Speech Movement could be poised to resolve lingering questions about its commitment to free speech for good.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of California, Berkeley
American Bar Association calls for protections for student media
The American Bar Association House of Delegates unanimously approved a resolution on Tuesday in support of the New Voices campaign, which seeks to enact legal protections for students to gather and publish news and ideas free from censorship.
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Public colleges, the cancellation of white nationalist events, and the First Amendment
As the nation reels from the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia, two public colleges this week have canceled or disallowed campus events featuring white nationalist Richard Spencer. Yesterday, Texas A&M University canceled a “White Lives Matter” event, featuring Spencer, planned for September 11. This morning, the University of Florida denied a request from Spencer’s organization, the National Policy Institute, to rent campus facilities.
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Category: Newsdesk, Top Story Schools: University of Florida Texas A&M University – College Station
