Category Archives: cheap speech

Watch Archived Video of My Conversation with Joan Donovan Talking About Her Book “Meme Wars,” and Threats to U.S. Democracy

March 2, 2023, 3:17 pmcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

This was a great event, the first webinar jointly sponsored by the Safeguarding Democracy Project and the Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at UCLA:

“The Deepfake Dangers Ahead; AI-generated disinformation, especially from hostile foreign powers, is a growing threat to democracies based on the free flow of ideas”

February 28, 2023, 10:42 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Daniel Byman, Chris Meserole And V.S. Subrahmanian essay in the WSJ: Domestically, deepfakes risk leading people to view all information as suspicious. Soldiers might not trust actual orders, and the public may think that genuine scandals and outrages aren’t real.… Continue reading

“Supreme Court Seems Wary of Limiting Protections for Social Media Platforms”

February 22, 2023, 7:41 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: In a case with the potential to alter the very structure of the internet, the Supreme Court did not appear ready on Tuesday to limit a law that protects social media platforms from lawsuits over their users’ posts. In… Continue reading

“Antisemitic Influencers, Fake Journalists: Inside an Israeli Factory for Online Deception”

February 19, 2023, 12:12 pmcheap speech, chicaneryRick Hasen

Haaretz: Percepto International, which is owned by media consultant Lior Chorev and Royi Burstien (a retired lieutenant colonel from the Israeli army’s intelligence corps), is in large measure a continuation of Psy Group – the business Burstien used to run.… Continue reading

“Combating Disinformation Wanes at Social Media Giants”

February 14, 2023, 7:27 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: YouTube, like other social media platforms, spent years expanding its efforts to tackle misinformation after the 2016 election. It hired policy experts and content moderators and invested in more technology to limit the reach of false narratives. Not anymore.… Continue reading

“The People Onscreen Are Fake. The Disinformation Is Real.”

February 7, 2023, 12:50 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: In one video, a news anchor with perfectly combed dark hair and a stubbly beard outlined what he saw as the United States’ shameful lack of action against gun violence. In another video, a female news anchor heralded China’s… Continue reading

“Inside Harvard’s misinformation meltdown”

February 6, 2023, 7:33 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Ben Smith and Louise Matsakis for Semafor: Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, is a defining and combative voice in the study of how false information travels on the internet. She became… Continue reading

Douek, Persily, Stamos Podcast on Meta Replatforming Decision

January 30, 2023, 7:53 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Listen: Evelyn sits down with Nate Persily, Professor at Stanford Law School, and Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, to discuss Meta’s decision that it is reinstating former President Trump’s accounts. Nate is pragmatic, Alex is cynical,… Continue reading

“Meta says it won’t punish Trump for attacking the 2020 election results. But the 2024 vote is a different story”

January 29, 2023, 9:17 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Oliver Darcy of CNN confirms the point I raised in my Slate piece: Trump can say whatever he wants about the last election without sanction: Nine minutes after Meta announced that it will allow Donald Trump back on its… Continue reading

“Trump’s Evolution in Social-Media Exile: More QAnon, More Extremes”

January 29, 2023, 9:08 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: In September, former President Donald J. Trump went on Truth Social, his social network, and shared an image of himself wearing a lapel pin in the form of the letter Q, along with a phrase closely associated with the… Continue reading

“Meta to Reinstate Trump’s Facebook and Instagram Accounts”

January 25, 2023, 3:26 pmcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: Just over two years after Donald J. Trump’s accounts were suspended from Facebook and Instagram, Meta, the owner of the platforms, said on Wednesday that it would reinstate the former president’s access to the social media services. Mr.… Continue reading

“Google to stop exempting campaign email from automated spam detection”

January 24, 2023, 7:34 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Google plans to discontinue a pilot program that allows political campaigns to evade its email spam filters, the latest round in the technology giant’s tussle with the GOP over online fundraising. The company will let the program sunset at… Continue reading

Federal District Court in Mackey Case Rejects First Amendment Defense to Criminal Prosecution for Spreading Twitter Memes Falsely Telling Hillary Clinton Supporters They Could Vote by Hashtag/Text

January 23, 2023, 4:56 pmcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

You can find the opinion here (h/t Eugene Volokh). I write about this case in Cheap Speech. I think, and the district court agrees, that it does not violate the First Amendment to make it a crime to lie about… Continue reading