Category Archives: cheap speech

“Trump asks judge to force Twitter to restore his account”

October 4, 2021, 6:33 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Politico: Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account, which the company suspended in January following the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol.Trump’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion in… Continue reading

Oct. 6 Virtual Lunch Talk: Disinformation in American Elections Part I: Election Officials (with Michigan SOS Jocelyn Benson and Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley)

September 27, 2021, 5:19 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Join us for this October 6 event, which is the first in a three part lunch series on Disinformation in American Elections put on by UCI Law’s Fair Elections and Free Speech Center. (Free registration required): Fair Elections and… Continue reading

“Election fraud, QAnon, Jan. 6: Far-right extremists in Germany read from a pro-Trump script”

September 25, 2021, 11:43 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: One message advocated “occupying election offices.”Another warned of “coronavirus tyranny.”And a third extolled former president Donald Trump and Q, the shadowy oracle of the extremist ideology QAnon, for inspiring a new social movement prepared to take back… Continue reading

Republican FEC Commissioners: Twitter Entitled to Press Exemption for Excluding NY Post Content on Hunter Biden

September 15, 2021, 11:37 amcampaign finance, cheap speech, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Dickerson/Trainor statement: Moreover, the decision as to precisely which news to distribute is, in many ways, the sine qua non of “the business of producing…news stories, commentary,and/or editorials.”27 The New York Times famously emblazons its masthead with the… Continue reading

Sept. 20 Virtual Event: “FEFS | Global Elections II: Germany”

September 13, 2021, 5:01 pmcheap speech, comparative election lawRick Hasen

Join us at the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center at UCI Law: Germany faces its most important election in a generation, as the September 26th ballot is the first one that Chancellor Angela Merkel will not contest since she… Continue reading

“Facebook & Twitter Backing Off Election Disinformation Enforcement”

September 8, 2021, 7:53 pmcheap speech, fraudulent fraud squadRick Hasen

Release: A new investigation by Common Cause’s disinformation analysts has revealed that social media giants Facebook and Twitter seem to have backed away from enforcement of their own policies and enforcement practices when it comes to combatting election-related disinformation.… Continue reading

“Misinformation on Facebook got six times more clicks than factual news during the 2020 election, study says”

September 3, 2021, 11:26 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: A new study of user behavior on Facebook around the 2020 election is likely to bolster critics’ long-standing arguments that the company’s algorithms fuel the spread of misinformation over more trustworthy sources.The forthcoming peer-reviewed study by researchers at New… Continue reading

VIDEO from Fair Elections and Free Speech Center Event: Global Elections I: Israel, The Netherlands & Uganda – September 1, 2021

September 3, 2021, 7:01 amcheap speechRick Hasen

You can watch here:

“Facebook Said to Consider Forming an Election Commission”

August 25, 2021, 2:51 pmcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

NYT: Facebook has approached academics and policy experts about forming a commission to advise it on global election-related matters, said five people with knowledge of the discussions, a move that would allow the social network to shift some of its… Continue reading

Congratulations on the New “Journal of Free Speech” for Its Inaugural Issue; Symposium on “Free Speech and Social Media Platform Regulation”

August 25, 2021, 2:05 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

This is an absolutely outstanding start. Looking forward to diving into this symposium (I’ve read Eugene Volokh’s piece in here and will be responding to it in my upcoming “Cheap Speech” book): Symposium: Free Speech and Social Media Platform Regulation… Continue reading

September 1 Virtual Event: “FEFS | Global Elections I: Israel, The Netherlands & Uganda”

August 25, 2021, 7:13 amcheap speech, comparative election lawRick Hasen

Register now for this event at UCI Law’s Fair Elections and Free Speech Center: Wednesday, September 1 at 12:15pm to 1:15pm Virtual Event Threats to the fairness of elections, and the open debate that democracies require, have not been… Continue reading