Category Archives: cheap speech

Must-read NYT: “How Disinformation Splintered and Became More Intractable”

October 21, 2022, 7:10 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: On the morning of July 8, former President Donald J. Trump took to Truth Social, a social media platform he founded with people close to him, to claim that he had in fact won the 2020 presidential vote… Continue reading

“Leadership Conference and Democracy Groups Urge Social Media Platforms to Address Voter Disinformation Ahead of Midterms”

October 13, 2022, 9:42 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Read the letter.

“Misinformation Swirls in Non-English Languages Ahead of Midterms”

October 12, 2022, 10:06 amcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: Unsubstantiated rumors and outright falsehoods spread widely in immigrant communities ahead of the presidential election in 2020. That is happening again in the run-up to this year’s midterm elections, researchers say, but with an insidious twist: The social media… Continue reading

“Kanye’s antisemitic tweet could be a preview of social media’s future”

October 11, 2022, 7:08 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: The rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, sent an Instagram post Friday suggesting fellow musician Sean “Diddy” Combswas controlled by Jewish people — a common antisemitic trope. Within hours, Instagram had removed the post and locked his account.That sent Ye… Continue reading

My New Paper: “Donald Trump Should Remain Deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Despite the High Bar That Platforms Should Apply to the Question of Deplatforming Political Figures”

October 10, 2022, 7:34 amcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

I have posted this short paper on SSRN (prepared for this week’s Stanford/UCLA conference on replatforming Donald Trump). Here is the abstract: This short position paper, prepared for the Stanford Program on Democracy and the Internet/UCLA Safeguarding Democracy Project conference,… Continue reading

“A substantial minority of Americans think election fraud could be the reason why their party doesn’t win control of Congress”

October 10, 2022, 7:13 amcheap speechRick Hasen

New Axios/Ispos poll.

Stanford/UCLA October 14 Event: “Should Donald Trump Be Returned to Social Media?” (Free Webcast)

October 4, 2022, 7:33 amcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

Very excited about this event: The Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) at Stanford University and UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project will host a half-day streamed conference, “Should Donald Trump Be Returned to Social Media?” Leading scholars in the… Continue reading

Watch Archived Video of My Constitution Day Lecture on Cheap Speech and American Democracy at the University of Utah

September 24, 2022, 4:07 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

You can watch the presentation at this link.

“QAnon fans celebrate Trump’s latest embrace of the conspiracy”

September 24, 2022, 1:41 pmcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

CNN: Supporters of QAnon on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform have celebrated what they see as his renewed embrace of the conspiracy theory over the past week after he shared a meme that was viewed as one… Continue reading

Genevieve Lakier Takes Apart First Amendment Analysis in 5th Circuit’s Ruling that Would Require Social Media Companies to Replatform Donald Trump

September 21, 2022, 7:56 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Thread starts here: There has been a lot of discussion about the opinion the Fifth Circuit released last Friday upholding Texas’s new social media law. Lots of people have criticized the decision for getting the law wrong. 🧵 https://t.co/4LntwN8TW1—… Continue reading

“Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers”

September 20, 2022, 7:58 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: The 2020 election and its turbulent aftermath fueled a powerful generation of online influencers, a Washington Post data analysis has found, producing sky-high follower counts for an array of conservatives who echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, known… Continue reading

“A landmark Supreme Court fight over social media now looks likely”

September 20, 2022, 7:44 amcheap speech, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

WaPo: Conflicting lower court rulings about removing controversial material from social media platforms point toward a landmark Supreme Court decision on whether the First Amendment protects Big Tech’s editorial discretion or forbids its censorship of unpopular views.The stakes are high… Continue reading

“A federal court clears the way for a Texas social media law; The law, which had been blocked by a lower court, makes it possible to sue large social media platforms for taking down political viewpoints”

September 17, 2022, 3:38 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

NYT: A federal appeals court on Friday reversed a lower court’s order blocking a Texas law that stops large social media platforms from removing political posts, a blow for tech companies that say their content moderation decisions are protected… Continue reading