Category Archives: cheap speech

“What Drove a Mass Attack on Brazil’s Capital? Mass Delusion.”

January 10, 2023, 7:34 amcheap speech, comparative election law, election subversion riskRick Hasen

Jack Nicas for the NYT: For the past 10 weeks, supporters of the ousted far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had camped outside Brazilian Army headquarters, demanding that the military overturn October’s presidential election. And for the past 10 weeks, the protesters… Continue reading

“Two years after Jan. 6, Facebook mulls if Trump is still a threat”

January 9, 2023, 7:23 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Former president Donald Trump turned to his social media platform Truth Social this week to attack a familiar target: former Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman. Trump’s posts stoked an old baseless claim that Freeman was part of an election-rigging… Continue reading

“Come to the ‘war cry party’: How social media helped drive mayhem in Brazil”

January 9, 2023, 7:21 amcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

WaPo: In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s violent attacks on Brazil’s Congress and other government buildings, the country’s social media channels surged with calls to attack gas stations, refineries and other infrastructure, as well as for people to… Continue reading

“Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency foreign influence campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US election and its relationship to attitudes and voting behavior”

January 9, 2023, 7:16 amcheap speechRick Hasen

New paper by Eady et al. in Nature Communications: There is widespread concern that foreign actors are using social media to interfere in elections worldwide. Yet data have been unavailable to investigate links between exposure to foreign influence campaigns and… Continue reading

“Facebook Wanted Out of Politics. It Was Messier Than Anyone Expected.”

January 5, 2023, 9:04 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WSJ: After the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Facebook META -0.77%decrease; red down pointing triangle parent Meta Platforms Inc. said it wanted to scale back how much political content it showed users. The company went further than almost anyone knew. The… Continue reading

“Twitter reverses longstanding ban on political advertising”

January 3, 2023, 4:49 pmcampaigns, cheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Twitter said it was relaxing its ban on political and issue-based advertising on Tuesday, a reversal of the company’s long-standing approach to paid political speech. The policy change, which comes at a moment when major advertisers are defecting… Continue reading

“Tech companies may have to cough up research data under this bill”

December 21, 2022, 9:16 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Tech companies including YouTube, TikTok and Facebook could be forced to turn over more data to outside researchers under a major bipartisan proposal set to be formally introduced Wednesday. The updated Platform Accountability and Transparency Act would require… Continue reading

Cert Petition Filed Against Texas Social Media Law That Would Require Private Websites to Carry Politicians’ Political Speech

December 15, 2022, 3:02 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

Read it here.

“The Lawfare Podcast: Rick Hasen and Nate Persily on Replatforming Trump on Social Media”

December 15, 2022, 7:19 amcheap speech, election subversion riskRick Hasen

The Lawfare Podcast: On November 19, Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk announced that he would be reinstating former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform—though so far, Trump hasn’t taken Musk up on the offer, preferring instead to stay on… Continue reading

“Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief”

December 13, 2022, 7:29 amcheap speechRick Hasen

WaPo: Elon Musk escalated his battle of words with previous managers of Twitter into risky new territory over the weekend, allying himself with far-right crusaders against a purported epidemic of child sex abuse and implying that the company’s former head… Continue reading

“Conceptual Replication of Four Key Findings about Factual Corrections and Misinformation During the 2020 U.S. Election: Evidence from Panel Survey Experiments”

December 11, 2022, 1:20 pmcampaigns, cheap speechDerek Muller

Alexander Coppock, Kimberly Gross, Ethan Porter, Emily Thorson, and Thomas J. Wood, Conceptual Replication of Four Key Findings about Factual Corrections and Misinformation During the 2020 U.S. Election: Evidence from Panel Survey Experiments (British Journal of Political Science): In the… Continue reading

“Elon Musk’s promised Twitter exposé on the Hunter Biden story is a flop that doxxed multiple people”

December 3, 2022, 11:17 amcheap speechRick Hasen

The Verge: Free-speech crusader Elon Musk isn’t happy with Twitter’s years-old decision to suppress a news story about Hunter Biden’s laptop just ahead of the 2020 presidential election. So in an effort “to restore public trust” in Twitter, Musk indicated… Continue reading

“Do You Have a Right Not to Be Lied To?; The legal thinkers reconsidering freedom of speech.”

November 28, 2022, 8:29 amcheap speechRick Hasen

Jeff Wise deep dive in New York magazine: Given the urgency of the threat to democracy, some American legal scholars are arguing that it’s time to explore direct legal penalties for lying. “When you have the level of threat of… Continue reading

“Musk says granting ‘amnesty’ to suspended Twitter accounts”

November 25, 2022, 12:36 pmcheap speechRick Hasen

AP: New Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that he is granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation. The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in… Continue reading