Elon Musk Scores a Victory Against Free Speech

Matt Novak, Gizmodo.com

The Trump regime thinks it should be illegal to not give Elon money.

The FAA’s “Temporary” Flight Restriction For Drones Is A Blatant Attempt To Criminalize Filming ICE

Raj Gambhir and Sophia Cope, Techdirt

The Trump administration has restricted the First Amendment right to record law enforcement by issuing an unprecedented nationwide flight restriction preventing private drone operators, including professional and citizen journalists, from flying drones within…

A Secret Grand Jury Is Seeking the Identity of a Reddit User Who Criticized ICE

Jim Vorel, Jezebel

Reddit itself has been subpoenaed by a secret Washington grand jury, with the government wanting to know the identity of a specific user.

A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury.

Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept

An ICE summons to get the user’s identity failed. Advocates worry the move to a grand jury signals an escalation of the war on dissent. The post A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury. appeared…

Judge Rules Trump’s Order Stripping Funding From PBS and NPR Was ‘Unlawful’

Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone

"It is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch," a federal judge ruled on Tuesday

Federal judge finds Trump violated free speech by ordering NPR defunded

David Folkenflik, NPR

A U.S. District Court judge found that President Trump's executive ordering the defunding of NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment.

Hegseth’s War On Anthropic Encounters The First Amendment

Cathy Gellis, Techdirt

The expression, “to make a federal case out of something” usually describes making a bigger deal out of something than it should be. But in the case of Anthropic and Hegseth, Trump, and the Department of Defense*, this federal case is actually quite simple: w…

Jane Fonda Leads First Amendment Rally Near Kennedy Center To Warn Of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger & Trump’s Media Attacks

Ted Johnson, Deadline

Jane Fonda brought her Committee for the First Amendment to Washington, D.C. on Friday, for a pre-No Kings Day that focused on Donald Trump’s attacks on the media and the pending merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Held on a street just near …

Musician who canceled Kennedy Center holiday performance asks for suit to be dismissed

STEVEN SLOAN, Yahoo Entertainment

Chuck Redd, the musician who canceled a Christmas Eve performance at the Kennedy Center in protest of President Donald Trump's influence over the venue, is...

America’s Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Warrior, Brendan Carr, Gets A Letter Documenting His First Amendment Violations

Mike Masnick, Techdirt

For years, certain folks on the left kept insisting they wanted to bring back the Fairness Doctrine — the old FCC policy that required broadcasters to present “both sides” of controversial issues. Many of us in the tech policy world kept explaining why that w…

How the FCC Could Quietly Smother Network TV — Without Ever ‘Banning’ Free Speech

Alison Foreman, IndieWire

Commissioner Brendan Carr is ushering broadcast news and late night entertainment into a terrifying era under Trump. What's at risk? Analysis.

The Trump Admin’s Own Investigators Found No EU Internet Censorship. So They Ignored The Findings.

Mike Masnick, Techdirt

The Washington Post just published a deeply reported story about the Trump administration’s campaign to “expand free speech” in Europe. That headline alone should tell you something about how the story is framed — it takes the administration’s self-descriptio…

Threats over Iran war bare Trump efforts to transform free speech: Experts

Joseph Stepansky, Al Jazeera English

Threat to punish broadcasters for coverage not in 'public interest' comes amid wider roll-backs, analysts say.

We Finally Have Data to Show How Fast Trump Has Eroded American Democracy and Free Speech

Jim Vorel, Jezebel

In just about a year, Donald Trump has reduced American measures of democracy and free speech to around the level of the 1950s-1960s.

College Republicans Cry Free Speech After Chapter Gets Shut Down for Nazi Salutes

Lauren Tousignant, Jezebel

Another day, another group of college Republicans revealed to be full of Nazis.

Trump Demands Death Penalty for Reporters in Unhinged War Rant

Yahoo Entertainment

Trump administration to drop charges against US veteran who burned flag

Al Jazeera Staff, Al Jazeera English

Veteran Jay Carey burned a US flag in protest of an executive order from Trump calling for prison terms for such acts.

Press freedom declines in Americas, with US seeing sharpest drop: Report

Brian Osgood, Al Jazeera English

A press freedom index has given the Americas its lowest ranking since it started recording results six years ago.

Ron Wyden Is Begging His Colleagues To Stop Trying To Hand Trump A Censorship Weapon

Mike Masnick, Techdirt

We’ve been writing about Section 230 for a very long time. We’ve written about why it matters, why the people attacking it are wrong, and why most of the proposed “reforms” would make the internet dramatically worse for everyone except the already powerful. A…

Newsmax Didn’t Like Its NewsGuard Rating, So The FTC Attacked NewsGuard, And Now NewsGuard Is Suing

Mike Masnick, Techdirt

We’ve written a few times now about how the GOP’s “free speech warriors” have been waging an absolutely absurd campaign against NewsGuard, a company whose entire business model is… expressing opinions about the reliability of news sources. You know, speech. T…

The US Is Working on a Site to Help Europeans Bypass Content Bans on Hate Speech: Report

Bruce Gil, Gizmodo.com

The online portal is set be hosted at Freedom.gov.

The ‘Most Massive Attack On Free Speech’ Is Happening Right Now, And The Twitter Files Crew Is Mighty Quiet

Mike Masnick, Techdirt

For the last five years, we had to endure an endless, breathless parade of hyperbole regarding the so-called “censorship industrial complex.” We were told, repeatedly and at high volume, that the Biden administration flagging content for review by social medi…

What To Know About The FCC Rule At The Center Of Trump Administration Efforts To Crack Down On Stephen Colbert And Other Late-Night Hosts

Ted Johnson, Deadline

When Stephen Colbert announced that CBS restricted him from airing an interview with a Democratic candidate, it set off a range of reactions: Some argued that it reflected Trump’s efforts to censor late-night content; others that it was merely enforcement of …

“Corporate Capitulation”: FCC Commissioner Criticizes CBS Decision To Ban Broadcast Of Stephen Colbert Interview With U.S. Senate Candidate

Ted Johnson, Deadline

Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, called out CBS for restricting Stephen Colbert from featuring an interview with a U.S. Senate candidate on his late night show’s regular broadcast, as the network feared running afoul of equal time rules. On his show …