#free-speech

#free-speech

she was "very happy to hear from people who have different views".

Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University system spokespeople didn't return Inside Higher Ed's requests for comment Thursday on who within the institution decided to nix the speech, but the Health Sciences Center sent a statement to the Scorecard saying the center "evaluated the request and determined that it is not in the best interest of the university to host this event on campus."

Much of the ruling rests on the words of West Texas A&M President Walter Wendler, which Kacsmaryk adopted throughout his 46-page opinion. In a March 2023 email to the campus community, Wendler wrote that drag "does not preserve a single thread of human dignity," describing it as a performance that "exaggerat[es] aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender)" and "stereotype[s] women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others."

The results show students' views on free issues tend to be nuanced and they sometimes seem contradictory. In particular, while the principle of free speech has stronger support from students than in the past, so do specific bans. While 35% said they would bar Reform politicians from speaking, that included 41% of those who said they voted for Reform in the 2024 general election.

I cannot be party to silencing writers, so with a heavy heart I am resigning from my role as the director of the AWW. Writers and writing matters, even when they are presenting ideas that discomfort and challenge us. We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal.

The Global Government Affairs department at X has posted that the company is offering legal support in the case of a far-right Republican activist in Texas who posted just such a photo on X in 2023. Michelle Evans, who is now head of the Williamson County Republican Party, is being investigation and facing criminal charges for posting the photo. She in turn has sued the Travis County district attorney for violating her free speech rights.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah came to global attention because he was a leading figure in the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that turned Cairo's Tahrir Square into a surging sea of young people. The demonstrators chanted Down with corruption, Down with autocracy and Down with dictators. When the uprising succeeded in toppling Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak, the world rejoiced, including Europe and North America. Abd el-Fattah was all over the media, a voice for the part of the movement that was committed to building an accountable, participatory democracy

You may have read in your colourful newspapers that my country's president would like to shut me up because I don't adore him in the way he likes to be adored. The American government made a threat against me and the company I work for, and all of a sudden we were off the air. But then, you know what happened? A Christmas miracle happened. Well, it was September. It was a September miracle.

Banning people because you disagree with what they say undermines the free speech the administration claims to seek. We desperately need a wide ranging debate on whether and how social media should be regulated in the interests of the people. Imran Ahmed gave evidence to the select committee's inquiry into social media, algorithms and harmful content, and he was an articulate advocate for greater regulation and accountability.

For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech. The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA).

Tech visionary, Kremlin dissident, FSB agent, free speech absolutist, health guru. These are just some of the labels admirers and critics have attached to Pavel Durov over the past decade. The Russian-born tech entrepreneur founded Russia's version of Facebook before going on to create the messaging app Telegram, launch a cryptocurrency ecosystem and amass a multibillion-dollar fortune, all while clashing repeatedly with authorities in Russia and beyond.

This guy who [Brendan] Carr who runs the FCC, he had the nerve to say that Kimmel, if he wanted to get back on television... he had to pay Charlie Kirk's Turning Points USA Foundation money to get back on. Think about that: Elon Musk bought the election for Trump because the Supreme Court said money was free speech. But if they make [Kimmel] pay money for some shit he doesn't believe in, they are compelling him to say something he does not mean....

In this March 2024 file photo, members of the Berkeley school community packed a BUSD board meeting in support of ethnic studies programs focusing on Palestinian history. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

For decades, libraries served as a safe haven for many queer and marginalized youths in eastern Texas, says former county library director Rhea Young. Unlike the school cafeteria, the library was a space where they could explore and find acceptance in who they wanted to be. There were books where they can find characters like them, and realize it's okay to be who they are, Young said. There needs to be more places like that, not fewer.

Mayday Health, a New York-based "reproductive health education nonprofit" founded after the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade in 2022, is one of countless organizations that have refused to abandon Americans who live in states where abortion is banned. Over the summer, they ran more than 120 mifepristone and misoprostol ads on billboards, trucks, gas stations, and in newspapers in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas-all of which have a near-total or total abortion ban.

The newest flashpoint comes with the U.S. and its European allies also at loggerheads over Ukraine and the future of European security. The EU penalized X on Friday after regulators found the platform had misled users, obscured key advertising information and blocked researchers from accessing public data. A furious Musk responded by accusing the EU of stifling free speech through "bureaucratic tyranny" - rallying far-right leaders and millions of followers behind the hashtag #AbolishTheEU.