#government-pressure

#government-pressure

While often misunderstood to apply to the actions of private organizations that people don't agree with (e.g., kicking people off a social media platform for hate speech or telling someone to leave a physical establishment for being disruptive), the Constitution's First Amendment actually prevents the government from retaliating against citizens for engaging in protected speech, which is precisely what Aaron's lawsuit argues.

ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed.

"It was a lot easier, in some ways, for journalists back in the 80s and 90s, before all of these cloud platforms existed," said Melody Kramer, a product manager at ProPublica who works on engagement and crowdsourcing tools. "You would put things in a Microsoft Word document, share that within your [physical] newsroom, and nothing would live in a data center or different space." The most sensitive stories could be written on computers without network connections and discussed and edited only in the office.

Barely over a week after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk's public killing at a Utah campus, speech attacks in the name of the self-proclaimed free speech advocate are piling up. Law enforcement officials have custody of suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah who prosecutors allege was in a relationship with a transgender woman and opposed Kirk's "hatred." Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said last week that officials believe Robinson acted alone and that they didn't anticipate further arrests.

More than 150 cultural organisations and, as of this writing, over 320 artists and cultural workers have signed a public statement affirming their "commit[ment] to resisting external pressures" and that they will "stand with fellow institutions facing political pressure". The statement was organised by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at the New School.