With Congress again out for recess-instead of, say, working to end the partial government shutdown or doing something, anything, when the president threatens war crimes-one media organization had the savvy, gall, and, okay, shamelessness to deputize us all as honorary paparazzi.
Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, has dropped its defamation claim against the Guardian and two other defendants regarding a report on federal investigations into $8 million in payments.
Recent revelations from news agency Reuters that the US is "developing an online portal that will enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including hate speech and terrorist propaganda," as a method to counter what it sees as excessive censorship in other parts of the world is troubling to the EU. Even if the plans appear to have been delayed and detail is thin, the US position is clear.
Every society recognises that words and images, in certain contexts, do harm and that incitement to commit crime can be a criminal act. There is a spectrum of tolerance and enforcement. Repression of free speech is a symptom of tyranny, but all governments regulate it to some degree. The threshold for intervention is lower when children are involved. That is why the idea of banning under-16s from social media, already operational in Australia, is catching on elsewhere.