A street artist transformed anti-Islam bus ads into images of Kamala Khan, a Marvel Comics Muslim superhero. The artist also wrote new headlines for the posters, such as “calling all bigotry busters” and “stamp out racism.” (San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2015, by Evan Sernoffsky)
The ads were part of a purchase of 50 by the Freedom Defense Initiative “equating Islam with Nazism.” Some defended the street art as part of the give and take vital in a free speech society. (The Guardian, February 1, 2015, by Andrea Letamendi)
But Eugene Volokh, of The Washington Post The Volokh Conspiracy, January 30, 2015, argued that just as San Francisco could not ban offensive content from their bus ads, it was not a free speech exercise to deface the ads. While it is laudable to offer good messages to counter evil, the city could not allow the defacing of lawfully purchased advertising messages which are in themselves free speech messages. The good messages must find their own legitimate space.