Gorge Soros, founder of LinkIn and others are launching Good Information Inc. to back businesses that anchor their operations in fact-based information. It also is investing in local news companies. Other billionaires who are battling lies include Craig Newmark, Steve Ballmer and Laurene Powell Jobs. (Axios, October 26, 2021, by Sara Fischer)
The University of Florida denied three professors permission to testify as expert witnesses in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s law severely limiting the ability to vote through a drop box or by mail. The professors specialize in voting rights and election law. University officials said the denied requests were not a violation of the First Amendment but a refusal to allow “full-time employees to undertake outside paid work that is adverse to the university’s interests as
The California Supreme Court sided ABC10 in ordering the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to justify in a court its reasons for not releasing e-mails between its director and Governor Gavin Newsom’s staff. The e-mails exchanged as the CUPC and Newsom worked out a plan to allow PG&E to enter bankruptcy and pay less in penalties for its criminal acts. (ABC10, October 21, 2021, by Brandon Rittiman) For related FAC coverage, click here and here.
Banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for audacious lies that incite violence, former President Donald Trump has created a new forum for himself in the social media called Truth Social. (USA TODAY, October 20, 2021, by Jeanine Santucci) The terms and conditions of the site ban criticism. Users may not “disparage, tarnish, or otherwise harm in our opinion, us and/or the Site.” User were also warned not to “annoy” any of the site’s employees. (Daily
A U.S. district judge threw out a lawsuit against YouTube for banning videos of QAnon conspiracy theories. Fifteen users filed the suit holding that the First Amendment protected them for “censorship of dissenting views.”(Fox 29, October 21, 2021, by Christopher Williams with contributions from the AP and Austin Williams) While the plaintiffs claimed YouTube acted under government pressure, the judge said statements by federal lawmakers were not sufficient to prove government interference. The judge ruled