donal brown

The Supreme Court is about to consider a case on Section 230 of a federal law that exempts online platforms from liability for user content. Gonzalez v. Google concerns an American law student killed in a 2015 ISIS attack in Paris. The student’s family sued Google for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act for its algorithm recommending ISIS videos to other users. The suit claims in promoting terrorism, the algorithm was outside the scope of Section 230.

Journalism professor Edward Wasserman, San Francisco Chronicle, October 2, 2022, argues that the recent court decision against Project Veritas may adversely affect investigative journalism. Rather than rule that Veritas was “a band of Ideologues” gathering “information dishonestly to use in dishonest ways,” the court focused on the fraud of misrepresenting credentials and engaging in illegal wiretapping. Unfortunately, they zeroed in on practices that investigative journalists have used to produce the nation’s finest investigative reports. For

Moira Donegan in The Guardian, October 3, 2022, writes that since the reversal of Roe v. Wade, in red states “…women’s options, speech and academic freedoms are now being dramatically constrained by the misogynist laws….” She cites the instance of the University of Idaho where the administration sent a letter to professors that they could no longer promote or counsel in favor of abortion or tell students to get an abortion. Professors at Idaho state

FAC’s David Loy said that the new state law on curtailing disruptions of public meetings can work “if it is closely adhered to and only affects expression in meetings that genuinely disrupts the proceedings.” Rather than allow for clearing the room if disruption occurs, the new law allows removal of offending individuals after a warning. Some feel the definition of willful interruption is vague and fear that some authorities will remove individuals for views they

A bipartisan panel of experts on transparency in national security matters recommended in June that President Joe Biden completely declassify a February 2021 report that found that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia ordered the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. (The Hill, September 29, 2022 by Jared Gans) The Biden administration published a report on the murder in 2021 holding the crown prince responsible and recommended sanctions and travel bans on some Saudi