News & Opinion

Canada produced a number of laws and policies to bolster the faltering news industry including an act to make social media companies pay for news, a local journalism fellowship program and tax credits for news publishers and individuals. The tax credits have been a boost for local news. A U.S. report on the Canadian initiatives makes a number of recommendations for implementation here, including structuring payroll tax credits with the smallest newsrooms in mind; implementing

The First Amendment took a sharp blow when the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 to uphold a federal law that criminalizes knowingly encouraging illegal immigration. For the majority, Judge Amy Coney Barrett said the law “…forbids only the intentional solicitation or facilitation of certain unlawful acts,” and “does not prohibit a substantial amount of protected speech.” (Courthouse News Service, June 23, 2023, by Kelsey Reichmann) American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Esha Bhandari said the court had

The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against DeRay Mckesson, arrested in 2016 for leading a Black Lives Matter protest during which someone threw a rock injuring a police officer. In its recent decision, the court found that since McKesson was leading the protest in front of a police station and blocking a highway, he could be tried for the illegal actions of the rock-thrower. Two Supreme Court decision, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and

The advocacy group GLADD found that Twitter ranks last in protecting LGBTQ users from hate and harassment. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube also received low or failing scores but showed some improvement from last year. Every week, someone in the LGBTQ community faces doxxing, suffering the release of private information without their permission that harasses, threatens, shames and takes revenge. (NBC News, June 15, 2023, by Barbara Ortutay of The Asssociated Press) GLADD assessed whether

Conservatives in Congress and in the courts are attacking scholars and private companies that study the spread of falsehoods online. They are tying up their adversaries with information requests and subpoenas for records of communications and notes, harming their ability to do research and raise money. (The New York Times, June 19, 2023, by Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel) In a related matter, Microsoft has launched a project to enable the public to find