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Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Free speech makes free people.
Philadelphia and Washingtonthefire.orgJoined December 2008

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Become a FIRE member with a tax-deductible gift of $25 or more at thefire.org/membership. Members ensure that FIRE has the resources needed to defend the free speech rights of all Americans. We’ve already defended the rights of thousands. You can help keep the 🔥 going.
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Speech codes are tools for censorship, subject to the whims of those in power. Twitter's speech codes are no different: They are arbitrarily enforced, ripe with double standards, and feature little to no enforcement transparency.
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It's getting more dangerous and difficult to criticize the Chinese government on campus. The latest arrest of a Berklee student who stalked an activist and said he'd “chop" her "bastard hands off" if she posted protest signs shows the danger is escalating:
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.'s controversial documentary “What is a Woman?” has sparked outrage on a number of university campuses. But nowhere have people lost their shit over this movie quite like a few detractors at UC Davis. 😲
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We need free speech defenders whose commitment to principle doesn’t waver when they confront speech they don’t like. Just because you have the power to suspend an account, doesn’t mean you should. /5
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But yesterday Twitter permanently suspended the account. Its 20-year-old creator Jack Sweeney summed up our thoughts on Musk’s hypocrisy perfectly. “I mean, this looks horrible. He literally said he was keeping my account up for free speech.”/3
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Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info. Posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.
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In November, Musk said he wouldn’t ban — which used public info to track Musk’s flights — because of his commitment to free speech. /2
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My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk
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"It’s too early to tell what Musk will make of Twitter, but he has done a public service by opening up the company’s vast censorship regime to public scrutiny." More from FIRE Senior Fellow on and the #TwitterFiles ⬇️
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2022, like every other year, was cruel to so-called blasphemers. I wrote about how people continue to suffer under blasphemy laws and norms, and how some countries are currently trying to make it even less safe for dissenters. New post:
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When it comes to free speech on campus, the % of schools earning an overall red light rating from FIRE increased for the first time in 15 years. This increase was caused, in part, by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. What's happening?
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“Proponents of regulating misinformation underestimate the difficulty of sorting out truth from falsity and fact from opinion, or the dangers of having the government be the arbiter of truth.” -
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From jawboning to threats of legislation, FIRE's @mharwood31 and @aaronterr1 examine how government officials and lawmakers disregard the #FirstAmendment and undermine free speech culture. thefire.org/news/illiberal
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King County, Washington prohibits employees from having a Christmas tree or a menorah visible in their workspaces because those are "religious" & could offend. It's stunning how often reality reads like parody.
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Like the Ghost of Christmas Present, FIRE offers a chance at redemption for the county that ordered staff to keep virtual workspaces clear of religious imagery. Fix the holiday decoration guidelines—because government workers have 1A rights, even at work. thefire.org/news/king-coun
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Very important issue.
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From jawboning to threats of legislation, FIRE's @mharwood31 and @aaronterr1 examine how government officials and lawmakers disregard the #FirstAmendment and undermine free speech culture. thefire.org/news/illiberal
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Almost 90% of colleges maintain policies that infringe on free speech rights. How do they get away with that? Well, people don't know about it. That's why FIRE shines a Spotlight on Speech Codes.
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"As graduate students in the University of California system strike for higher wages, one university is suppressing support for striking students through selective enforcement of its electronic communications policy." - FIRE's
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Judicial security is important. But as drafted, section 5934 poses overbroad restrictions on speech, including that which could reveal judicial conflicts. joined this letter & hopes the Senate will keep the section out of the #NDAA until its problems are fixed.
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The #NDAA internet censoring provision is set for Senate consideration this week. It allow federal courts to order anyone to remove info about fed'l judges from the internet. Let's hope @SenSchumer @LeaderMcConnell @SenJackReed @JimInhofe read our letter and cut section 5934.
A letter concerning an internet censoring provision of the NDAA. It starts:

Dear Senators:

We are deeply concerned that the National Defense Authorization Act will severely undermine accountability for federal judges regarding ethical and conflicts-of-interest matters. Accordingly, we call upon the Senate to remove Section 5934 from the NDAA prior to passage.

The "Judicial Security and Privacy Act" contained in Title LIX Subtitle D of the NDAA empowers federal judges to order websites and data brokers to remove information that concern federal judges off the internet and out of their databases, backed by the threat of a penalty and damages for noncompliance. While the entirety of Subtitle D is intended to protect federal judges, Section 5934 seriously infringes upon the First Amendment and impinges upon public oversight of ethics matters concerning the federal judiciary.
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The background 👇
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1/ On Nov. 14, the Keller Independent School District board in Keller, Texas voted 4-2 to adopt a policy banning books in all public school libraries that reference 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲. Keller ISD’s new restrictions violate the First Amendment. 🧵
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