e112. Social Media and Free Speech

If you’re unlucky enough to live on the planet Earth, you probably know that it’s not doing terribly well lately. We’ve had a global pandemic sweeping through every corner of the globe that has largely shut business and commerce to a halt, tanking the economy. And if you live in America, and the people dying from COVID-19 weren’t bad enough (and it is), we’ve also had the latest in a string of perpetual killings of unarmed black men by police. This sparked off a series of protests in our country, some of which have turned to riots. Somehow, in the midst of this, reality TV star Donald Trump — who for reasons that don’t really make a lot of sense, somehow continues to president of this country —has decided to use his presidential powers to go to war with social media giant Twitter (and by extension all other social media companies) because they hurt his feelings by fact checking a few of his non-factual tweets. On this week’s episode, Hannah, Katya and Mav welcome returning guest attorney Josh Stroud to talk us through exactly what Trump’s new executive order does, why it’s a big deal and explain exactly how free speech works on the Internet in America in the first place. Give it a listen and let us know what you think. Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* “READ: Trump’s executive order targeting social media companies” by CNN* “Trump’s social media executive order: Is the Tweeter-in-Chief trying to shut himself up?” by Kathy Kiely and Lyrissa Lidsky* “About public-interest exceptions on Twitter” by Twitter* “BREAKING: Ted Cruz sends letter to AG Barr, Secretary Mnuchin calling for criminal investigation into Twitter” by The Right Scoop* “Trump’s Order Targeting Social Media Sites, Explained” by Charlie Savage* “Twitter Adds Warnings to Trump and White House Tweets, Fueling Tensions” by Davey Alba, Kate Conger and Raymond Zhong* The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere by Jürgen Habermas* “You cannot keep from getting swept up in Trump’s agenda without a firm grasp on your own” by Press Think* First Amendment  to the U.S.