In the News
KFYR: Noem Administration ordered to pay attorney fees after First Amendment violation
By Austin Goss
A federal judge has ordered the state of South Dakota to pay lawyers for the “Blue State Refugees” $37,503 after it was found that the Noem Administration violated the organization’s First Amendment rights.
In a 12 page opinion, Judge Roberto Lange, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for South Dakota, ordered the state to pay the amount following a denial of a permit to protest on State Capitol grounds.
Last November, members of the “Blue State Refugees,” an organization made up of out-of-state transplants to South Dakota from more heavily Democratic areas, attempted to get a permit to protest for more COVID-19 vaccine exemptions on State Capitol grounds.
The Bureau of Administration, tasked with issuing permits to organizations looking to utilize state facilities, denied that permit request, citing Christmas decorating going on in the Capitol.…
Alan Gura, a lawyer for the Institute for Free Speech, is set to receive $16,560 of the amount paid out…
“It is just disappointing how long this went on, how much the state fought,” said Luke Robertson, a member of Blue State Refugees and one of the plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit. “It doesn’t seem like the Noem Administration really respects our rights, especially our First Amendment rights.”
Free Expression
New York Post: Angry mom who confronted Adams on toddler mask mandate fired from city job
By Susan Edelman, Haley Brown and Gabrielle Fonrouge
The Big Apple mom who crashed Mayor Eric Adams’ press conference Monday to blast him over his tot mask mandate was fired shortly afterward from her job at the city Law Department, The Post has learned.
Daniela Jampel, who served as an assistant corporation counsel, learned she was canned less than an hour after she confronted a caught-off-guard and apparently annoyed Adams over when he would “unmask our toddlers.”
Jampel had publicly challenged the mayor at an unrelated event on LGBTQ issues — as Adams stood in front of a podium banner that read, “Come to the city where you can say whatever you want.’’ …
Sources close to the matter said Jampel — a leading local critic of the toddler mask mandate and pandemic school closures — was informed by email shortly after the presser that she was fired.
Political Parties
Split Ticket: The Declining Value of a Dollar
By Lakshya Jain
And so while it was once taken as a given by many Democrats that the increase of money in politics might result in Republican hegemony at the ballot box, the picture is now no longer as clear; campaign finance reform measures might genuinely hurt the Democratic Party more than it would harm the Republican Party. But if 2020 was any indication, it might not ultimately matter as much any longer as to which party spends more money. With both parties sure to be awash in cash and with the importance of partisanship at an all-time high, the value of a dollar may never have been lower.
Online Speech Platforms
Politico: Musk appointed to Twitter’s board
By Quint Forgey
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced on Tuesday that SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk would be appointed to the social media company’s board of directors.
The news of Musk’s appointment comes after he took a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter on Monday, making him the company’s biggest shareholder…
Musk is “both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service,” Agrawal added, “which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term.”
“Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!” Musk tweeted.
Musk hinted at a potential change to the social media platform in a tweet on Monday night, polling his followers on whether Twitter should feature an “edit button” for posts.
New York Times: Elon Musk Joins Twitter’s Board, Pitching Ideas Big and Small
By Kate Conger, Mike Isaac and Lauren Hirsch
Unlike some other Twitter board members, Mr. Musk did not sign an agreement that forbade him from influencing the company’s policies. That could allow him to work with Mr. Agrawal on a futuristic vision for “decentralized” social networking…
That vision challenges the way that platforms are created. Core technologies would be built publicly and transparently, with oversight and input from coders around the world. Users could then customize their social media feeds and establish their own rules about what kinds of speech are acceptable. That’s very different from how social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are now set up, with the companies dictating what posts can stay up and what should be removed.
The plan jibes with Mr. Musk’s, Mr. Dorsey’s and Mr. Agrawal’s beliefs in unfettered free speech. Mr. Musk has criticized Twitter for moderating its platform too restrictively and has said more speech should be allowed…
His appointment to Twitter’s board was celebrated on Tuesday by some Republicans, who have accused the company of political bias and censoring right-wing voices…
David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who formerly worked with the United Nations on speech issues, warned that Mr. Musk’s vision for free speech could conflict with Twitter’s policies, which are intended to govern conversations around the globe.
Washington Post (The Technology 202): Twitter’s ‘safety mode’ could shield politicians from harassment. It could also silence critics.
By Cristiano Lima
For months, Twitter has been building out a new safety tool aimed at making it easier for users to tune out harassment, including by automatically blocking “uninvited” messages.
But the social network is still grappling with whether those protections should extend to politicians, who free speech advocates fear could use the features to silence critics…
The issue crystallized over the weekend after a prominent health-care activist, Laura Marston, reported being automatically blocked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s campaign account.
Marston had repeatedly tweeted at the account criticizing a House bill to cap the monthly cost of insulin…
“It’s perfectly constitutional for candidates for office to use blocking tools while they’re campaigning, because campaign speech is not subject to First Amendment limitations,” Alex Abdo, litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told me.
He added, “But it would be a shame if these tools were used not just to block harassment but to silence political disagreement.”
Unite.Ai: Research: Anti-Spam Algorithms Showed Political Bias During 2020 USA Elections
By Martin Anderson
According to a new study, the spam filtering algorithms (SFAs) from three of the world’s largest major email providers exhibited political bias during the United States’ 2020 elections, with Google’s Gmail skewing to the left, and Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo Mail favoring emails from right-wing candidates.
The paper states:
. . . Gmail marked 59.3% more emails from the right candidates as spam compared to the left candidates, whereas Outlook and Yahoo marked 20.4% and 14.2% more emails from left candidates as spam compared to the right candidates, respectively.’
