Free Speech

After discovering Instagram’s plan to “hide the public like counts of photos,” reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong observed that Facebook may follow suit. In her September 2, blog, she made clear that she works at neither Big Tech company, but has merely discovered these experiments by “reverse-engineering the app and playing with the code underneath.”

Facebook chose a side in the abortion debate and is actively working to suppress pro-life content. Live Action, a pro-life nonprofit organization run by activist Lila Rose, was notified August 30 that two of the company’s videos were marked as “false” by fact-checkers.

Big Tech is being summoned by the Federal Election Commission to answer what it is doing to stop digital misinformation before the 2020 elections. FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub sent out personal invitations to the heads of Facebook, Google, and Twitter on August 30.

YouTube has been giving mixed messages about whether it is an open platform or not. The day after deplatforming multiple right-wing accounts, YouTube released a creator blog titled ”Preserving openness through responsibility.” It proclaimed itself  an open platform for diverse, even controversial, ideas. The next day, YouTube mysteriously reinstated some of these deplatformed channels, while…

When is the best time to pretend to be a neutral and open platform? Probably not after banning several accounts for content. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki released a creator blog ”Preserving openness through responsibility” Tuesday August 27. She declared her commitment to the video sharing website being an “open” platform while also proclaiming a commitment to liberal values.

A small change made to the company’s slogan could open the door for Facebook to make even more money from the social media network. Previously, according to USA Today, the slogan on the front page of Facebook was “It’s free and it always will be.”

Facebook is having a hard time with transparency, even after paying for researchers to look at its data … with transparency. Philanthropies that agreed to fund studies about Facebook are even threatening to quit. Facebook had promised to make certain sets of data available to researchers working for the organizations, which included the Koch Foundation and Omidyar Network.

Forget education. Now academics are mad that free speech YouTubers are turning students against liberal brainwashing. The Verge wrote on August 21, “As misinformation and hate continues to radicalize young people online, teachers are also grappling with helping their students unlearn incorrect, dangerous information.” The professors and The Verge blamed YouTubers like Canadian Academic Jordan B.…

One conservative media outlet’s battle over free speech can shake up the country’s future. On Tuesday August 27, PragerU held a press conference after their hearing at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals during the saga of their lawsuit against Google/Youtube. Prager is a popular conservative media outlet known for its academic but easy to understand videos which explain conservative ideas.  

Google has tried to appease the social justice movement within its company, to the point that it has been accused of reverse discrimination. But apparently that’s not enough, according to one of its engineers. Bria Sullivan, an app developer for Google, interviewed with Moguldom, a media outlet that “programs content for an economic revolution in Black America,” on the August 21 GHOGH podcast.…

Facebook has banned pro-Trump news outlet the Epoch Times from any further advertising on its platform. As NBC News observed, the organization “spent more money on pro-Trump Facebook advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign.” The ban which NBC News reported August 22 will not scour Epoch Times content from the platform. Facebook's ban only impacts paper's ability to buy…

Big Tech is preparing for a reckoning with justice in a court of law. PragerU, a conservative media outlet known for its academic videos that explain traditional values and beliefs, will argue its appeal in a federal court on August 27. After a court dismissed the case on March 28, 2018, the company filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court against Google and its sister company, YouTube.…

After waves of criticism — from accusations of bias to firing employees for their political beliefs — Google has rolled out new internal rules for people of all political stripes. Don’t be political. Recode wrote about Google’s new rules, announced Thursday August 22, which include “restrictions on political expression and guidelines on internal debates about company activity.” The guidelines…