Free Speech

Facebook has started banning foreign advertisements related to Ireland’s referendum on its Eighth Amendment, the constitutional amendment that bans abortion in the country.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is reportedly the latest organization to lose its ability to raise money through Amazon due to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) anti-conservative mission.  

A new Instagram filter will reportedly help crack down on bullying on the site by flagging words reportedly associated with behavior.

Facebook is apparently testing out a new feature that appeared to allow posters to report content as hate speech. On Tuesday afternoon, Facebook users saw an option to report every post in their feeds for “hate speech,” regardless of the context. Posts about food, cats, and even news links all had the option to report them for containing hate speech.

Facebook will be bringing in an adviser to address concerns about anti-conservative bias on the platform. Axios reported on Wednesday that Facebook will be bringing in an advisory team led by former Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl to tackle the issue of bias against conservatives. Kyl’s law firm, Covington and Burling, will allegedly be discussing the issue with conservative groups “directly”…

Managers at Google are allegedly not allowed to congratulate employees for behaviors that support the “U.S. White/male dominant culture.”  

Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have officially announced their plans to join other tech giants by swapping out their gun emojis for less offensive toy water guns.  

Social media took center stage on Capitol Hill again Thursday, April 26, 2018. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing examining the “Filtering Practices of Social Media Platforms.” While certain Republican members of Congress and the pro-Trump duo Diamond and Silk argued social media platforms are politically biased against conservatives, other witnesses and Democrats claimed the hearing…

A page for University of Chicago students to anonymously share confessions, questions, and rants was shut down by Facebook after a post included a meme making fun of French people.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), originally scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday regarding online censorship, has clarified that it will only submit written testimony due to concerns that the hearing will not be substantive.

Bumble, a dating app that claims to be women-centered, has made another round of donations to Planned Parenthood. This followed last month’s move to ban gun photos on the app.

A Scottish YouTuber has been fined after being found guilty of being “grossly offensive” online for uploading a video of his girlfriend’s pug responding to “sieg heil” and “gas the Jews.”

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows a majority of Americans do not believe the government should rein in the spread of fake news.

A 19-year-old from Liverpool was reportedly found guilty of sending a “grossly offensive message” when she posted rap lyrics on her Instagram account. Prosecutors reportedly increased the teenager’s sentence “as it was a hate crime.”