Latest news with #freeexpression
Washington Post
a day ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Texas looks to enact restrictions on when and how students can protest
Texas's conservative governor may soon sign a measure that opponents say would dramatically limit how more than a million students enrolled in one of the country's largest public university systems are allowed to protest on campus, part of the Republican response to last year's roiling student protests over the Israel-Gaza war.
CBS News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Student says Pennsylvania high school forced them to remove keffiyeh at graduation ceremony
A student at Lower Merion High School in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, says they were not allowed to fully participate in their graduation ceremony because they were wearing a headscarf that has become a symbol for Palestinians. The student, Evan, said they showed up for the ceremony last Thursday in a keffiyeh-patterned headscarf. According to Evan's post on Instagram, school officials said the colors were a "political statement." The post says the student was pulled aside and told to take it off because it would cause a disruption. Evan said they were eventually allowed to return for a portion of the graduation after removing the headscarf. In a statement to CBS News Philadelphia, the Lower Merion School District said it sent guidelines to seniors and their families weeks before graduation. The guidelines included not wearing attire with political messages that would distract from the purpose of the ceremony, the Lower Merion School District said. The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the schools' actions and said in a statement in part that the incident is a "clear violation of students' rights to free expression, and a troubling example of racial and political profiling." The Lower Merion School District said students were given a choice between removing items that violated their guidance and participating in the ceremony, or not removing them and not participating.
Associated Press
03-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Federal judge blocks Florida from enforcing social media ban for kids while lawsuit continues
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has barred state officials from enforcing a Florida law that would ban social media accounts for young children, while a legal challenge against the law plays out. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued the order Tuesday, blocking portions of the law from taking effect. The measure was one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S. on social media use by children when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law in 2024. The law would ban social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for their use by 14- and 15-year-olds. In his order granting the preliminary injunction sought by the groups Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice, Walker wrote that the law is 'likely unconstitutional,' but acknowledged that parents and lawmakers have 'sincere concerns' about social media's effects on kids. Walker wrote that the prohibition on social media platforms from allowing certain age groups to create accounts 'directly burdens those youths' rights to engage in and access speech.' While siding with the industry groups' claims that the law limits free speech, Walker allowed a provision to go into effect requiring platforms to shut down accounts for children under 16, if their parent or guardian requests it. Parents — and even some teens themselves — are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media use on young people. Supporters of the Florida law have said it's needed to help curb the explosive use of social media among young people, and what researchers say is an associated increase in depression and anxiety. Matt Schruers, the president and CEO of the industry association CCIA, praised the judge's order blocking the law. 'This ruling vindicates our argument that Florida's statute violates the First Amendment by blocking and restricting minors — and likely adults as well — from using certain websites to view lawful content,' he said in a statement. 'We look forward to seeing this statute permanently blocked as a violation of Floridians' constitutional right to engage in lawful speech online.' A spokesperson for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier defended the law and the state's efforts to insulate kids from social media at a time when platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat seem almost impossible to escape. 'Florida parents voted through their elected representatives for a law protecting kids from the harmful and sometimes lifelong tragic impacts of social media. These platforms do not have a constitutional right to addict kids to their products,' Uthmeier's press secretary Jae Williams said in a statement. 'We disagree with the court's order and will immediately seek relief in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
WIRED
29-05-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Meta's ‘Free Expression' Push Results In Far Fewer Content Takedowns
May 29, 2025 7:09 PM Meta says loosening its enforcement policies earlier this year led to fewer erroneous takedowns on Facebook and Instagram—and didn't broadly expose users to more harmful content. An aerial view of Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photograph:Meta announced in January it would end some content moderation efforts, loosen its rules, and put more emphasis on supporting 'free expression.' The shifts resulted in fewer posts being removed from Facebook and Instagram, the company disclosed Thursday in its quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report. Meta said that its new policies had helped reduce erroneous content removals in the US by half without broadly exposing users to more offensive content than before the changes. The new report, which was referenced in an update to a January blog post by Meta global affairs chief Joel Kaplan, shows that Meta removed nearly one third less content on Facebook and Instagram globally for violating its rules from January to March of this year than it did in the previous quarter, or about 1.6 billion items compared to just under 2.4 billion, according to an analysis by WIRED. In the past several quarters, the tech giant's total quarterly removals had previously risen or stayed flat. Across Instagram and Facebook, Meta reported removing about 50 percent fewer posts for violating its spam rules, nearly 36 percent for child endangerment, and almost 29 percent for hateful conduct. Removals increased in only one major rules category—suicide and self-harm content—out of the 11 Meta lists. The amount of content Meta removes fluctuates regularly from quarter to quarter, and a number of factors could have contributed to the dip in takedowns. But the company itself acknowledged that 'changes made to reduce enforcement mistakes' was one reason for the large drop. 'Across a range of policy areas we saw a decrease in the amount of content actioned and a decrease in the percent of content we took action on before a user reported it,' the company wrote. 'This was in part because of the changes we made to ensure we are making fewer mistakes. We also saw a corresponding decrease in the amount of content appealed and eventually restored.' Meta relaxed some of its content rules at the start of the year that CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as 'just out of touch with mainstream discourse.' The changes allowed Instagram and Facebook users to employ some language that human rights activists view as hateful toward immigrants or individuals that identify as transgender. For example, Meta now permits 'allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation.' As part of the sweeping changes, which were announced just as Donald Trump was set to begin his second term as US president, Meta also stopped relying as much on automated tools to identify and remove posts suspected of less severe violations of its rules because it said they had high error rates, prompting frustration from users. During the first quarter of this year, Meta's automated systems accounted for 97.4 percent of content removed from Instagram under the company's hate speech policies, down by just one percentage point from the end of last year. (User reports to Meta triggered the remaining percentage.) But automated removals for bullying and harassment on Facebook dropped nearly 12 percentage points. In some categories, such as nudity, Meta's systems were slightly more proactive compared to the previous quarter. Users can appeal content takedowns, and Meta sometimes restores posts that it determines have been wrongfully removed. In the update to Kaplan's blog post, Meta highlighted the large decrease in erroneous takedowns. 'This improvement follows the commitment we made in January to change our focus to proactively enforcing high-severity violations and enhancing our accuracy through system audits and additional signals,' the company wrote. Some Meta employees told WIRED in January that they were concerned the policy changes could lead to a dangerous free-for-all on Facebook and Instagram, turning the platforms into increasingly inhospitable places for users to converse and spend time. But according to its own sampling, Meta estimates that users were exposed to about one to two pieces of hateful content on average for every 10,000 posts viewed in the first quarter, down from about two to three at the end of last year. And Meta's platforms have continued growing—about 3.43 billion people in March used at least one of its apps, which include WhatsApp and Messenger, up from 3.35 billion in December.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
US will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans' social media posts
The United States has said it will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans' social media posts, as Donald Trump's administration wages a new battle over free expression. Marco Rubio – the secretary of state who has controversially rescinded visas for activists who criticize Israel and ramped up screening of foreign students' social media – said on Wednesday he was acting against 'flagrant censorship actions' overseas against US tech firms. He did not publicly name any official who would be denied a visa under the new policy. But last week he suggested to lawmakers that he was planning sanctions against a Brazilian supreme court judge, Alexandre de Moraes, who has battled X owner and Trump ally Elon Musk over alleged disinformation. The administration of Trump – himself a prolific and often confrontational social media user – has also sharply criticized Germany and Britain for restricting what the US allies' governments term hate and abusive speech. Rubio said the United States will begin to restrict visas to foreign nationals who are responsible for 'censorship of protected expression in the United States'. 'It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil,' Rubio said in a statement. 'It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,' he said. 'We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.' Rubio has said he has revoked the US visas for thousands of people, largely students who have protested against Israel's offensive in Gaza. Among the most visible cases has been Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who had written an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticizing the school's position on Gaza. Masked agents arrested her on a Massachusetts street and took her away. A judge recently ordered her release. Rubio on Tuesday suspended further appointments for students seeking visas to the United States until the state department drafts new guidelines on enhanced screening of applicants' social media postings. Social media regulation has become a rallying cry for many in the US on the right since Trump was suspended from Twitter, now X, and Facebook, on safety grounds after his supporters attacked the US Capitol following his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden. In Brazil, where supporters of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro similarly stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the supreme court in 2023 after Bolsonaro's election loss, Moraes has said he is seeking to protect democracy through his judicial power. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Moraes temporarily blocked X across Brazil until it complied with his order to remove accounts accused of spreading disinformation. More recently he ordered a suspension of Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with conservative and far-right voices over its refusal to block the account of a user based in the United States who was wanted for spreading disinformation. Germany – whose foreign minister met Wednesday with Rubio – restricts online hate speech and misinformation, saying it has learned a lesson from its Nazi past and will ostracize extremists. JD Vance in a speech in Munich in February denounced Germany for shunning the far-right. In an essay Tuesday, a state department official pointed to social media regulations and said Europeans were following a 'similar strategy of censorship, demonization and bureaucratic weaponization' as witnessed against Trump and his supporters. 'What this reveals is that the global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy,' wrote Samuel Samson, a senior advisor for the state department's human rights office. 'Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people.'
