■ Citing “unnecessary use of force and encroachments on First Amendment rights,” free-speech organizations criticize Florida university presidents.
■ The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the Antisemitism Awareness Act as it threatens to censor political free speech on college campuses.
■ Blocking journalists from reporting on a Columbia University demonstration was a “clear infringement of the First Amendment,” declared Mara Gay in a New York Times opinion piece.
■ More than a half century after the Kent State tragedy, a law professor examined the limits to our freedoms of speech and protest.
Bark and Byte. The sell-or-be-banned legislation against TikTok’s parent company could face an uphill First Amendment battle in court, The Associated Press has reported.
■ TikTok has reached a new licensing agreement that will restore Universal Music Group artists, which include Taylor Swift, to its social media platform.
■ The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Elon Musk over a settlement that requires him to get approval in advance before sending social media posts about his Tesla company.
■ Missourians have used a massive petition drive to put an abortion-rights measure on the November ballot.
Press on. Eight daily newspapers have filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of using copyrighted content without permission to train their generative products.
■ A lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. could determine if Facebook users have the right to control what they see, or do not see, on their personal feeds.
■ Silicon Valley is on edge following closing arguments in Google’s landmark antitrust case against the U.S. Justice Department.
■ Through testimonies and text messages, New York prosecutors have painted a picture of how Donald Trump turned the press into a tool to serve his own ends, declared a former U.S. attorney in an MSNBC opinion piece.
Bark and Byte. The sell-or-be-banned legislation against TikTok’s parent company could face an uphill First Amendment battle in court, The Associated Press has reported.
■ TikTok has reached a new licensing agreement that will restore Universal Music Group artists, which include Taylor Swift, to its social media platform.
■ The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Elon Musk over a settlement that requires him to get approval in advance before sending social media posts about his Tesla company.
■ Missourians have used a massive petition drive to put an abortion-rights measure on the November ballot.
Press on. Eight daily newspapers have filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of using copyrighted content without permission to train their generative products.
■ A lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. could determine if Facebook users have the right to control what they see, or do not see, on their personal feeds.
■ Silicon Valley is on edge following closing arguments in Google’s landmark antitrust case against the U.S. Justice Department.
■ Through testimonies and text messages, New York prosecutors have painted a picture of how Donald Trump turned the press into a tool to serve his own ends, declared a former U.S. attorney in an MSNBC opinion piece.
■ Gag-order violations by former president Trump are part of the “classic confrontation of constitutional rights.”
Ban-aid. With books being targeted in U.S. libraries at a growing rate, Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, shares thoughts on what is and is not book banning.
■ State lawmakers in North Carolina have exempted themselves from public-records laws through provisions in the new state budget.
■ For journalists today, growing secrecy at state and local levels is limiting government accountability, explained media expert David Cuillier in The Conversation.
■ Israel’s government raided and shut down operations of the Al Jazeera television network in that country.
■ Political attacks on journalists are growing worldwide with governments failing to protect press freedom, according to a report from Reporters Without Borders.
Distrusted? Americans have serious trust issues with national news outlets heading into the 2024 election season, a new poll from the American Press Institute and the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed.
■ A large majority of American adults specify press freedom as important to society, results of a Pew Research Center survey showed.
■ Organizers for the Democratic National Convention have promised to protect free speech while maintaining order, reported NBC News.
■ Journalists who are publicly critical of their companies have caused headaches for news organizations, according to The Associated Press.
