First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Biden administration is appealing a bombshell ruling from a federal judge barring government agencies from contacting social media companies to make takedown requests or recommend other content moderation. State Department officials had already halted routine meetings with Facebook in response to the July 5th ruling. Experts fear the lack of communication between the federal government and social media companies could delay responses to online disinformation campaigns ahead of upcoming elections.Twitter Verification…

A US federal judge handed the censorship-obsessed wing of the Republican party a major win on Tuesday by blocking Biden officials from contacting social media firms to suggest content moderation takedown requests. The preliminary injunction, delivered by way of a 155 page-ruling on Independence Day, marks the most significant policy outcome to date stemming largely from the right-wing backlash to the so-called Twitter Files and other half-baked theories accusing deep state boogeymen of illegally colluding with Big Tech to…

Time for another round of the Supreme Court’s newest game show: Who Should Be Discriminated Against Next? On Friday, the court decided 6 to 3 in the case of 303 Creative v. Aubrey Elenis, agreeing that the First Amendment protects website designers who choose to discriminate based on their clients’ sexual orientation.What is One Change Mark Zuckerberg Should Make to His Social Platforms? | Gizmodo InterviewThe case centered on a Colorado-based web designer who has proclaimed she did not wish to make wedding sites for gay…

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two First Amendment rights cases this fall after San Diego board members blocked parents for raising concerns on their social media accounts. A second case was filed against the city manager in Port Huron, Michigan for blocking a resident who raised Covid-19 concerns on his Facebook page. In both cases, the courts sided with the plaintiffs, but the defendants appealed to the Supreme Court which agreed on Monday to pick up the cases.The First Things To Do In VR, Part 2In the case of…

Photo: Win McNamee (Getty Images)This week, the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that could upend the way we’ve come to understand freedom of speech on the internet. Both Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh ask the court to reconsider how the law interprets Section 230, a regulation that protects companies from legal liability for user-generated content. Gizmodo will be running a series of pieces about the past, present, and future of online speech.The future of expression on social media may depend on how the…

Photo: Anton Vierietin (Shutterstock)This week, the Supreme Court is hearing two cases that could upend the way we’ve come to understand freedom of speech on the internet. Both Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh ask the court to reconsider how the law interprets Section 230, a regulation that protects companies from legal liability for user-generated content. Gizmodo will be running a series of pieces about the past, present, and future of online speech.Tumblr had a problem. It’s “called the pro-ana community, ana…

The Minnesota Supreme CourtPhoto: Wikimedia CommonsDefamation, an umbrella term encompassing both libel and slander, is a legal doctrine that allows a plaintiff to recover damages if the defendant makes a false statement about them to others, harming their reputation and esteem in the community. However, different rules apply when the statements involve public figures or issues, and what is considered “public” may soon be reassessed by the courts due to the changing digital nature of how news and information becomes…

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs H.B. 20 into law, which aims to protect Texans from “Wrongful Social Media Censorship” on September 9, 2021. Photo: Office of the Texas GovernorIn the 5th Circuit Court of Appeal’s latest decision about social media companies flagging and banning disinformation, “censorship” is the word of the day, and the concept of “content moderation,” as limited as it often seems, is a foreign concept.Late on Friday, the court released its decision on Texas bill H.B. 20, rejecting “the idea that…