As trends to muzzle free speech continue to spread across the U.S and Europe, its becoming increasingly clear how important the participation of social media giants will be in these developments. Google, Facebook, and Twitter are seemingly at the forefront in co-operating with governments to restrict freedom of speech in various ways. Some aspects are clearly beneficial, such as preventing terror groups from communicating or posting online, while others infringe more on constitutionally-protected freedom of speech.

The devil is in the details, a number of which have been reported recently in some measure regarding Facebook and Twitter. These have been summarized as follows: Twitter Freedom of Speech Issues: An indication of ongoing social media clampdowns on free speech was revealed by Twitter’s recent announcement that it was establishing a “Trust and Safety” council, or panel to police speech on the site. Rudy Takala for the Washington Examiner explained that the council will work to develop policies censoring speech on the site. The group will be comprised of more than 40 organizations from 13 regions around the world. READ MORE

 


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