Category «Free Speech»

How the Proud Boys invented antifa

Salon – The far-right gang has been fully absorbed by Trump’s White House: “The first thing to understand about antifa is that it is not real. Yes, as a journalist, I’m obligated to offer some throat-clearing nuance: There is a thing called antifa that has existed for a long time, in the sense that there have …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Free Speech, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

The State of Local News 2025

Northwestern Medill Local News Initiative 2025 State of Local News Report: Two Decades of Data, Deserts and Dynamic Change. “Twenty years of data, one overarching headline: transformation. With this State of Local News Report, Medill has two decades of data on local news outlets across America. And over the span of that time, the historic …

Subjects: Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

Image Scrubber

Gizmodo: “he EFF suggests Image Scrubber as a software tool for obscuring faces, and also stripping out the identifying metadata attached to your photos — which can include your location and sometimes even your name…”  “This is a tool for anonymizing photographs taken at protests. It will remove identifying metadata (Exif data) from photographs, and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President

ProPublica and via YouTube: “Russell Vought is the architect of Trump’s broader plan to fire civil servants, freeze government programs and dismantle entire agencies, and he’s a big reason the second Trump administration has been more effective at accomplishing its goals than the first. In the video shared by Trump, Vought appeared as the scythe-wielding …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Financial System, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

Judiciary Democrats Launch Resources Page to Empower Whistleblowers to Continue Reporting Government Corruption

“In an effort to cover up waste, fraud, and corruption in government, on October 1, the White House shut down websites for at least 28 Offices of the Inspector General (OIGs)—federal government watchdogs that root out waste, fraud, and corruption in the federal government and save taxpayers more than $50 billion every year. By shutting …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Secretive Watchlisting Center Executing National Security Presidential Memorandum 7

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM 7 – referred to as NSPM-7, September 25, 2025. SUBJECT: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct the following: Section 1. Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence. Heinous …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Weaponizing the Espionage Act: What It Means for Whistleblowers, Reporters, and Democracy

Just Security – “President Donald Trump has made suppressing speech he doesn’t like a governing priority. From his first days back in office he cast dissent as disloyalty, promising “retribution” against anyone who criticized, investigated, or resisted him. He then translated that promise into action through regulatory proceedings, lawsuits, clearance revocations, and restrictions on press …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

‘Save Our Signs’ Preservation Project Launches Archive of 10,000 National Park Signs

404 Media: “On Monday, a publicly-sourced archive of more than 10,000 national park signs and monument placards went public as part of a massive volunteer project to save historical and educational placards from around the country that risk removal by the Trump administration. Visitors to national parks and other public monuments at more than 300 …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Librarian Fired in Books Dispute to Receive $700,000 Settlement

The New York Times Gift Article: “County officials in Wyoming fired Terri Lesley, a library director, after she refused to purge children and young adult books that contained sexual content and L.G.B.T.Q. themes. A library director in Wyoming who was fired two years ago because she refused to remove books with sexual content and L.G.B.T.Q. …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Legal Research, Libraries

LLRX September 2025 Issue – Articles and Columns

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research and Public Health, Part 3 – This is a follow up to two recent articles by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, free speech, and the censorship of federally funded …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Environmental Law, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline

MIT Technology Review: “People over Papers, a crowd-sourcing project that maps sightings of immigration agents, was taken offline yesterday by Padlet, the collaborative bulletin board platform on which it was built. It’s just the latest ICE-tracking initiative to be pulled by tech platforms in the past few days. A Padlet customer service representative told Celeste, …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Legal Research

MAGA wages campaign to redefine “hate” after Kirk killing

Axios: “Hate crimes have hit record levels in the past few years. Analysts say antisemitic crimes rose again in 2024. MAGA activists are going after two of the nation’s most storied civil rights watchdogs, accusing them of smearing conservatives as extremists. MAGA leaders, backed by the Trump administration and Elon Musk, are trying to undermine the …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Legal Research