Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FreeExpression

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🧵How did PEN America defend and celebrate #FreeExpression this week?

On Wednesday, we urged school officials in Nixa, #Missouri, to retain Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus and two other books that were flagged by as "sexually explicit." pen.org/press-release/…
We also sat down with Art Spiegelman, who reflected on the history of fascism and the idea that #Maus was being attacked for sexual content: "I was offended just like they were, but I was offended by describing a naked corpse as a nude woman." pen.org/art-spiegelman… (2/x)
Ahead of a June 20 school board meeting in Nixa, Missouri, we encouraged everyone who opposes censorship to tell school officials that Maus belongs in schools.

Use this form to send your own letter: pen.org/fight-back-aga… (3/x) #BannedBooks #FreeTheBooks
Read 7 tweets
PEN America CEO @SuzanneNossel opens #StandWithSalman event at @nypl:

"When a would-be murderer plunged a knife into Salman Rushdie's neck he pierced more than just the flesh of a renowned writer. He sliced through time, jolting all of us to recognize that..." (1/x)
"... horrors of the past were hauntingly present. He infiltrated across borders, enabling the long arm of a vengeful government to reach into a peaceful haven. He punctured our calm, leaving us lying awake at night contemplating the sheer terror of those moments..." (2/x)
"... on stage at Chautauqua. And he shattered our comfort, forcing us to contemplate the frailty of our own freedom.

Today we gather to #StandWithSalman, our stalwart leader and comrade who is enduring agony wrought by a 33 year old vendetta..."
Read 10 tweets
NEW: State legislative proposals to restrict the freedom to learn and teach ⬆️ 250% in 2022, reports PEN America. Educational gag orders now law in 19 states home to 122M Americans, underscoring fast escalating threats to #StudentsRights.

More at pen.org/press-release/… #EdScare Image
New report expands on PEN America’s November 2021 report on educational gag orders & our April 2022 analysis of book bans.

"America’s Censored Classrooms" analyzes 137 educational gag orders in 36 states in 2022 vs. 54 in 22 states in FY 2021. pen.org/press-release/… #EdScare
Major findings from PEN America's new #AmericasCensoredClassrooms report on educational gag orders (1/2): Image
Read 9 tweets
It is very important in this period of humanity to take a serious look at what is happening in the world friends.

Watch this video first in its entirety & reflect upon current situations critically.

🙏

odysee.com/@AfterSkool:7/…
#Menticide is here & with it, a new attempt to establish a "#TechnoTotalitarian" rule over the lives of American citizens.

The final variant of #Coronavirus could very well be the manifestation of a #NewWorldOrder under #totalitarian rule.
That may sound absurd, but what is very concerning is that many talking heads in the media & even public figures are now making very carefully worded emotional appeals to logic to further induce a totalitarian #masspsychosis.
Read 53 tweets
ICYMI: Some top takeaways from the 2020 @rankingrights Index! 🧵
2/ Amazon came in dead last, outpaced by #BigTech companies in the U.S., China, and Russia. By almost every measure, the company is way behind on transparency and accountability around users’ rights.

rankingdigitalrights.org/index2020/comp…
3/ Twitter ranked number one among digital platforms, for the first time, thanks in part to key details in its transparency reports. But at 53 out of 100 possible points, the company still has loads of work to do.

rankingdigitalrights.org/index2020/comp…
Read 8 tweets
#India Many have seen reports of the massive #FarmersProtests. As the right to dissent faces increasing challenge in India, press freedom is again threatened. 8 journalists face criminal charges, incl sedition, for reporting allegations of rights abuses during the protests.
If you are interested in the way dissent and free expression has become increasingly criminalised in Modi’s #India, since 2014, this excellent new database bears close examination.
Worth reading this @hrw piece on what’s happening on the official response to the #FarmersProtest. India’s govt has focused on discrediting peaceful protesters, harassing critics of the government, & prosecuting those reporting on the govt: @mg2411
hrw.org/news/2021/02/0…
Read 11 tweets
It thus become more important than ever before to document instances of free speech violations by the state and build a repository from all over the country.
#RightSideBroadcasting #FakeNews #HumanRights
The #tracker entails publicly available data collected by volunteers with SFLC.in via various sources including news sources, court orders etc. as well as by crowd-sourcing information from the public at large and verifying it.
sflc.in/free-speech-tr…
#volunteer
The aim of this project is to ignite conversations & deepen understanding around the status of #FreeSpeech in India. Right to freedom of speech and expression is the spine of a #Democratic nation. A tracker like this is a mirror which shows us how deep the water is.
#Constitution
Read 5 tweets
Yesterday, Sierra Leone's Supreme Court summarily convicted lawyer & blogger, @Soe_Marrah, for criticising a decision of the court in a #socialmedia post. The circumstances of this case are so outrageous, it is necessary to tell the story

#StandWithAugustineMarrah
Following @Soe_Marrah's post, the Supreme Court extraordinarily issued a #benchwarrant suspending his rights of practice before courts in Sierra Leone & suspending the arrest of lawyers in court premises. They declared him #WantedDeadOrAlive
The irony is that this order was issued on the same day that Sierra Leone's @PresidentBio abolished the crime of criminal defamation in Sierra Leone.

The only people who failed to notice were the Justices of Sierra Leone's Supreme Court.
Read 19 tweets
On Jul 1, Mexico's Congress passed a new copyright law that pasted in the worst aspects of US and EU copyrights. The law passed without debate or consultation, as part of Donald Trump's #USMCA trade deal.

1/14

eff.org/deeplinks/2020… Image
Then, a month later, Mexico's Human Rights Commission stopped the law (temporarily), referring it to the Mexican Supreme Court on the grounds that it could violate the Mexican Constitution.

2/14

eff.org/deeplinks/2020…
They're right to worry. The US's digital copyright system - the #DMCA - is 22 years old and over that time, it has been a disaster for human rights. We should know. We've been fighting it since it was just a bill, working its way through Congress.

3/14

eff.org/issues/dmca
Read 14 tweets
#FreeExpression is a foundational value in a democratic society because it makes choice possible between competing visions of how to organize society. It also makes it possible for citizens to convey their views to leaders, hold inform one another & hold govt to account
So, #FreeExpression is worth standing up for & defending. It also means those charged with regulating it have a high duty to do their job with a high sense of responsibility & due regard to the underlying constitutional & civic value in free expression
punchng.com/pdp-nge-others…
For a long time, the way in which #Nigeria's broadcasting regulator, the NBC, undertakes its work has been open to question. Some of the queries it issues to broadcasters leave it open to charges of partisanship & clearly show no regard for constitutional values
Read 7 tweets

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