Thread by @glukianoff

THREAD: So @vox writer @seanilling just said that ppl like me worry too much about #freespeech b/c “speech has never been freer.” Bizarre assertion in 2020. Speech was probably freer in 2005 before the "democratic recession" began, but it was certainly freer in, say, 2015. (1/65)

It’s important to address this because there’s been a trend in “nothing to see here,” thinly sourced stories claiming that nobody should really worry about free speech, Cancel Culture, or any of these themes. (2/65)

So, where to begin?

First, I'll start with the global picture, but don't worry, I'll get to my specialty, censorship in US higher education, later in this thread.

Bottomline: The situation for global #freespeech has gotten worse this year & over the past several years (3/65)

Let’s start with the most populous country in the world.
TWO WORDS: Hong Kong. China has achieved meta-censorship, arresting (& in one case, disappearing) human rights lawyers who defended civil rights activists who defended free speech: hongkongfp.com/2020/12/17/chi… (4/65)

Within its first few hours, Hong Kong’s "snitch hotline" received over 1,000 calls of residents reporting potential violators—presenting an opportunity to target people with opposing political views. bbc.com/news/world-asi… (5/65)

China’s National Security law has penalties up to life imprisonment, and purports to reach the speech of every person on the planet, anywhere: npr.org/2020/07/01/885… (6/65)

The National Security law not only endangers students and faculty in Hong Kong, but impacts their ability to teach, study and speak freely, not to mention the increased threat to its student journalists. thefire.org/the-future-of-… (7/65)

China also has over 100 journalists imprisoned:
rfa.org/english/news/c… (8/65)

And if there's a sheer pettiness award, here's a contender: GOG pulling "Devotion" from its storefront because of a Winnie the Pooh/Xi Jinping Easter egg that isn’t even in the game anymore: thediplomat.com/2020/12/taiwan… (9/65)

Let’s jump to Thailand’s lese majeste law, which prohibits insulting the monarchy—35 activists are facing charges, including a 16-year-old in.reuters.com/article/thaila… (10/65)

And I could write dozens of tweets on #censorship in Turkey alone, but here’s one: in Turkey over the last six years, over 900 minors, between ages 12 and 17, have faced trial for insulting President Erdogan:
arabnews.com/node/1779401/m… (11/65)

Now to 2nd most populous country: India’s crackdown on dissent includes state-imposed blackouts to punish channels that are critical of the government or the prime minister’s party:
nytimes.com/2020/04/02/wor… (12/65)

India is continuing what some critics have called its "digital apartheid" policy in Kashmir, where high-speed internet is banned and all connections are highly regulated: aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/2… (13/65)

And Russia--don't get me started about Russia. What can you say about a country that poisons its dissenters? cnn.com/2020/12/21/eur… (14/65)

(TIME FOR A ZERO TWEET. I used to add these to the start of tweets but that confused too many people. Here is your chance to either keep climbing down this thread, or follow my previous Zero tweets down thru a “choose your own adventure”)

https://twitter.com/glukianoff/status/1329941419549745153?s=20

(0/65)

Austria’s Supreme Court used EU laws to order Facebook to delete a post (calling a politician a "lousy traitor," "corrupt oaf," and a "fascist party" member) and prevent similar posts, everywhere on the planet: slate.com/technology/202… (15/65)

The UK government plans to impose new responsibilities on tech companies to censor 'harmful content' on their sites enforced by penalties up to £18 million or 10% of revenue, whichever is higher: gov.uk/government/con… (16/65)

France’s recently proposed "global security bill" prohibits the publishing of images of on-duty police officers which could result in a year in prison and a €45,000 fine: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/… (17/65)

Sweden fined Google not only for not cooperating with their "right to be forgotten" censorship well enough, but for notifying site owners when it did comply--in other words, Sweden wants Google to de-index pages silently:
androidcentral.com/sweden-fines-g… (18/65)

Zooming out: Globally 21 journalists were killed this year “in retaliation for their work,” compared to 10 last year (and 15 more deaths are still being examined for classification): theprint.in/world/journali… (19/65)

According to @pressfreedom: "The number of journalists jailed globally because of their work hit a new high in 2020..." cpj.org/reports/2020/1… (20/65)

Dozens of countries still maintain blasphemy laws; in at least eight countries it is punishable by death. end-blasphemy-laws.org/countries/ (21/65)

A @UMich team, using an automated censorship tracking system they developed, found censorship increasing in 103 of the countries they studied, including places like Norway, Japan, and Italy:
news.umich.edu/extremely-aggr… @royaensafi (22/65)

Governments aren't the only censors. Zoom censoring calls (globally) that mention the Tiananmen Square massacre provides a good segue into the forms that probably affect the most people globally, tech companies: washingtonpost.com/technology/202… (23/65)

Or the @FordhamNYC student placed on probation for holding a gun in an off-campus Instagram photo to memorialize the #Tiananmen Square massacre. thefire.org/fordham-studen… #Fordham (24/65)

Or Zoom censoring an event with a Palestinian former terrorist at @SFSU: theintercept.com/2020/11/14/zoo… (25/65)

Speaking of campuses, let's not forget that the majority of American colleges—77%, in our survey—use secret blacklists to censor the comments you make on their social media profiles:
thefire.org/survey-77-of-c… (26/65)

Now a case that combines the second most populous country in the world AND Twitter, censoring an Indian critic of Hindu nationalism: theguardian.com/technology/202… (27/65)

Instagram removed a page calling for India to free a Scottish man who has been detained without trial for three years:
thenational.scot/news/18902177.… (28/65)

Australia asked Twitter to remove a post purporting to depict an Australian soldier holding a knife the throat of an Afghan child & was rebuffed, only to have WeChat remove the Australian PM’s conciliatory message over the dustup: @ScottMorrisonMP
ft.com/content/9c5376… (29/65)

That's a tiny snapshot of the global picture. Closer to home, "A record number of journalists were arrested this year in the United States," according to @FreedomofPress: forbes.com/sites/jemimamc… (30/65)

More than two dozen states have passed anti-BDS laws. While some have been struck down following #1A challenges, the legislative willingness to infringe on #freespeech is striking. thefire.org/third-federal-… (31/65)

As I’ve explained before, BDS poses problems for academic freedom—but broad legislative bans of protected activity like boycotts threaten all freedom. thefire.org/lawrence-summe… (32/65)

We ALSO have a former general and presidential adviser openly talking about instituting martial law to overturn an election result. In general, that’s not great for #freespeech. washingtonpost.com/history/2020/1… (33/65)

But @theFIREorg focuses on American higher education, & we can tell you, this is far from the freest year for speech that we've seen. (34/65)

.@theFIREorg we've seen a dramatic increase in submissions from students and faculty seeking help. By early Sept, we’d already broken our all-time record. At 1,461 submissions for the year and counting, it’s been our busiest year:
thefire.org/this-has-been-… (35/65)

Has it been such a great year for the student journalist at @FrostburgState who faced a retaliatory investigation from her college after she wrote stories that painted the college in a bad light? thefire.org/a-student-re-a… @conklin_cassie (36/65)

Or the student at @JonesCollege_ who had to defend his rights in court for asking his peers their opinion on marijuana policies? thefire.org/victory-studen… (37/65)

Or the student newspaper editor at @HaskellU threatened by the university president for not treating administration with "highest respect?" thefire.org/university-pre… (38/65)

Or another @HaskellU student kicked out of campus housing for saying a campus employee was "being an asshole" for threatening to tow his car? (He slept in his car after being kicked out during a pandemic/stay-at-home order!) thefire.org/kansas-student… (39/65)

Or the @StJohnsU professor booted from the classroom for asking students to consider the implications of the global slave trade? thefire.org/teaching-histo… (40/65)

Or the — wait for it! — play about a gay Charlie Brown that was cancelled by @tweet_mcc allegedly because of coronavirus, even though it was a VIRTUAL production? thefire.org/lights-camera-… @alyssa_oltmanns #goodgrief (41/65)

Or the @Stockton_edu student who faced suspension and a "decision making workshop" after making his Zoom background a photo of President Trump? thefire.org/victory-stockt… (42/65)

Or the RAs at @Mizzou and @LSU who were barred from voicing their concerns to local media outlets about returning to campus? thefire.org/reports-ras-to… (43/65)

Or the editors of a music theory journal at @UNTsocial that faced an investigation because it published an essay contextualizing racism charges about a 19th century music theorist? (Censorship really knows no bounds!) thefire.org/university-of-… @UNTCoM (44/65)

Or the @KirkwoodCC professor fired for criticizing President Trump on Facebook? thefire.org/victory-colleg… (45/65)

Or the professor dismissed by @OleMissRebels after he complained about his department chair? thefire.org/fire-objects-a… @garrett_felber (46/65)

Or the @nyuniversity faculty doctors ordered not to speak with reporters about COVID-19 without express approval? thefire.org/fire-to-nyu-me… (47/65)

Or the @TrumanState student whose animal rights club was denied because its association with @PETA could carry an “emotional risk” to other students? thefire.org/public-univers… @naomimath (48/65)

Or the @FordhamNYC students who, after five years of fighting to have @FordhamSJP recognized by the university, had a state appellate court rule that the University was within its rights to ban them b/c they could lead to "polarization?" thefire.org/appeals-court-… (49/65)

This year, FIRE conducted the largest survey of free speech attitudes of college students ever performed, reaching about 20,0000 students. We didn't find a golden era of free speech on campus. thefire.org/largest-ever-f… (50/65)

Six in 10 students reported that they could not express an opinion because of how students, a professor, or their administration would respond. This number is highest among “strong Republicans” (73%) and lowest among “strong Democrats” (at a still not great 52%). (51/65)

Black students are more likely than students of other races to report an instance where they censored themselves (63%). (52/65)

87% of students reported that @SenSanders should be allowed to share his views on campus, but only 69% said the same for @realDonaldTrump and 78% for @JoeBiden. (53/65)

Students at Ivy League schools were slightly more in favor of using violence to stop a campus speech: a total of 21% expressed some level of acceptance for violence in these cases, compared with 18% overall and 15% among students in the Southeastern Conference. (54/65)

37% of Ivy League students say that shouting down a speaker is “always” or “sometimes” acceptable, compared to 26% of students not enrolled at Ivy League colleges. When it comes to removing flyers, the figures are 37% to 28%. (55/65)

We are not living in the "Golden Age of free speech." That is a bad argument to begin with because it generally relies on the pervasiveness of technology to reach new parts of the globe. But tech availability doesn't absolve censorship. (56/65)

It also relies on the fact that #freespeech is pretty rare in human history to say, "well it's pretty good now, right?" I coined the phrase "censorship gravity" b/c everything pulls us back to greater conformity, less speech, & greater control. thefire.org/fleabag-noom-t… (57/65)

That speech is less censored than it was a century ago doesn't make it not censored. We should be comparing our speech freedom to what it would look like in a truly free world, not the Bad Old Days. (58/65)

I know left-leaning people & others don’t like the term "Cancel Culture" because right-leaning people & Trump have glommed onto it. But others have seen it, too, including Pres. Obama, the Harper's Letter signatories, & many journalists.
thefire.org/gregs-nowhere-… (59/65)

I care about Cancel Culture & still like the name because it’s a name for a phenomenon I noticed way back in 2014, when few others were paying attention. amzn.to/3nNaF0y (60/65)

And I researched and wrote about its ancestor, “call-out culture,” with the great @JonHaidt in "The Coddling of the American Mind" which I've been updating here: thefire.org/catching-up-wi… (61/65)

It’s a topic that comes close to home, as I wrote about here in "Professor Mike Adams’ suicide will always haunt me"
thefire.org/professor-mike… (62/65)

If you ARE interested in Cancel Culture or possibly facing cancelation yourself please check out this previous epic tweetstorm: thefire.org/campus-cancel-… (63/65)

The fact that conservatives AGREE that Cancel Culture is a problem should not bother anyone. Indeed I believe that MORE people should be concerned about it, which I argue here: reason.com/2020/08/04/wha… (64/65)

BUT if Cancel Culture is not your cup of tea, can journos/academics at least help out the cause of free speech, in ANY of these trends? There is great harm in diminishing free speech in 2020 when threats abound.

We & the cause of #freespeech could really use your help! (65/65)

(And for those of you who want to learn more about the philosophy & history of #freespeech, check out this thread):

https://twitter.com/glukianoff/status/1289290149252104193?s=20

(66/65)