Whatever you think of its propriety, hyperbolic & violent imagery targeting government officials has a long history in this country--indeed since before it *was* this country.
The House can (and should) punish Gosar. But calling for him to be criminally prosecuted is stupid.
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Without commenting on the acquittal, the fact that a jury acquitted Rittenhouse does not mean it is defamatory to call him a "murderer," and it *especially* does not render any *past* statements defamatory.
2/ An acquital is just that: the government did not meet its burden of proof for a criminal conviction. It does not establish facts for all of time; it establishes whether the jury thought the government proved its case.
3/ Even if it *did* establish fact/truth, it would still be irrelevant to 99.99% of the claims people are yammering about. Why?
Because those statements were all made before the acquittal. Defamation requires fault. In Rittenhouse's case, he'll get public figure treatment
2/ They spend a bunch of time on mealy-mouthed hysterics about Haugen's testimony, without ever actually saying what the harms that are being caused are--and that's going to be pretty important, as different things are, again, different.
3/ But first they try to clear a first hurdle: Section 230.
They start out by recognizing that 230 immunizes platforms for liability on the basis of third-party content, and that 230 applies to algorithmic content suggestions.
I totally believe that this "university" invoking John Adams and featuring Sohrab Ahmari is deeply committed to the principles of free speech.
When @uaustinorg gets funding for a building, they will inevitably name it "Yes THAT Joe McCarthy Hall"
"It is vitally important that we create our own institution to escape these illiberal people who are hostile to free speech, but essential that we include people who are illiberal and hostile to free speech"
1/ I usually hesitate to crap on student newspaper articles, but this piece was actually written by the paper's advisor, @mdgiusti, who is the journalism *chair* and clearly not doing students any favors in the "make sure what you're writing isn't totally wrong" department.
2/ Off to a bad start, completely mangling the history. First of all, "everyone saw they were different?" No.
Second, Cubby Inc. v. Compuserve (one of the cases leading to 230) was actually about distributor liability, which has nothing to do with the decision to publish.
3/ Instead, the court in Cubby found that Compuserve was a distributor, and thus would have had to have actual or constructive knowledge of content's defamatory nature (and plaintiffs hadn't produced any such evidence) before liability could be imposed for speech on its service.