🧵 Six months after Elon Musk’s lawsuit against @mmfa, the nonprofit announced that it was laying off at least a dozen staffers to remain sustainable amid a "legal assault on multiple fronts."

The layoffs are a stark reminder of the threat posed by SLAPPs.thehill.com/opinion/469868… SLAPPs, or strategic lawsuits against public participation, are meritless lawsuits often brought by the wealthy and powerful to silence criticism, activism or reporting.

They threaten free speech, and are disturbingly common.

@CaitlinVogus via @thehill
thehill.com/opinion/469868…

Journalism is not a crime — yet.

To keep it that way, the DOJ must end its Espionage Act case against Assange. freedom.press/news/publishin… If Assange is tried and convicted in the U.S. under the Espionage Act, the First Amendment rights the press has long enjoyed to “bare the secrets of government and inform the people” may be stripped away.

An amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act proposed by Rep. @RashidaTlaib (D-MI) could end prosecutions of journalists and their sources under the #EspionageAct.

FPF Advocacy Director @SethAStern explains: https://t.co/0qYkPwLkW0freedom.press/news/proposed-…
Rep. Rashida Tlaib June proposed amendment "would not affect provisions of the Espionage Act used to prosecute actual espionage," writes @SethAStern. "It would stop Espionage Act prosecutions of journalists, publishers, and members of the public." https://t.co/FQTDs0inC5freedom.press/news/proposed-…
twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Biden says he told Mohammed bin Salman that he considers him responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But after abandoning his promise to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" and their notorious fist bump, that accusation means little to nothing. nytimes.com/2022/07/15/wor… Biden called the killing of Jamal Khashoggi “outrageous” in his post-meeting remarks, but his administration has not taken any concrete action to hold bin Salman to account for the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi. nytimes.com/2022/07/15/wor…

BREAKING: UK has formally approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US.

Anyone who cares about press freedom should condemn this case and implore the Justice Dept. to drop its charges. freedom.press/news/the-extra… By continuing to extradite Assange, the Biden DOJ is ignoring the dire warnings of virtually every major civil liberties and human rights organization in the country that the case will do irreparable damage to basic press freedom rights of US reporters. freedom.press/news/the-extra…

Drop the charges: a coalition of 25 press freedom, civil liberties, and international human rights groups calls on the Department of Justice today to dismiss its dangerous case against Julian Assange freedom.press/news/press-fre… Today’s letter to the Department of Justice follows shocking reporting last month that CIA officials discussed kidnapping or even killing Assange in London: news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-ass…

A shocking, disturbing story from @YahooNews: The CIA, led by Mike Pompeo under Trump, repeatedly and seriously considered extrajudicially kidnapping and even assassinating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-ass… Intelligence officials also lobbied to have other journalists re-categorized as "information brokers" in order to investigate and potentially prosecute them—including Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald for their award-winning reporting on the Snowden files. news.yahoo.com/kidnapping-ass…

Want to check out the Digital Security for Filmmakers platform? Start with a risk assessment to help enumerate the digital threats you’re likely to face in the field: digitalsecurity.film/risk-assessment YOUR ASSETS: A filmmaker’s chief priority lies in protecting their sources and footage. digitalsecurity.film/assets

Hey, filmmakers – check out the new digital security guide and find more than 30 individual resources to assess your risks, evaluate best practices and increase your security. digitalsecurity.film Our best practices page highlights basic digital security practices every filmmaker should be familiar with, no matter their skill or risk level. digitalsecurity.film/best-practices

NEW: Despite online threats to journalists, most U.S. journalism schools don’t teach digital security education. We’re thrilled to share a powerful and exhaustive J-school security education curriculum to help programs get started: freedom.press/news/announcin… We know journalism programs have the difficult job of juggling many education priorities. That’s why we built a modular curriculum, where instructors can pick and choose security topics to integrate into ongoing courses, or tackle a one-time workshop. fpf.training/curriculum

A handful of tech giants run the platforms that many journalists use for reporting, for publication, and for distributing their stories. That means opaque or automated content decisions can have outsize effects on the news: freedom.press/news/when-algo… 1/5 We at @FreedomofPress got a taste of this kind of algorithmic takedown last month, when an online database we created to track Trump’s tweeted attacks on the media was silently removed from Google freedom.press/news/when-algo… 2/5

BREAKING: In an OUTRAGEOUS violation of press freedom, the Brazilian government has ignored a Supreme Court order and charged journalist @ggreenwald with "cybercrimes" for @TheInterceptBr's investigative series on widespread corruption in Brazil. nytimes.com/2020/01/21/wor… @ggreenwald @TheInterceptBr Glenn is our friend and long time colleague. He is a founding board member of @FreedomofPress and has fought for press freedom his whole career. We are outraged & dearly hope he is okay.

This blatant and disgusting act by the Bolsonaro admin cannot stand. nytimes.com/2020/01/21/wor…