Don't Let It Go Unheard
Amy Peikoff
Recent Episodes
Recorded June 30, 2023. Today I had the pleasure of introducing my boss, BitChute CEO Ray Vahey, to another of my favorite people, Free Speech champion and personal hero, Nadine Strossen. In this installment, we first asked Nadine about this week's ruling by the Supreme Court in Counterman v. Colorado, in which the Court explained what qualifies as a "true threat" for purposes of determining whether speech is protected by the First Amendment, and the ruling's possible implications for online platforms' community guidelines. We also asked her what she thought was responsible for the decline in protection of and respect for free speech in recent years--the answer might surprise you. We look forward to continuing this important conversation soon!
In the meantime, you can pre-order Nadine's new book, FREE SPEECH: What Everyone Needs to Know, and get 30% off, by going to https://global.oup.com/academic/product/free-speech-9780197699652 and using the code ALAUTHC4 at checkout.
Thanks so much to James Valliant for finding this quotation. I promise to link to the podcast in which you discussed it yesterday--just as soon as Ayn Rand Center UK posts it on BitChute :)
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/censorship.html
As for the writings in which Benjamin and I have discussed this sort of phenomenon, in the last 2-1/2 years, first is my blog post from January 2021, soon after Parler was unjustly scapegoated and deplatformed:
https://dontletitgo.com/2021/01/17/section-230-the-third-party-doctrine-and-the-looming-dark-age/
And then, several months later, Benjamin and I published this piece in Real Clear Policy, focusing on the merits (normative and legal) of a case such as the one Trump brought against Twitter:
Oh, and here's the MSNBC story I mentioned, re: Parler and Facebook:
If you like this content, be sure to subscribe to my channel!
Amy and Benjamin discuss a couple of different angles on the harms created by social media platforms, such as YouTube, which manipulate their users via algorithms ("angorithms"), then censor the byproducts ("hate speech," "misinformation") they don't like--or worse, of which government entities disapprove.
References:
https://dontletitgo.com/2023/03/03/phew-youtube-saved-you-by-censoring-my-super-dangerous-content/
https://dontletitgo.com/2011/09/14/attack-watch-as-case-study-of-how-force-stops-thinking/
https://broadbandbreakfast.com/big-tech-speech-summit/ (use promo code FLASH)
Revisiting a 1971 characterization of the Individualist spirit, as presented by Ayn Rand, and evaluating its health and prospects for staving off the threat of totalitarianism in 2022. (Video available on Rumble, which includes footage of demonstrations worldwide in the last few minutes of the show.)
References promised:
1. (Should read 3 out of 4, not 4 out of 5): https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/01/08/bbc-forgot-to-tell-you-4-in-5-covid-deaths-triple-vaccinated/
2. https://sebastianrushworth.com/2022/01/09/covid-vaccine-vs-infection-myocarditis-risk/