Whose Free Speech?

.

Free Speech in Cyberspace

“Because [Internet companies] traffic in speech—rather than, say, corn syrup or warplanes—they make decisions every day about what kind of expression is allowed where. And occasionally they come under pressure to explain how they decide, on whose laws and values they rely, and how they distinguish between toxic speech that must be taken down and that which can remain. . . .”

“One of the challenges of the digital age . . . is that speech articulated in one part of the world can spark mayhem in another. Can the companies that run those speech platforms predict what words and images might set off carnage elsewhere? Whoever builds that algorithm may end up saving lives.” 

 

—Somini Sengupta, writer, “Free Speech in the Age of Internet,” The New York Times, Sept. 22, 2012 

• Editorial Comment: In cyberspace, can they hear you scream?

• Yesterday’s WORD: Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from famed curmudgeon newsman H.L. Mencken on the dubious character of newspapers? Click here.

News from USU’s award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café

• Aggie TV this week: Congo visitors, a journalism safari, bikers and Blackhawks
• Review: Buckethead still making it happen after 20 years, by Matt Thurber
• Congolese officials visit Logan, sign cooperation agreement with USU
• RIP: A year later, USU Eastern remembers beloved coach, by the staff of the USU Eastern Eagle
• USU Eastern campus near lock down after gunshots; Price resident arrested, by Seth Richards
• Exhibit of writer Jack London’s papers opens at Merrill-Cazier Library, by Aimee Cobabe, Misty Inglet and Heidi Smith 
• Journalism students hit undeadline to cover USU zombie outbreak
• Mountain Crest avenges two years of losses, beats Logan on home turf, by Curtis Lundstrom
• Popular Zumba class ending; teacher made class ‘feel like a party’, by Dani Hays

• Banned books: ‘Are we still talking about this?’ asks First Amendment ‘absolutist’, by D. Whitney Smith
• Richmond P&Z members learn basics of making land-use decisions, by Heidi Vaughan
• Aggie journalism students tell stories of hope & heartbreak from Africa, by D. Whitney Smith 
• Writing Ethiopia: USU journalism students report on African nation, by Kristen Munson 
• Albrecht statement on Coward retirement; Cockett named new provost 
• Public Lands Day: Building a good fence to have happier neighbors, by Danielle Manley  

PeezPIX by Ted Pease

Pewetole Dusk