In an essay on a leading youth sports website, Professor Douglas E. Abrams praised the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (June 23, 2021). The eight-Justice majority held that the public high school denied the First Amendment speech rights of the 14-year-old frosh who, after she did not make the varsity cheerleading team, responded with…
Tag: Free Speech on Social Media ⋅ Page 1
Professor Jerry publishes paper on social media communications on campuses
The latest American Council on Education (ACE) “To the Point” brief, “Campus Inclusion and Freedom of Expression: Managing Social Media,” written by Robert H. Jerry II focuses on how and why campus leaders should be proactive in managing social media platforms, as well as how to respond to problems that arise. The brief lists the most commonly asked questions about free…
Hurley-Sloan Symposium: Free Speech, Free Press or Free for All? Social Media and the First Amendment
The Missouri-Hurley and Price Sloan Symposium will be held April 25 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The event, “Free Speech, Free Press or Free for All? Social Media and the First Amendment” begins at 8:30 am and will feature Brian Stelter as the keynote luncheon speaker. Journalists, social media experts and legal scholars will explore the following…
Dean Lidsky Cited in Federal Appellate Court Decision on Public Official’s Facebook Page
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously ruled that Loudon County (Va.) Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall’s Facebook page operated as a public forum and that her decision to block Brian C. Davison from her page based on his criticism of her qualified as impermissible and unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The decision cited Dean Lyrissa Lidsky’s article,…
Professor Abrams Speaks to New Jersey Sports Symposium on Social Media Dangers
Professor Doug Abrams recently spoke to a town-hall-style symposium that explored lifelong consequences that can arise from misuse of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media by high school athletes and other students. The symposium was held at Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J. Prof. Abrams and four other panel members discussed publicized incidents of high school students’ racist, sexist, or…
“Dangerous Tweets:” Dean Lidsky Speaks at Missouri State University
Dean Lyrissa Lidsky recently gave a talk at Missouri State University as a featured speaker at the university’s fifth annual Bartee Dinner. Dean Lidsky’s talk was titled “Dangerous Tweets?: Social Media, Censorship, and the First Amendment.” Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of Torts and the First Amendment, with a particular emphasis on defamation and other free speech issues in…
Dean Lidsky and Fellow First Amendment Scholars File Amicus Brief in Gilmore v. Jones
Dean Lyrissa Lidsky and other free-speech colleagues filed an amicus brief in June in the case of Gilmore v. Jones. Brennan Gilmore was on the street at last summer’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., when James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counter protestors, killing one woman and injuring others. Gilmore posted a video of…
Dean Lidsky Interviewed on PBS About Alex Jones’ Removal from Social Media Platforms
Dean Lyrissa Lidsky was interviewed on the PBS NewsHour on August 8, “Why kicking Alex Jones off social media is not legally censorship.” In the interview, she commented about the decision by iTunes, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube to remove Alex Jones’ audio and video content from their platforms. The social media platforms removed him from their sites for violating their…
Dean Lidsky Comments on Minnesota Company’s Lawsuit to Expose an Online Critic
Air T, a St. Louis Park, Minn., holding company, is seeking court approval to obtain information from Yahoo and other internet providers to learn the identity of one of its online critics. A Minneapolis Star Tribune article, “Air T files lawsuit locally to expose ID of online critic,” quotes Dean Lyrissa Lidsky. “Social media is not a free-for-all,” says Dean Lidsky.…
BYU Radio Show Interviews Dean Lidsky on Free Speech and Social Media
“Top of Mind with Julie Rose,” a show broadcast by Brigham Young University’s radio station BYU Radio, recently interviewed Dean Lyrissa Lidsky to discuss issues of free speech on social media. During the interview, Dean Lidsky, a leading First Amendment scholar, addressed the legal debate surrounding elected government officials blocking their followers from their social media sites. In creating and…