freespeech

There is a lot of talk these days about social media use and its effects on children. It seems that states are proposing and passing laws restricting social media left and right, with California, Texas, and New York, among others, passing social media-related laws last year. Another state, Ohio, attempted to enact a strict law to keep children off of social media without parental consent, and a United States federal judge struck it down this week.

A new bill would give United States President Joe Biden the power to outright ban TikTok, a move that the American Civil Liberties Union says would violate free speech rights.

A federal judge has halted the controversial new state law in Arizona that bans people from photographing and filming police officers within 8 feet. The new law, which opponents have slammed as a violation of free speech, was to go into effect on September 24th.

Earlier this year, Arizona governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2319, a law that would make it illegal to record or photograph police within eight feet of them. It's being challenged, and the results will have nationwide implications.

A new Arizona law will soon make it illegal for bystanders to record police activity within eight feet. Civil rights activists and national press photographers have condemned the act as a violation of free speech.

In a surprise decision in the US court system, a federal judge ruled last Friday that photographing and filming police officers isn't always protected by the First Amendment.

Sex offenders have the 1st Amendment right to photograph children in public. That's what a state Court of Appeals in Wisconsin ruled on Tuesday, striking down a law that make it illegal for registered sex offenders to take ordinary pictures of kids in public without getting permission from the parents.

This past weekend, journalist Josiah Daniel Ryan visited a public pier in New York City to shoot a video of some boats there. He was then confronted by a number of security guards, one of whom told him that tripods "are not allowed on New York City property."

YouTube just announced a useful new feature: an easy face blur option. The announcement says the feature is aimed for news and human rights agencies to protect privacy and identities especially if posting images of activists who may need to remain anonymous or if minors are present in the videos and privacy is a concern.