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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

Harm to Berenson wouldn't have been so severe after he was deplatformed on Twitter for his Covid stuff if he could easily take his content AND his followers to another platform with more favorable content policies.

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

The throughline between Berenson & Davis's grievances is what Kimmelman reiterated: there are just a handful of people who have immense influence over our speech — both in how we express ourselves and how we consume information.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

But its not productive to keep rehashing the complex election integrity & covid era public health efforts 5 years ago. Biden will never be prez again. "Censorship Cartel" rhetoric has Meta/Google/X under a vice grip. No content mod. decisions will be made w/o intense scrutiny.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

It's obvious Davis is upset he cant spread racist & xenophobic vitriol with reckless abandon. But I'm actually sympathetic to Berenson's case. As a journalist, Twitter was a crucial platform for him. & he was deplatformed from his primary communications locus for opaque reasons.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

But the fact of the matter is, while agencies like CISA had some contact with major platforms, these platforms asserted they made content mod. decisions independently. Yet the "conservative censorship cartel" rhetoric pushed these platforms to remove content mod. protections & wash their hands of it

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 13h

Some closing thoughts:
The likes of Sean Davis seem to think the government censorship issue is less of a problem now bc Trump & FCC are so brazen about it. And ultimately, as Berenson emphasized, the lack of transparency in federal gov. comms w/ platforms is, retrospectively, problematic

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 15h

Hearing is well underway. There's a lot of abstract "government censorship happened but I dont know how" from Sean Davis. Kimmelman, former PK CEO, expresses concerns about media ownership and the control of dominant social media platforms. Berenson has legitimate concerns over lack of transparency

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

Another censorship hearing today! This one headed by Sen. Ted Cruz in Cmte on Commerce, Science & Transport. It coincides with release of report on "censorship campaign conducted in secret by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)"

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 15h

Gene Kimmelman points to too few people have full control on "turning on the microphone" and controlling the flow of information. Thats core to Sean Davis and Alex Berenson's grievances .

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 15h

Sen. Cantwell recalls hearing in which a Meta whistleblower explained how hate speech is lifted bc it results in more engagement and thus more ad dollars. Follows Sen. Klobuchar's remarks about the flood of violent speech on X. Point is content moderation is needed, AND should be transparency

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 15h

Unfortunately, Sen. Fischer conflates fact checking with censorship. Adding more context to a post ADDS speech, so i'm not sure why this censorship rhetoric persists. Being told you're wrong could be annoying, but not censorship.

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 15h

Hearing is well underway. There's a lot of abstract "government censorship happened but I dont know how" from Sean Davis. Kimmelman, former PK CEO, expresses concerns about media ownership and the control of dominant social media platforms. Berenson has legitimate concerns over lack of transparency

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

Another censorship hearing today! This one headed by Sen. Ted Cruz in Cmte on Commerce, Science & Transport. It coincides with release of report on "censorship campaign conducted in secret by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)"

Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sa...

www.commerce.senate.gov

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

This is fundamentally a messaging issue. Many users do not understand what content moderation is, why its important (unless you think all platforms should be 4chan hellholes), and why at scale content moderation so often misses the mark when dealing with millions of posts.

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

But bc of "conservative censorship complex" rhetoric, anytime someone is dinged by a Facebook/Reddit/X for violating platform ToS, so many immediately assume gvmt censorship. Take a look at comments in the FTC "Big Tech Censorship" docket to get an idea :

Regulations.gov

www.regulations.gov

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

I dont necessarily think Cruz asking for some transparency into fed. government engagements with social media platforms & making it easier for citizens to report if they've been subjected to jawboning is a bad thing (barring sensitive natl. security matters).

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

In any case, Cruz is using this report, the FCC Kimmel blowback, & the hearing to put energy behind a coming bill that would "make it easier for to sue the government for censorship"

Exclusive | Ted Cruz Wants to Make It Easier to Sue the Government for Censorship

The senator said he hopes the reaction to Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension might help his new bill find bipartisan support.

www.wsj.com

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

Report is like ~35 pages of "CISA met with and had correspondence with all these platforms, so its obvious they censored!", meanwhile in the addendum, emails from Meta, Google, Reddit all asserted that yes, they had convos with CISA, but all content mod. decisions were independent.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

I read the report (so you dont have to!), and its a nothingburger. For one, CISA started coordinating w/ platforms over election integrity stuff in Trump admin, & continued under Biden. Whether CISA's mandate includes election disinfo is a fair question, but CISA never "censored"

www.commerce.senate.gov

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 16h

Another censorship hearing today! This one headed by Sen. Ted Cruz in Cmte on Commerce, Science & Transport. It coincides with release of report on "censorship campaign conducted in secret by the Biden administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)"

Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sa...

www.commerce.senate.gov

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 1d

Ted Cruz and broken clocks. Calls out FCC Chair Carr's censorship threats, turns around an almost immediately tries strongarm Wikipedia for having "left-wing bias".

Reminder to Cruz: 1A means Wikipedia has no obligation to be "neutral". ("neutral" is entirely subjective anyway)

Ted Cruz picks a fight with Wikipedia, accusing platform of left-wing bias

Cruz sends letter demanding answers from Wikimedia Foundation.

arstechnica.com

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Reposted by Morgan Wilsmann

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 8d

Judge Young: "The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence." An extraordinary, historic victory for democratic freedom. knightcolumbia.org/content/in-l...

In Landmark Ruling, Federal Court Says Trump Administration Violated First Amendment By Deporting Foreign Citizens for Pro-Palestinian Advocacy

knightcolumbia.org

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 14d

Last Friday's dismissal of Trump's frivolous $15bn defamation suit against NYT seems like old news. But Trump's attorneys are likely to try to resubmit the complaint. NYT may be able to withstand the suit (again), but most news outlets can't. That's why federal anti-SLAPP law is urgently needed.

Public Knowledge @publicknowledge.bsky.social · 14d

President Trump's latest lawsuit against the @nytimes.com is just yet another in a series of filings to threaten freedom of the press. Read more in the latest from Policy Analyst @mwils.bsky.social at the link below:

publicknowledge.org/trump-defama...

The Latest Trump-NYT Defamation Suit is to Silence Speech, not Make Journalism Better

This latest defamation suit will not be the one that overturns the Sullivan doctrine, but President Trump is unlikely to give up.

publicknowledge.org

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · 20d

FCC Chair Carr knows regulatory pressure is effective at making broadcasters fall in line by silencing Trump's opponents. It's a shame he uses the murder of a free speech advocate to censor critics' speech.

Carr himself said censorship is a threat to democracy. He should listen to his own words.

Public Knowledge @publicknowledge.bsky.social · 20d

Last night, ABC abruptly pulled @jimmykimmellive.bsky.social off the air, following backlash from conservatives in response to Kimmel’s statements about the reaction to the killing of right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk. Our statement from @mwils.bsky.social:

Public Knowledge Condemns Censorship of Jimmy Kimmel

Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.

publicknowledge.org

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · Sep 3

Points out the Trump retribution against law firms that worked on cases against Trump. Students are being taken off the street without warrants for writing an article with speech disfavored by the administration.

Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · Sep 3

As I hoped, Raskin brings up the free speech attacks here in the U.S. Between the attacks on public media, academic freedom, suppression of protests, and harassment of the press.
Criticizes the "bias monitor" installed as a result of the CBS / SkyDance merger.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · Sep 3

Ranking Member Raskin kicks off criticizing apparent admiration for Putin/Russia over democratic friends in UK and EU. Ignoring repression and censorship elsewhere in the world.

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Morgan Wilsmann @mwils.bsky.social · Sep 3

Rep. Jordan is really gassing up RFK Jr. as some great truth bringer. Lists a whole lot of claims about covid he believes were lies peddled by the US gvmt. None are substantiated.

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