In this episode of Tech Talks, we dive into the growing debate over online age verification. While often framed as a way to protect children, these policies carry major implications for how everyone, adults and children alike, accesses the internet. Unlike showing an ID at a bar, online age checks can require the collection and even long-term storage of sensitive personal data, raising serious privacy and security concerns.
The UK’s Online Safety Act has already pushed millions of users to prove their age across thousands of sites, from adult content to everyday topics like current affairs and even knitting. In the U.S., states including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are rolling out their own requirements, while federal lawmakers weigh new proposals that could expand these mandates even further.
Joining this conversation are Zeve Sanderson of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics, CDT Research Fellow Michal Luria, and guest host Aliya Bhatia, CDT Senior Policy Analyst. Together, they explore what users really think about age verification, how it changes online behavior, and what’s at stake for balancing child safety with privacy and free expression.

Talking Tech with Zeve Sanderson, Michal Luria, and Aliya Bhatia on Age Verification

Section 230 'reform' won't save free speech. Instead, it will give government tyrannical control of social media and allow them to destroy free speech.

TYRANNY ALERT!! Section 230 'reform' will destroy free speech - 092525

A collection of texts that provide the foundation for the University of Chicago’s longstanding tradition of free expression, principles that are at the center of current debates within higher education and society more broadly.
 
Free inquiry and expression are hotly contested, both on campus and in social and political life. Since its founding in the late nineteenth century, the University of Chicago has been at the forefront of conversations around free speech and academic freedom in higher education. The University’s approach to free expression grew from a sterling reputation as a research university as well as a commitment to American pragmatism and democratic progress, all of which depended on what its first president referred to as the “complete freedom of speech on all subjects.” In 2015, more than 100 years later, then University provost and president J. D. Isaacs and Robert Zimmer echoed this commitment, releasing a statement by a faculty committee led by law professor Geoffrey R. Stone that has come to be known as the Chicago Principles, now adopted or endorsed by one hundred US colleges and universities. These principles are just a part of the long-standing dialogue at the University of Chicago around freedom of expression—its meaning and limits. The Chicago Canon on Free Inquiry and Expression brings together exemplary documents – some published for the first time here – that explain and situate this ongoing conversation with an introductory essay that brings the tradition to light.
 
Throughout waves of historical and societal challenges, this first principle of free expression has required rearticulation and new interpretations. The documents gathered here include, among others, William Rainey Harper’s “Freedom of Speech” (1900), the Kalven Committee’s report on the University’s role in political and social action (1967), and Geoffrey R. Stone’s “Free Speech on Campus: A Challenge of Our Times” (2016). Together, the writings of the canon reveal how the Chicago tradition is neither static nor stagnant, but a vibrant experiment; a lively struggle to understand, practice, and advance free inquiry and expression.
 
At a time of nationwide campus speech debates, engaging with these texts and the questions they raise is essential to sustaining an environment of broad intellectual and ideological diversity. This book offers a blueprint for the future of higher education’s vital work and points to the civic value of free expression. 

The Chicago Canon on Free Inquiry and Expression (Sample)

We discuss Democratic leadership’s inexcusable failure to speak honestly about and to denounce the racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ bigotry and Christian Nationalism that animated Charlie Kirk’s ideology and continues to undergird the organizations he built. It should be easy to express empathy and denounce political violence without engaging in revisionist myth making that normalizes the hate-filled rhetoric and machinery that fuels the Trump regime’s assault on our classrooms, our communities and our democracy. Yet that simple task is proving too much for too many in America’s opposition party. Rather than speak simple truths, leading Democrats in the House and Senate have approved resolutions that recast a white supremacist movement as politics done right. Against this backdrop, we uplift the voices -- like Olufemi Taiwo and Jeff Sharlet -- that are correcting the record.

Ep. 43 | Democrats' Great Betrayal & the Mythology of Charlie Kirk

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 128

Freedom of speech is a concept a lot of people appreciate but also struggle with. It can be challenging for people to distinguish between threats to their freedom of speech, cancellation, censorship, and, on the other hand, more speech being the answer to speech. Drawing from one of his oldest popular writings (https://newdiscourses.com/2020/01/freedom-of-speech-fallacy-demanding-heard/), host James Lindsay addresses the issue of freedom of speech in principle in this new episode of New Discourses Bullets. He breaks down the four component freedoms in freedom of speech: to speak, to hear, not to speak, and not to hear. He also distinguishes these from certain things that are not part of freedom of speech, including unprotected speech and a small variety of entitlement complexes that hide behind accusations of censorship. Join him to get clearer on this important issue.

Latest from New Discourses Press! The Queering of the American Child: https://queeringbook.com/

Support New Discourses: https://newdiscourses.com/support

Follow New Discourses on other platforms: https://newdiscourses.com/subscribe

Follow James Lindsay: https://linktr.ee/conceptualjames

© 2025 New Discourses. All rights reserved. #NewDiscourses #JamesLindsay #FreeSpeech

What Freedom of Speech Is and Isn't

https://thecommunists.org/2025/09/01/news/healthcare-workers-against-censorship-letter-wes-streeting/
‘I’m not going to allow independence of regulators or complexity of regulation to stand in the way of tackling this [‘antisemitism’ / anti-genocide speech] problem.’ As health minister Wes Streeting makes promises to crack down on anti-zionist speech in the NHS, a new free speech advocacy group has been formed to defend the right of healthcare workers to oppose genocide and speak the truth.

Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity!
www.thecommunists.org
www.lalkar.org
www.redyouth.org
Telegram: t.me/thecommunists
Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml
Soundcloud: @proletarianradio
Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists
Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2
Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml
Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/
Education Program: Each one teach one!
www.londonworker.org/education-programme/
Join the struggle
www.thecommunists.org/join/
Donate:
www.thecommunists.org/donate/




Healthcare Workers Against Censorship request meeting with Wes Streeting

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.

Brad is first joined by Tim Karr, Senior Director of Strategy and Communications at 'Free Press,' a nonpartisan organization fighting for your rights to connect and communicate.

The pair examines how Trump and his FCC pressured media organizations to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves, but also discusses how Americans banded together to make their voices heard in opposition to the authoritarian style actions.

Then, Brad is joined by Ana Valdez, President & CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC), which produces the annual U.S. Latino GDP Report. 

The two examine the contributions made by Hispanic Americans, as well as their population and economic trends, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Brad and Ana also talk about the repercussions from the Supreme Court decision that allows ICE to resume arrests in Los Angeles based on appearance, language, or type of work.
Drawing on the LDC's data showing Latinos as one of America's fastest-growing economic engines, Ana also released a statement emphasizing that the Court's decision carries consequences far beyond immigration enforcement:
"This is not law enforcement; it is racial profiling.
That is not how the Fourth Amendment is supposed to work. The Constitution requires specific facts, not a checklist of skin color, language, and job site.

It also ignores economic reality. Latinos are not on the margins of this country; we are a major growth driver. Our GDP reached $4 trillion in 2023, making us the fifth-largest economy in the world if measured independently. Latino incomes and purchasing power are growing about twice as fast as the rest of the country, and Latino consumer spending topped $2.5 trillion last year. Targeting people who look or sound Latino undercuts the workforce and the businesses that keep the U.S. economy strong for everyone. Profiling this workforce is economic self-harm.

And it ignores the community reality. Most Latinos are fully part of the American fabric. Ninety-four percent of Latinos under 18 are U.S.-born, and nine out of ten Latinos overall are citizens or lawful residents. Treating Spanish speakers or brown people as presumptive suspects means punishing citizens on their way to work and parents on school runs, not just the undocumented.

Enforcement of immigration law cannot come at the cost of civil liberties and human dignity.
America's economic future depends on treating Latinos as full and equal participants in our society, not targets of suspicion."

The website for Free Press is www.FreePress.net and their handle on BlueSky is @freepress.bsky.social.  Tim Karr's handle is @timkarr.bsky.social.

The website for the Latino Donor Collaborative is www.LatinoDonorCollaborative.org and their handle on X is @LDCLatino and Ana's handle is @LDCAna1.

Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.'
He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.  

The Leslie Marshall Show - 9-29-25 - Trump's Attacks on Free Speech; Hispanic Heritage Month

This week's guest host on The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie is Billy Binion, who talks with Jenin Younes, a civil liberties attorney who first gained national attention when she sued the Biden administration for pressuring social media companies to censor content it didn't like. That case, Murthy v. Missouri, ultimately reached the Supreme Court.

A former New York City public defender, Younes is now national legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, where she is preparing to sue the Trump administration. She and Binion discuss her path to civil liberties advocacy, the threats to free speech coming from both the left and the right, and why defending the First Amendment should be a universal cause—even when that speech is offensive.

0:00—Introduction
1:00—Younes' commitment to civil liberties
3:38—The state of free speech in America
7:34—Opposing COVID restrictions
12:33—Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, and Murthy v. Missouri
27:39—Donald Trump's record on free speech
39:41—Noncitizens and constitutional rights
42:23—Censorship in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination
48:33—Pam Bondi and "hate speech"
57:52—How can we protect free speech?

Subscribe at YouTube: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Visit the archive: https://reason.com/tags/reason-podcast


Defend Speech Even When Your Side Hates It

Journalist and author Shane Burley joined me to discuss the specter of political violence in the United States, remarking on the recent assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder and right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and the fallout of that event.

// Episode notes: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com/episodes/shane-burley-8

// Sustain + support: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness 

// Donate: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast

393 / Political Violence / Shane Burley

With his executive order declaring Antifa a terrorist organization, Donald Trump has taken his war on free speech into the realm of thought crime. 

Donald Trump has taken his war on free speech into the realm of thought crime - 100325

A monthly conversation with BU Law Prof. Jonathan Feingold & WNHN host Arnie Arnesen about race and racism from a place of humility, commitment and curiosity.

Special thanks to WNHN and producers Stephanie Collins and Dave Scott.

Tech Talks are a podcast imagined and created by the folks over at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). We're a 501(c)3 nonpartisan nonprofit organization that fights to put democracy and human rights at the center of the digital revolution. We work to promote democratic values by shaping technology policy and architecture, with a focus on equity and justice. #techtalkcdt 

Support CDT's work with a donation: https://cdt.org/techtalk/

Marxist analysis of current events and scientific socialist theoretical insights from the CPGB-ML. Get educated and get organised!

Founded in 1968, Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Our podcast offerings include:

The Reason Roundtable
Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week’s biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie
Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.

The Soho Forum Debates
Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of bitcoin, veganism, sex work, illegal drugs, electric vehicles, abortion, robotics, government debt, and other controversial topics.

The best progressive talk right here, on demand. Always Progressive, Always On!

A podcast about transitions, death, the ruptures of life in between.

Pursuing the light of objective truth in subjective darkness.

“The Strident Conservative” is a two minute daily commentary focusing on the news and issues relevant to Conservatives and the Constitution. With a focus on holding our political and spiritual leaders accountable for the decline of American greatness, we are an equal-opportunity critic, holding members of every political stripe accountable.

New tracks tagged #FREE SPEECH