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Trump belatedly calls out white supremacists but detractors are unsatisfied. Protesters amass at Trump Tower ahead of rare Presidential visit to NYC. Department of Justice is in court to defend sweeping subpoena of Internet records of individuals who have signed up to protest Trump; collection is purportedly part of investigation into unruly January inauguration protests. Three CEOS have resigned from White House Manufacturing Council to protest the Administration’s handling of Charlottesville incident. Protesters in Durham, North Carolina forcibly destroyed a statue of a confederate soldier. Mistaken identities disrupt lives as sleuths bent on identifying and ostracizing Charlottesville white supremacists sometimes get it wrong. -Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director

The most pressing threats and notable goings-on in free expression today

U.S.

‘Racism is evil,’ Trump says, condemning ‘white supremacists’ and hate groups
Trump moved to quell growing outrage over his response to violence in Charlottesville, declaring racist hate groups “repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” Hours later, Trump complained: “Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied . . . truly bad people!”
WASHINGTON POST

President’s first Trump Tower homecoming met with mass protest
Trump’s cavalcade was booed and people chanted “shame” as he began a two-day visit. Earlier, as the president tweeted that he was “leaving for New York City”, the sidewalks outside his home were packed with protesters while shouts of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA”, and “Not my president” echoed down 5th Avenue.
THE GUARDIAN

DOJ Demands ‘1.3 Million IP Addresses’ Of Visitors To Trump Protest Website
Web hoster DreamHost says it has been asked to hand over more than 1.3 million IP addresses on visitors to disruptj20.org, a site that helped organize anti-Trump protests earlier this year. That data appears to include IP addresses, emails, and physical addresses of the website owners, as well as similar details on all visitors.
FORBES

Under Armour and Intel CEOs Follow Merck Chief, Quitting Panel in Rebuke to Trump
Taken together, the executives’ decisions are the business community’s strongest rebuke to date of a president who has courted controversy for his entire career. The decision seemed certain to draw the ire of a president famously sensitive to personal slights. Sure enough, Mr. Trump lashed out at Mr. Frazier on Twitter an hour later.
NEW YORK TIMES

Protesters in North Carolina topple Confederate statue following Charlottesville violence
A crowd toppled a bronze Confederate statue in front of a county administrative building in Durham, N.C., on Monday evening, as throngs of anti-fascist groups gathered there days after white nationalist-fueled violence turned fatal in Virginia.
WASHINGTON POST

Amateur Sleuths Aim to Identify Charlottesville Marchers, but Sometimes Misfire
Controversy surrounds “doxxing,” or publicly identifying people who were anonymous, often with personal information. But it is standard practice in journalism to track down and identify individuals caught up in a news event. The ability to launch a name to prominence with a few retweets has heightened the likelihood of destructive mistakes.
NEW YORK TIMES

On Twitter, Trump accuses blacks of racism three times as often as whites
Trump has used the word “racist” or “racism” at least 56 times on Twitter. In two-thirds of those tweets, Trump levied accusations of racism at individuals or groups of people, and those followed a very clear pattern: Trump has directed accusations toward black people three times as often as he has done so against whites.
WASHINGTON POST

After Charlottesville, Trump retweets—then deletes—image of train running over CNN reporter
Trump was in the middle of a morning tweetstorm when he sent the image, posted by a supporter who added “Nothing can stop the #TrumpTrain!!,” to his nearly 36 million followers. The president quickly deleted his handiwork but not before it had been retweeted hundreds of times and captured by journalists and activists.
WASHINGTON POST

The Problem With Making Hate Speech Illegal
Spikes in hate crime statistics and incidents of hateful speech over the last year suggest a problem spiraling out of control, feeding calls for legal solutions. A growing number of Americans are now asking what would be so bad, in a country striving for tolerance and inclusion, to legislate that hate speech has no place. But legal bans on hate cannot, and should not be the answer.
FOREIGN POLICY

 
Global

Family of jailed Chinese dissident Yang Tongyan seek medical parole *PEN Case List
Yang, who is also known by his pen name Yang Tianshui, is serving a 12-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power.” He is known for writings critical of the Chinese government, and was also jailed from 1990 to 2000 for his involvement in China’s 1989 pro-democracy protests.
HONG KONG FREE PRESS

‘We have drawn a different lesson from history’: How the world is reacting to violence in Charlottesville
Much of the world looked on in horror and puzzlement as a demonstration by torch-wielding white nationalists in an American college town ended in violence. In countries with strict hate speech codes, the reaction to and news coverage of the violence at Charlottesville were markedly different.
WASHINGTON POST

Iran freezes assets of BBC Persian staff in crackdown on journalists
BBC Persian is banned in Iran but its radio shows and TV channel are still popular with an audience hungry for news not reported by state-run channels, who tune in via illegal satellite dishes on residential rooftops. The broadcaster says it has an audience of 13 million in Iran, making it BBC News’ seventh-biggest market.
THE GUARDIAN

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