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Social media platforms struggle with managing spread of gruesome video of New Zealand shooting, while police urge social media users around the world to stop sharing the video of the killing. New York appeals court upholds lower court ruling and rejects arguments by the president that he is immune from suit in state court, allowing a defamation suit against him to proceed. New York City subway ad of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is defaced with swastika and anti-Semitic slurs written over the image as the latest in a string of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city. Court of Appeals in Michigan protects free speech rights of individuals in an appeal against police officer who pulled someone over for giving him the middle finger. -Nora Benavidez, Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs

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

U.S.

Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter Struggle to Deal with New Zealand Shooting Video
This is the latest case of social media companies being caught off guard by killers posting videos of their crimes, and other users then sharing the disturbing footage. Friday’s video reignites questions about how social media platforms handle offensive content: Are the companies doing enough to try to catch this type of content?
CNN

Trump Can Be Sued for Defamation by Summer Zervos, ‘Apprentice’ Contestant, Court Rules
The five-judge panel in Manhattan ruled that Summer Zervos, who competed on Mr. Trump’s reality game show, could go forward with her lawsuit, which she filed after Mr. Trump said her claims that he had groped and kissed her against her will were lies.
NEW YORK TIMES

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Target of Anti-Semitic Graffiti in New York
The vandalism, which was swiftly condemned by city officials, came amid a rise in hate crimes in New York City, driven in large part by anti-Semitic attacks and incidents. In 2018, hate crimes in New York City rose by 5 percent; anti-Semitic crimes alone rose 22 percent last year compared with the year before.
NEW YORK TIMES

Police Officer Can’t Pull Over Driver For Giving Him The Finger, Court Rules
Debra Cruise-Gulyas argued she had a First Amendment right to wiggle whatever finger she wanted at the police. “Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton for the 3-0 panel. “But that doesn’t make them illegal or for that matter punishable.”
NPR

 
Global

These Are the 10 Journalists Facing the ‘Most Urgent’ Threats to Press Freedom Around the World *PEN Case List
The One Free Press Coalition have identified 10 journalists around the world who represent the most severe examples of abuses to press freedom or cases of injustice, including Maria Ressa of the Philippines, Jamal Khashoggi and Eman Al-Nafjan of Saudi Arabia, and Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo of Myanmar.
TIME

Why Wikipedia Will Go Offline for 24 Hours in Germany
Wikipedia will go offline as authors try to rally Europeans against a proposed European Union law that would tighten online copyright regulations. Critics fear that the directive could pose risks to freedom of speech in Europe.
WASHINGTON POST

Microsoft Denies Links To China’s Xinjiang Facial Recognition—But ‘It’s Complicated’
Following the the SenseNets data breach, which revealed facial recognition technology being used to track Xinjiang Muslims in real time, there followed debate as to whether Microsoft ‘partnered’ with SenseNets, and whether they were aware their tech was used in the dystopian surveillance program that has drawn condemnation for the subjugation of the Muslim Uyghur population of Xinjiang.
FORBES *Read our commentary on Uyghurs in Xinjiang here.

Congolese journalist jailed for insulting governor
Reporter Steeve Mwanyo Iwewe was convicted on March 1 on the charge of insulting Équateur Governor Bobo Boloko Bolumbu. Iwewe was arrested and beaten by the governor’s security agents on February 27 while covering Bolumbu’s arrival at a protest against an increase in state taxes, according to his lawyer.
THE NATION

How the journalist Gauri Lankesh became a casualty of India’s increasingly intolerant politics.
Political pressure on journalists is nothing new in India, but the current government is the first in many years to treat them as an ideological enemy. Lankesh’s murder seems to fit a pattern of assassinations of intellectuals who opposed the fundamentalist-Hindu ideology that animates the B.J.P., all of which remain unsolved.
NEW YORK TIMES

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