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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) issues rebuke of the Federal Trade Commission, charging that regulators ‘failed’ to protect consumers and their personal data from abuse by Facebook, Google, and other tech giants. As readerships and ads decline, newspapers big and small are continuing to shutter around the country, leaving community stories untold. Journalists and protesters in peaceful Sacramento demonstration will not be charged after 84 arrests were made during rally. -Nora Benavidez, Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs

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

U.S.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) Slams ‘Toothless’ Federal Response to Privacy Abuses at Facebook and Google
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley issued a rare rebuke of the government agency that oversees Facebook, Google, and other tech giants, charging that regulators had “failed” to protect consumers and their personal data from abuse.
WASHINGTON POST

Decline in Readers, Ads Leads Hundreds of Newspapers to Fold
Last September, Waynesville became a statistic. With the shutdown of its newspaper, the Daily Guide, this town of 5,200 people in central Missouri joined more than 1,400 other cities and towns across the U.S. to lose a newspaper over the past 15 years.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

84 East Sacramento Protesters Arrested Won’t Be Charged, DA’s Office Says
Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced Friday that charges will not be filed against the 84 people arrested last Monday during an East Sacramento protest following her decision to not file charges against the police officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark.
SACRAMENTO BEE

Opinion: Teen Fiction and the Perils of Cancel Culture
“If Twitter controls publishing, we’ll soon enter a dreary monoculture that admits no book unless it has been prejudged and meets the standards of the censors. … [‘A Place for Wolves’] should have failed or succeeded in the marketplace of ideas. But it was never given the chance.”
NEW YORK TIMES

 
Global

Journalist Cody Weddle on His Detention in Venezuela
“Although Venezuela has become increasingly less welcome to journalists, this has not become the norm. … They raided my apartment. They went through every single thing I had. They were going through my WhatsApp messages for hours and hours.”
NPR

Turkey Expels Three German Journalists
The reporters were given 10 days to leave the country. It is thought to be the first time Turkey has formally rejected the accreditation of foreign journalists. It has reignited concerns over a clampdown on press freedom in Turkey.
BBC NEWS

China’s Model of Internet Censorship Is Being Copied across the World, Says Author James Griffiths
The book, set to be released on Friday, is an exhaustive account of the development of the internet in China over recent decades, from its humble origins in a Beijing laboratory in 1987, to the colossal infrastructure it has become today.
HONG KONG FREE PRESS

Thousands of Russians Protest against Internet Restrictions
Thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow and two other cities to rally against tighter internet restrictions, in some of the biggest protests in the Russian capital in years.
REUTERS

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