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“The Silence Breakers” who spoke out and set off national reckoning on sexual harassment named 2107 Person of the Year by Time. And the cases mount: National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard who is reported to have helped gather information for producer Harvey Weinstein about his accusers is accused of sexual misconduct himself. Supporters of MSNBC commentator Sam Seder say the network’s decision to cut ties with him over a sarcastic 2009 tweet shows it was intimidated by far-right conspiracy promoter Mike Cernovich. Technology and national security officials urge a federal court to stop collecting voter information for a planned government database on grounds that it would be a target for hackers without adequate security and privacy safeguards. -Dru Menaker, Chief Operating Officer

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

U.S.

The Silence Breakers
Like the “problem that has no name,” the disquieting malaise of frustration and repression identified by Betty Friedan more than 50 years ago, this moment is borne of a very real and potent sense of unrest. This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries.
TIME

Top gossip editor accused of sexual misconduct
National Enquirer and Us Weekly editor Dylan Howard’s conduct led to an internal inquiry in 2012, after which he stopped working out of the L.A. office, but the company rehired him one year later with a promotion at the company’s main office in New York. It was not clear whether Howard faced any discipline over the accusations.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MSNBC is cutting ties with Sam Seder. ‘I think they’re afraid’ of Mike Cernovich & Co., he says.
On his “Majority Report” podcast, Seder said he was facing a “smear” led by far-right figure Mike Cernovich that relied on the “willful misinterpretation” of the long-ago tweet. Over the course of just one week, one of the leading names in the U.S. news business took personnel cues from Pizzagate Inc.
WASHINGTON POST

White House’s planned voter database could be hacking target, experts warn
Nine national security and cybersecurity experts filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit against the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The experts warn that the commission’s plan to centralize voter data with a national database could become a target of foreign cyber attacks.
CNN

Stephen Bannon Returns to the Air With Satellite Radio Program
Bannon returned on Tuesday to the Sirius XM radio show, an outlet with 32 million subscribers, that he had hosted before joining Trump’s campaign. Another former Trump White House staff member, Sebastian Gorka, and Sonnie Johnson, a Tea Party activist, are expected to be part of new programs.
NEW YORK TIMES

 
Global

The real reason you won’t be reading my new book on China anytime soon
Publisher Allen & Unwin pulled the plug on Silent Invasion: How China is turning Australia into a Puppet State. The publisher dropped the book because they are afraid of retaliation by the Chinese Communist Party. No actual threats were made by Beijing or its agents; the shadow it now casts over Australia was enough.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

What It’s Like to Fight for Human Rights In a Country Where an ‘Illegal’ Skype Call Can Land You Behind Bars
Singaporean human rights activist Jolovan Wham faces a litany of charges including organizing an “unregistered” Skype Q&A and taping pieces of paper to a wall. Vice spoke with him and three others about the difficulties activists face every day.
VICE

Democracy in Turkey is going on trial
The state of emergency in place since the July 2016 coup attempt has been used to clamp down on all forms of opposition. People’s Democratic Party (HDP) politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ will appear in court on December 6 and 7 on trumped-up charges of terrorism, facing lengthy jail sentences.
THE GUARDIAN

Apple has a ‘moral obligation’ to push back in China, says senator who probed the company’s ties
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent remarks at a conference in China are drawing criticism from US senators, including one who worries that the tech giant is not fulfilling its “obligation to promote free expression and other basic human rights.”
CNBC

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