{"id":1458832,"date":"2022-04-30T08:01:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-30T12:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458832"},"modified":"2022-04-30T08:01:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T12:01:16","slug":"gabriella-hoffman-america-doesnt-need-to-reimagine-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gabriella-hoffman-america-doesnt-need-to-reimagine-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriella Hoffman: America Doesn\u2019t Need to Reimagine Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgabriella-hoffman-america-doesnt-need-to-reimagine-free-speech%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1458832&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"aside1\" class=\"left aside-wrapper aside-wrapper-950\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Free speech is a bedrock principle Americans take for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When foreigners visit our nation, they are astonished to see us speak our minds, peacefully assemble, and criticize our government without fear of retribution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Many on the political Left, however,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/18\/opinion\/cancel-culture-free-speech-poll.html\">complain<\/a> permitting \u201cunfettered\u201d free speech in digital spaces is problematic and anti-democratic\u2014an act, in their view, that must be summarily quashed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, efforts to reimagine the First Amendment are being challenged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In Elon Musk We Trust \u2014 For Safeguarding Free Speech<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed interest in buying Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwitter has become kind of the de facto town square. So it\u2019s just really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they\u2019re able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,\u201d Musk\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/4\/14\/23025343\/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-ted-talk-quote-stock-buyout\">said<\/a> at the annual TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada. \u201cThis is not a way to sort of make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This week, the company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/elon-musk-to-acquire-twitter-301532245.html\">announced<\/a> him as its new owner\u2014a move\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/04\/26\/jack-dorsey-elon-musk-is-the-singular-solution-for-twitter.html\">praised<\/a> by co-founder Jack Dorsey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSolving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,\u201d Dorsey <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jack\/status\/1518772756069773313\">wrote<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jack\/status\/1518772757340639232\">added<\/a>, \u201cElon\u2019s goal of creating a platform that is &#8216;maximally trusted and broadly inclusive&#8217; is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential \u2013 I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,\u201d Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/elon-musk-to-acquire-twitter-301532245.html\">said<\/a> in an official press release.<\/p>\n<p>To some it\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2022\/film\/news\/elon-musk-twitter-dont-look-up-cate-blanchett-1235240752\/\">very dangerous<\/a>\u201d a non-leftist billionaire plans to take the social media giant private. What\u2019s dangerous about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1519415674111672325\">viewpoint neutrality<\/a>?\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1518623997054918657\">Allowing<\/a> critics to freely use Twitter? Nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Very online progressives also fumed at the news. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenMarkey\/status\/1518998477140856832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1518998477140856832%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2Fcorner%2Falgorithmic-justice%2F\">called<\/a> for \u201calgorithmic justice.\u201d MSNBC host Joy Reid bizarrely\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2022\/04\/27\/msnbcs-joy-reid-claims-elon-musk-misses-apartheid-era-south-africa\/\">claimed<\/a> the billionaire longs for the days of South African apartheid. And former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RBReich\/status\/1519489829448212482\">desperately<\/a> wants Musk to unblock him\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2022\/apr\/24\/elon-musk-twitter-billionaire-robert-reich\">dismissing<\/a> his actions as self-serving.<\/p>\n<p>More positively, dormant accounts are being reactivated and first-time users are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/roberthart\/2022\/04\/28\/twitter-may-already-be-cashing-in-on-conservative-users-lured-by-musk\/?sh=fc5c1542777c\">flocking<\/a> to the platform. Why? People are excited about Musk taking Twitter in a new direction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Biden Admin Creating New Board to \u2018Combat\u2019 Disinformation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two days after Musk\u2019s update, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mayorkas-dhs-disinformation-governance-board.amp\">announced<\/a> the creation of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mayorkas-dhs-disinformation-governance-board.amp\">Disinformation Governance Board<\/a> (DGB).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to POLITICO, DGB\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2022\/04\/27\/fauci-pulls-out-of-whcd-is-biden-next-00028131\">will<\/a> \u201ccoordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been rightly compared to the Ministry of Truth made famous in George Orwell\u2019s<em>\u00a01984<\/em> book.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More troubling is this: Nina Jankowicz, a former disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, will lead the DGB as Executive Director despite her history of spreading inaccurate stories online.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/28\/wh-pick-for-disinformation-board-spread-hunter-biden-laptop-lie\/\">highlighted<\/a> her past tweets questioning the validity of the Hunter Biden laptop story:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Jankowicz had also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wiczipedia\/status\/1319251093298302976\">tweeted<\/a> a link to a news article in October 2020 that she said cast &#8216;yet more doubt on the provenance of the NY Post\u2019s Hunter Biden story.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c&#8217;Not to mention that the emails don\u2019t need to be altered to be part of an influence campaign. Voters deserve that context, not a [fairy] tale about a laptop repair shop,&#8217; she added in\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wiczipedia\/status\/1319257015651368960\"><em>another tweet<\/em><\/a><em>.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In her announcement, the self-described Russia expert <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wiczipedia\/status\/1519282822158110721\">tweeted<\/a>, \u201cNow that I&#8217;ve got it: a HUGE focus of our work, and indeed, one of the key reasons the Board was established, is to maintain the Dept&#8217;s commitment to protecting free speech, privacy, civil rights, &#038; civil liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But she also told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/04\/16\/1093212502\/women-face-disproportionate-attacks-online-one-expert-shares-some-of-the-details\">NPR<\/a> she \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wiczipedia\/status\/1518643449225953287\">shudders<\/a>\u201d at the thought of free speech absolutists like Elon Musk \u201ctaking over more platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When pressed by Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich about DGB\u2019s mission, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/white-house-defends-dhs-disinformation-board-not-sure-who-opposes-that-effort\">responded<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cIt sounds like the objective of the board is to prevent disinformation and misinformation from traveling around the country in a range of communities. I&#8217;m not sure who opposes that effort.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Elon Musk\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1519717964215468032\">called<\/a> the DGB\u2019s formation \u201cdiscomforting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, some have encouraged the creation of a real-life Ministry of Truth.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, WIRED suggested the government create one,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/america-needs-a-ministry-of-truth\/\">arguing<\/a>, \u201cWhat\u2019s more, the powers that be lack an effective regulatory mechanism for dealing with the next phase of the disinformation age, when indistinguishable fakes will flood the internet. While countless commentators have viewed <em>1984<\/em> as a black cauldron simmering with horrors to avoid, we may need to salvage the idea of a Ministry of Truth in order to preserve what\u2019s left of our shared reality.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Talk about terrifying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, more speech is good for our constitutional republic. Better speech can effectively counter bad speech. Unlike the Biden administration, Elon Musk grasps this concept well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To foster a more perfect union, let\u2019s allow the market\u2014 not government\u2014 to correct our social media woes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free speech is a bedrock principle Americans take for granted.\u00a0When foreigners visit our nation, they are astonished to see us speak our minds, peacefully assemble, and criticize our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1458832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1458832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1458832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1458832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}