We have been following (here and here and here and here and here) the worsening situation in England concerning free speech. As noted in a recent column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws. Now, a French Jewish student group is adding its name to the movement to curtail free speech rights. The Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) is demanding 38.5 million euros after Twitter has declined to turn over the identity of people responsible for comments deemed anti-Semitic by the group. The students appear to have no concept or at least concern for the loss of anonymity in free speech. Like others, they are focused only on their insular grievance with no appreciation for the harm caused by such court orders.
Jonathan Hayoun, president of the UEJF, expressed no concern of his role in the attack on free speech and simply accused Twitter of “playing the indifference card in not respecting the [earlier] decision of January 24.” The company was given two weeks to turn over the identities of the writers. What Hayoun considers “indifference” is a company trying to protect the free speech values that are at the heart of the Internet. It is Hayoun and his colleagues — and the French court — that are indifferent to the loss of free speech protection. None of us, including Twitter, has any sympathy for anti-Semites. However, it is free speech and not these writers that is at risk in this latest effort.
Hayoun appears completely uneducated, or at least unaware, as to the harm caused by such actions for free speech. He insisted that “[i]n protecting the anonymity of the author of these tweets it is making itself an accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites.” That is absurd, of course. Twitter like other sites is a highway for public comment and free speech. With valuable speech comes a lot of low-grade speech. That is the cost of free speech. However, once you go down the slippery slope of speech regulation and punishment, that highway will become nothing more than an assembly line for approved and sanctioned thoughts.
Twitter says it will appeal and I wish them the very best in doing so. As for these students, I will only note that history is filled with students, including French students, fighting for liberty. They would not be among them.
Source: AFP
Ralph,
are you kidding me? leftist’s hate jews and Christians and therefore Prof. Turley, who you label as a leftist, hates jews and Christians??? Yikes. Get some help.
Now tell us how the Prof is a Nazi because everyone on the left is a Nazi, Ralphie.
Or a “stunoid”.
Oh, and be sure to change your posting name to give the appearance of false consensus while you’re at it.
Does Stormfront know their village idiot is missing?
As noted in a recent column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws. Now, a French Jewish student group is adding its name to the movement to curtail free speech rights. The Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) is demanding 38.5 million euros after Twitter has declined to turn over the identity of people responsible for comments deemed anti-Semitic by the group. The students appear to have no concept or at least concern for the loss of anonymity in free speech.
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Is it time to burn books? As long as nobody is being threatened people can say whatever they want.
Ralph:
I’m just curious as to why you find this site attractive enough to contribute to when you object so greatly to its publisher.
Ralph:
in case you didnt know, the Prof is a practicing Catholic [I am pretty sure about that]. Even a liberal Catholic [and I dont know if he is] is pretty conservative. So I think you are out of line to say that, there is a huge difference between wanting a secular government and hating Jews and Christians.
The words facile and logic come to mind concerning your post. I leave it to you to use them in a sentence.
Ralph :
“Turley knows better, but he couldn’t resist pretending to be a lawyer concerned with “liberty,” when, in fact, he is just a leftist hack–concerned only with promoting his leftist agenda, which, of course, by its very nature involves his hatred for Jews and Christians.”
********
I was hoping for an example of low grade speech and like a Pavlovian dog you show up right on cue. Way to hit your marks.
Oy Vey!!!
There are many limitations put on free speech, and in the US, for example, that has always been true. Turley knows better, but he couldn’t resist pretending to be a lawyer concerned with “liberty,” when, in fact, he is just a leftist hack–concerned only with promoting his leftist agenda, which, of course, by its very nature involves his hatred for Jews and Christians.
“The Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) is demanding 38.5 million euros after Twitter has declined to turn over the identity of people responsible for comments deemed anti-Semitic by the group. The students appear to have no concept or at least concern for the loss of anonymity in free speech.”
Why would anyone ever believe this was about “anti-semitism”? Suing twitter proves that it was always about the money. If it were really about offensive language and posts, the UEJF would be filing criminal complaints for the law to investigate, not going to civil court first.
Blaming twitter for the actions of its users is as stupid as blaming a phone company for obscene phone calls. And just like a phone company, twitter is not obliged to turn over the names of people without a court order, and would turn over the names to a legal authority, not a bunch of self-appointed “morality police”.
Cases like this are why people are getting sick and tired of hearing about Israel and jews. One does not have to be “anti-semitic” to be tired of knee jerk overreactions, how accusations of “anti-semitism” are hurled at anything and anyone critical of Israel (e.g. mentioning the use of white phosphorus on Gaza). Specious and overreaching cases like this make it harder for genuine complaints about anti-semitism to be listened to.
€
That’s the reason
Excerpt from the AFP article:
Questioned by AFP, Twitter said it was in discussions with the Jewish student group but that “unfortunately they are more interested in these grand gestures than in finding an adequate international procedure to obtain the requested information.”
“We will appeal tomorrow (Thursday)” to the French court, Twitter said in reference to the January 24 decision.
It added that the French court had only notified it of the earlier ruling “a few days ago.”
On Sunday French President Hollande called for the names of the authors of the anti-Semitic tweets to be released, in line with the court’s decision.
The union had been pressing Twitter to exercise tighter control of what appeared on its Internet site following a deluge of anti-Semitic messages posted under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew).
Twitter later removed some of the offending tweets.
Last October, Twitter suspended the account of a neo-Nazi group in Germany following a request from the government in Berlin.
That was the first time that the US firm had applied a policy known as “country-withheld content”, which allows it to block an account at the request of state authorities.
http://www.france24.com/en/20130321-french-jewish-students-take-legal-action-against-twitter
*****
I find it interesting that the French president has gotten himself involved in this case.
Twitter. I am a Nazi. Divulge the names and addesses of the students so that if I get in power in France due to my Vichy heritage and ambitiion, I will know which doors to knock on with my Storm Troopers in tow. Turn about is fair play en France.
raff,
I would have suggested that too, but nobody would stand for that kind of overbearing crap. People have limits.
Gene,
did you mean a ban on bowels?? 🙂
“the shiny forward of civilization”
I like it.
So someone says 1+1=3 and a bunch of morons decide to agree with it.
They belong to the “were the morons” party.
There are a lot of people in that party. It’s a big tent party. I have actually been under that big top on occasion for various idiocys in my life.
(I think we all have)
Thank goodness there is so much goodness outside that tent.
Knowledge of science and sirens of truth can and does invite people outside into the shiny forward of civilization.
A quick perusal of the features this morning . . .
Can’t Jew bash on Twitter . . .
Can’t say “Bingo!” or “REDRUM” . . .
Can’t go into any library, anywhere . . .
It’s tough to be a word, thought or civil right today.
Offensive? Yeah, that’s offensive alright. But if you’re going to start restricting speech, I suggest a ban on vowels. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, isn’t it?
@Karen
Myself being from Germany, last I heard here we have laws that prevent you from denying the Holocaust and displaying the image of the swastika, owning “Mein Kampf” and using the greeting “Heil Hitler”.
There’s still a lot of disgust among Germans that we ever let it happen and so any remote chance of something so awful happening again is supposedly stamped out by stopping people from saying or owning these things.
Personally I don’t fully know where I stand. I think its ridiculous to deny what happened and think we Germans know full well what happened, many within our lifetime. Clearly most dread the thought of anything happening like this again so the bans seem superfluous to me. Anyone who hints at making a joke in such poor taste is called out immediately. Not by the law, but via people enacted social norms and telling a person how absolutely inappropriate that behavior is. Granted taking away the laws would give the Neo-Nazi groups more disgusting imagery to shove down peoples throats as there is annual demonstration by neo nazis in Dresden in response to its heavy bombing, but would I rather them have that right if it meant not doing so would mean others lost their free speech? Yes.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/demonstrators-in-dresden-block-neo-nazi-march-with-human-chain-a-883326.html
Jonathan,
Don’t a lot of European countries have actual laws on the books criminalizing speech about WWII and the concentration camps?
Come on…. Like really…