X said the law known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act violated the First Amendment and state constitution by subjecting it to lawsuits and heavy fines unless it disclosed “highly sensitive and controversial speech” that New York may find objectionable.

Deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms “engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line,” X said. “This is not a role that the government may play.”

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/legal/2025/06/17/elon-musk-x-hate-speech-law/84252156007/

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“There are references in the bible which are simply no longer appropriate in modern society and which would be deemed offensive if stated in public,” lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told the court.

The statement occurred in the course of CPS’ prosecution of street preacher John Dunn for the alleged crime of offending two lesbians by quoting Scripture to them.

Despite having lost his voice box to throat cancer, Dunn, 55, preaches regularly on the streets of Swindon, a town in southwestern England.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://thenewamerican.com/u-k-prosecutors-some-bible-verses-no-longer-appropriate-to-be-quoted-in-public/

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The post U.K. Prosecutors: Some Bible Verses “No Longer Appropriate” to Be Quoted in Public first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We’re placed on edge by the minute.  There’s about to be a WAR!  Putin has determined to invade Ukraine last Wednesday and the U. S. is talking mighty tough.  There will be sanctions like they’ve never seen.  We’ll bulk up military readiness in the surrounding NATO countries and send more ammo to the Ukrainians.  Most of all we’ll think of nothing else.  Especially not that little criminal court filing that confirms spying against the former President.

That’s just a distraction, we’re told.  The REAL problem is…

There’s a war of information going on at a very critical time in world events.  Everybody demands the final say on what is and isn’t true.  The government and the media are speaking with one voice, no matter what the subject.  Many of us have seen what they’ve been saying and doing for several years now, and have lost trust, if not interest.

Now there’s one incident after another of shelling in Eastern Ukraine, with the culprit in dispute.  Maybe there will be some battles, if not a war, after all.  Or maybe Vladimir has a point.  He doesn’t want missiles within no more than several minutes from the Russian Capitol.  Think Cuban missile crisis.  The media says little if anything about it.

Special Prosecutor Durham has made criminal court indictments against Clinton campaign lawyers which confirm hacking, spying and possibly the planting of false evidence in order to get a big investigation started, which took hold of nearly every three letter agency and led to “serious concerns” on the part of every media outlet.  Crooked says it’s a “distraction.”

Let’s get visceral about the mandates and the lock downs and demand the government “do more” to make sure there is universal compliance.  Just as the illness burns itself out, we have to come down on one side or the other of government authority.

It’s probably wrong of us to notice, but have you ever seen so many fall over unconscious while expressing how great they feel about complying?  Somebody somewhere has to have a sense of humor.  When you see a stand-up funny lady bragging about how many times she’s been vaxed and boosted, and then say, “Jesus loves me more than anybody else,” just before banging her head on the floor and being rushed to the hospital, now that’s FUNNY!  But it’s not the only example.  I don’t know when we’ve seen so many sports competitors collapse on the field, news people keel over, sometimes while advocating for more stringent mandates.  It’s just a coincidence, mind you.

We’ve watched in disbelief the woke dictator of Canada get tough on naysayers.  It’s not going over very well.  He’s invoked emergency powers, and expects the police and the banks to play along,  and they just might.  But is this really about the virus anymore? There will be no defiance!  The government will destroy you!

Meanwhile, there’s been a destructive attack against a Canadian pipeline that wrecked trucks and buildings.  Haven’t heard?  Figures.

But here’s where the rubber meets the road.  A lady in Finland, a religious teacher, apparently asked whether it was a good idea for the government to be involved in a “gay pride” parade.  She included some Bible verses in her e-mail.  Now she faces up to two years in prison, because the verses she quoted are regarded as “hate speech” in Finland.  Notice, the verses she quoted are not being included in any of the reporting.  There’s a reason for that, and it’s surprising that they want to bring this thing to a head.  But now it’s on.  The Word of God strongly condemns homosexuality, both in the New Testament and the Old.  Political correctness wasn’t being practiced at the time of writing, and it’s highly likely that many will find the Biblical language unsettling, to say the least.

We don’t know which verse it might have been, but none are mistakable.  They are blatant.  The government in Finland regards it as “hate speech.”  That’s where we are.  The Word of God is hate-speech.  This case will reverberate around the world.  From what we’ve seen mainstream Christianity will probably agree, to their everlasting shame.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 18 February 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday for talks amid increasing pressure on the social media giant to honour pledges to tackle hate speech and misinformation online.

The visit comes against the backdrop of regulators worldwide urging social media platforms to shoulder more responsibility for what their users post.

The encounter is also timed with Macron’s EU campaign, with the May vote seen as the French President’s first national test since becoming president two years ago on promises to transform France and revive a tired Europe.

Macron has been one of Europe’s most vocal critics of social media giants, hitting out at them for not doing enough to tackle harmful content and warning that regulators will take action.

FRANCE 24@FRANCE24

Facebook’s Zuckerberg meets Macron amid pressure to stanch misinformation, hate speech

​Mark Zuckerberg himself recently admitted the need for greater oversight. As part of an experiment, Facebook in recent months has allowed French regulators to observe first-hand its efforts to stamp out extremist content.

“Facebook’s teams have really played along well,” France’s Digital Minister Cédric O told AFP last month.

An Elysee official confirmed the regulators’ findings will be presented Friday, and could be instrumental in guiding French and possibly European legislation on social media.

READ MORE: Facebook Reportedly Auto-Generating Extremist Videos, Infuriating Twitter Users

France is currently debating laws that would require digital giants to take down unlawful posts within 24 hours of being reported or face heavy fines.

If these laws are passed, social media users might be obliged to provide identification before opening accounts, to stop anonymous users posting hateful content with impunity.

Draft legislation in France to tax digital giants is also up for debate, with lawmakers granting it initial approval last month.

The law would set a three per cent tax on digital advertising, the sale of personal data and other revenue from the largest tech companies.
Both draft tax and regulatory frameworks will likely dominate debates at the second “Tech for Good” summit, scheduled for 15 May and co-chaired by President Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

READ MORE: Apple’s CEO Slams ‘Peeping Tom’ Tech Giants, Says Privacy Is a Crisis

World leaders and tech executives are expected to agree on a pledge to fight the spread of terrorist content on the internet.

Ardern earlier denounced the “unprecedented” use of social media in the massacres at two Christchurch mosques last March, which saw the shooter broadcast his rampage live on Facebook.

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Source: https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905101074885545-macron-zuckerberg-meeting-facebook-misinformation-remove-hate-speech-online/

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Many of the nation’s colleges have become a force for evil and a focal point for the destruction of traditional American values. The threat to our future lies in the fact that today’s college students are tomorrow’s teachers, professors, judges, attorneys, legislators and policymakers. A recent Brookings Institution poll suggests that nearly half of college students believe that hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. Of course, it is. Fifty-one percent of students think that it’s acceptable to shout down a speaker with whom they disagree. About 20 percent of students hold that it’s acceptable to use violence to prevent a speaker from speaking. Over 50 percent say colleges should prohibit speech and viewpoints that might offend certain people. Contempt for the First Amendment and other constitutional guarantees is probably shared by the students’ high school teachers, as well as many college professors.

Brainwashing and indoctrination of young people has produced some predictable results, as shown by a recent Gallup Poll. For the past 18 years, Gallup has asked adults how proud they are to be Americans. This year, only 47 percent say they are “extremely proud,” well below the peak of 70 percent in 2003. The least proud to be Americans are nonwhites, young adults and college graduates. The proudest Americans are those older than 50 and those who did not graduate from college. The latter might be explained by their limited exposure to America’s academic elite.

Johnetta Benton, a teacher at Hampton Middle School near Atlanta, was recorded telling her sixth-grade students, “America has never been great for minorities.” In a tirade, she told her class: “Because Europeans came from Europe … you are an immigrant. You are an illegal immigrant because you came and just took it. … You are an immigrant. This is not your country.” To exploit young, immature young people this way represents an act of supreme cowardice. The teacher should be fired, but I’m guessing that her colleagues share her sympathies. At the same school, students were given a homework assignment that required them to write a letter asking lawmakers for stricter gun control laws.

One might be tempted to argue that the growing contempt for liberty and the lack of civility stem from the election of Donald Trump. That’s entirely wrong. The lack of civility and indoctrination of our young people have been going on for decades. UCLA history professor Mary Corey told her class: “Capitalism isn’t a lie on purpose. It’s just a lie.” She added that capitalists “are swine…. They’re bastard people.” An English professor at Montclair State University, in New Jersey, told his students, “Conservatism champions racism, exploitation and imperialist war.” An ethnic studies professor at California State University, Northridge and Pasadena City College teaches that “the role of students and teachers in ethnic studies is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” The University of California, Santa Barbara’s school of education emailed its faculty members to ask them to consider classroom options concerning the Iraq War, suggesting they excuse students from class to attend anti-war events and give them extra credit for writing about it. Rodney Swanson, a UCLA economics professor, told his class, “The United States of America, backed by facts, is the greediest and most selfish country in the world.”

There is little question that colleges stand at the forefront of an attack on America and Western values. Leftists often say that the U.S. is the world’s worst country. But here are some empirical facts they might explain. According to a recent Gallup Poll, about 13 percent of the world’s adults — 630 million people — would like to move to another country. Roughly 138 million would like to live in the U.S. — making us the No. 1 destination, followed by the U.K., Canada and France. There’s something exceptionally appealing about America and the Western world that leftists choose to ignore or lie about.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Source: https://www.thenewamerican.com/reviews/opinion/item/29749-colleges-a-force-for-evil

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Summit Ministries said it canceled a California conference scheduled for this summer over fears that the state “will forbid some of what it teaches.” (Image source: YouTube screenshot)

Summit Ministries — a Christian organization that focuses on helping teenagers and young adults apply faith to their lives — said it canceled a California conference scheduled for this summer over fears that the state “will forbid some of what it teaches,” the organization said in a news release.

What’s the problem?

The problem, the organization said, is state Bill 2943, which deems “advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual” an “unlawful business practice.” The bill passed the state Assembly and is headed to the state Senate.

Some have argued the bill, if it becomes law, could open the door for banning some Christian books. National Review writer David French said as much, adding that it “would loom over booksellers and churches, establishing a chilling effect and providing a pretext for even more secular booksellers to refrain from stocking certain Christian titles — no matter how well-reasoned, well-researched, or well-argued.”

But the author of the bill, Assemblyman Evan Low, countered that it applies only to conversion therapy offered as a paid service, wouldn’t shut down speaking or writing on the subject and wouldn’t apply to book sales, the Huffington Post reported.

What are Summit Ministries’ concerns?

Summit Ministries said its program would be impacted by the proposed law since its “lineup includes defenders of traditional man/woman marriage and people who advocate pursuing only those sexual activities approved in the Bible.”

French in his National Review piece also noted that the bill defines “sexual orientation change efforts” as including “efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” And that appears to be of primary concern to Summit Ministries.

Given that students commonly ask Summit staff how to address gender identity confusion and sexual attraction as it pertains to their faith, the group’s president, Jeff Myers, said in the release that the proposed law “prohibiting such conversations … would cripple Summit’s ability to care for and equip its students.”

Which spelled the end of the organization’s June 10-23 and June 24-July 7 sessions at Biola University near Los Angeles, the release noted.

“What are we going to say to a young person experiencing sexual confusion?” Myers asked. “That the state of California forbids us from allowing a biblical ethic embraced by billions of people for thousands of years to inform our answer?”

Myers characterized the bill is “the most blatant chilling of free speech in America in my lifetime” and because of it “we simply cannot put our students, staff and faculty at risk.”

Source: https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/05/01/christian-ministry-cancels-california-event-fearing-the-state-will-forbid-some-of-what-it-teaches

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