JP Messina
@messina_jp
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Associate professor of philosophy @ Purdue University. Author of Private Censorship, available here: https://t.co/4Kn9iJRs1G
West Lafayette, IN
Joined August 2020
New essay! Why does social media benefit populism? And if, like me, you're a small "l" liberal who opposes populism, what can be done about it? The essay has three parts. Part 1 argues that the main reason social media benefits populism is that it destroys elite gatekeeping,
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"While malicious content certainly exists and poses genuine risks to democratic discourse, our research on political deepfakes tells a more nuanced story. Deceptive deepfakes represent only a fraction of the political deepfakes circulating online, even during election periods."
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How Bad Gatekeepers Undermine Good Science "When gatekeepers appear arrogant, biased, or self-serving, the public reasonably infers that the process itself is compromised—even if the outcomes are sound." --@pnbphilosophy
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I think the philosopher Dan Williams has it right: Social media are not destroying democracy, but reinforcing its worst feature. Elite gatekeeping, an accident of expensive media channels, bundled access with at least minimal standards of truth-seeking. Open them up, and you get
conspicuouscognition.com
It’s easier to blame the algorithm than the bewildered herd.
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Nico is great; FIRE is great; consider surrounding yourself with greatness, and applying for this job.
Do you want to make a career out of defending free speech rights? I'm hiring a producer & editor for @TheFIREorg's podcast, @freespeechtalk. The DC-based role will also support my broader work in a research & administrative capacity (I'm writing a book!). Job posting below:
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My new essay argues that social media isn't manipulating people into holding bad ideas. It's revealing the popular ideas that elites used to filter out.
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The AAUP, echoing Mill in 1915: "the dangers connected tendency of modern democracy is for men to think alike, to feel alike, and to speak alike... Public opinion is at once the chief safeguard of a democracy, and the chief menace to the real liberty of the individual."
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Reads almost as if from Hugo Black!
BREAKING: Do non-citizens lawfully present in the United States have First Amendment rights? Federal court in Massachusetts: Yes, they do!
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"The Streisand Effect." When Barbara Streisand tried to censor a photo of her beachfront Malibu home that only had 12 views online, the photo went viral and she got a free speech principle named after her. Civil rights groups learned about the amplification effects of
Trump didn't break Kimmel; he energized him. Viewership of Kimmel's monologue has already broken records. Already 7 million people have viewed it on YouTube. That's by far the most watched Kimmel video on YouTube in the last 6 months. The median Kimmel video gets ~240k views.
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Finally! Google admits 1) that the Biden White House demanded censorship of legal content, and 2) that the European censorship law (DSA) could require it and other tech companies "to remove lawful content" both "within and outside of" the EU. The US must stand up to EU censors!
🚨BREAKING: Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. Thread:
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Let's try to square the circle here. Here's the problem: 1) The left has signaled repeatedly that they do not believe in free speech, and will do everything they can to destroy it. 2) The right shouldn't abandon free speech just because the left has. 3) If the right remains
You’d have to kill me to get me to stop defending freedom. One man decided that was necessary to stop Charlie and look how spectacularly that backfired. His voice is louder, his message amplified. We don’t lose by sticking to our principles; we lose by abandoning them.
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“I’m not against immigration, only illegal immigration.” https://t.co/mZoT73Fkte
washingtonpost.com
The Trump administration also plans to launch a $1 million “gold card” visa for wealthy foreigners in a dramatic overhaul of the nation’s paths to legal immigration.
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Love to see signs of integrity in people I otherwise totally disagree with.
Ted Cruz slams FCC Chair Carr for threatening the media: “What he said there is dangerous as hell…That’s right out of a mafioso…It might feel good right now to threaten Kimmel, but when it is used to silence conservatives in America, we will regret it”
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It's probably true that the search committee wants a feminist, but it should be obvious that that's the problem, not searching for an expert in feminism per se (which experts can be committed to the cause or not).
An AOS that requires a specific set of political beliefs, de jure and de facto.
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I keep seeing folks trot out this FCC rule as a slam-dunk justification for yanking Kimmel. A couple of points: 1) This is a rule meant to prevent broadcasts akin to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" — not a bit from a late night comedian. 2) When was the last time this rule
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This fails to understand that the equilibrium in the courts really is extremely speech protective. That's what we risk losing on the tail-end of republicans' reign. It is a mistake to think that because there's been some defection from the left, cynical retaliation poses no risks
The free speech arguments aside, this is just a basic misunderstanding of the game theory. The deterrent logic only works if both sides benefit from mutual restraint. But the left already defected. The threat of retaliation is moot since it's guaranteed. The only rational move
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This is a misconception I'm seeing all over this website. In Murthy v. Missouri, the Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs didn't have standing. It did not endorse the Biden admin's actions. In NRA v. Vullo, however, the Court *unanimously* held that government officials can't
if democrats didn't want the government to be able to pressure private companies to remove perceived "misinformation" why did they literally just win a supreme court case called Missouri v Biden upholding their right to do that?
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