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Berkeley: Then and now (VIDEO)
Today marks the 53rd anniversary of the University of California, Berkeley faculty senate vote which, at the urging of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, reformed the institution’s policies on campus expression. In 1964, the students who participated in the movement demanded that Berkeley respect their First Amendment rights. The result was a revolution for student rights on campuses across the country.
On this anniversary, we take a look back at the Berkeley Free Speech Movement to see if it can lend any insights into the free speech controversies that roiled Berkeley’s campus this year.
Recent Articles
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German chancellor echoes the frequent — and illiberal — call to end online anonymity
Online anonymity is vital to free speech in Germany. And the United States.
Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
A UK court says banning the group Palestine Action was unlawful — after more than 2,700 arrests — but the ban remains pending appeal. So for now, supporting the group is essentially Schrödinger’s speech crime.
He refused to censor his syllabus — so Texas Tech cancelled his class
In another blow to academic freedom in the Lone Star state, Texas Tech canceled a psychology class after the professor refused to scrub race and gender from his syllabus.
Fandom’s lighthouse in a sea of censorship
In the storm of internet censorship and cancel crusades, the fanfic database Archive Of Our Own (AO3) has become a lighthouse of artistic expression.