The High Cost of Free Speech: The Mary Anne Franks Series, Part 2

The Social Network Show welcomes Professor Mary Anne Franks back for Part 2 of The Mary Anne Franks Series on cyber civil rights, March 17, 2014.

Todays topic with Professor Franks, a law professor and expert on cyber civil rights, is "free speech" on social networks. Professor Franks compares the popular conception of free speech and the confusion about what the 1st Amendment really says. Listen to the show to learn more about the following: Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act which gives immunity for online service providers and users from actions against them based on content of 3rd parties; Social Networks policies on content and what are they allowed to do; The legal case of the gossip website, "The Dirty", and the reason the owner was found responsible for content; Thoughts on how we can civilize the internet; The best way to communicate with social networks regarding their policies on content and the watchdog groups you can connect with.

Professor Franks shares these links to the watchdog groups:

http://www.endmisogyny.org/ Twitter misogyny_online

http://www.everydaysexism.com/  Twitter @EverydaySexism

http://www.seejane.org/  Geena Davis's organization

Here's the open letter re: Facebook's anti-woman pages, including many links to great organizations:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/an-open-letter-to-faceboo1b_3307394.html

On gender and race:

http://www.mediawatch.com/

Race:

http://racismwatch.newsvine.com/

Mary Anne Franks is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami School of Law. She teaches, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Family Law. Professor Franks is also the Vice President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative which is a nonprofit organization that raises awareness about cyber harassment and advocates for legal and social reform. This work has allowed her to work with legislators to draft laws against "revenge porn".

Before working at the University of Miami Law School, Professor Franks was a Bigelow Fellow and lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and a lecturer in Social Studies at Harvard University. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and received her D. Phil and M. Phil from Oxford University where she studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. (D. Phil and M. Phil, U. S. equivalent of doctor of philosophy and master of philosophy. Professor Franks earned her degrees in Modern Languages and Literature).

You can connect with Professor Franks on the CCRI website or on Twitter.