Academic Twitter & Free Speech

So, my wife says, "Why aren't you talking about the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment?" And I say, "Uh..."

My "hook," my justification for addressing it in FYS 156 (Technology & Society), is to investigate the implications of free speech issues on academics (higher ed faculty and students) who use social media, especially Twitter.

I thought I might keep a current, post-Election 2016 focus for the day, based on President-Elect Trump's recent tweet about jailing or revoking the citizenship of people who burned the U.S. flag. But then I got a little surprise in my initial Google search for resources.

A search on "academic twitter free speech" turned up an interesting Canadian article from 2012 by George Stroumboulopoulos. It talks about blocked Twitter accounts, anti-Semitism, and neo-Nazis. I think we're onto something, topic-wise.

For some clarification on "free speech" vs. "hate speech" from a higher-education perspective, see the YouTube video embedded below.