The National Religious Broadcasters’ John Milton Project for Free Speech will be host a roundtable discussion on: Thursday, October 3, on the future of free speech, free press, and freedom of religion on the Web platforms of Facebook, Google, and other new media companies.
The event will be held in the National Press Club’s First Amendment Room in Washington, DC, and bring together panelists including Todd Starnes, Host of FOX News & Commentary; Eric Teetsel, Executive Director of the Manhattan Declaration; Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; and Trevor Burrus, Research Fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies.Moderating the discussion will be Craig Parshall, Senior Vice President & General Counsel at NRB and Director of the John Milton Project, which monitors the threats of viewpoint censorship on the Internet.
The event will also feature introductory comments from Gov. Mike Huckabee, who will share via video his experience of having his pro-traditional marriage Facebook page taken down during the Chick-fil-A debate last year. Additional guests are expected to includeDavid Cerullo of Inspiration Networks, and Jay Sekulow of: ACLJ.
“New media tech companies like Facebook, Google and Apple have enjoyed a Goliath-like dominance over the digital information world. Yet we have documented how they continue to censor viewpoints on their sites that promote traditional values or conservative ideas,” shared Parshall. “These Web technology companies have promoted themselves as advocates of free speech. It is time for them to live up to that standard.”
The: October 3: event will be the latest in a string of efforts to address the threats of free speech violations on the Internet, and especially on communication platforms established by new media tech companies in the private sector, including but not limited to Apple, Facebook, and Google.
: The project produced a groundbreaking white paper report in 2011 titled: True Liberty in a New Media Age, which explains how some of the policies and practices of new media tech giants have jeopardized fundamental values enshrined in the First Amendment. In 2012, the project released its: Free Speech Charter for the Internet, laying out a model to be followed by new media technology and communication companies that can serve the interests of both free speech and free enterprise.: