While the Twitter account at issue is anti-Trump, the actual problem would apply equally to Trump supporters. This is one of those cases where free speech actually does apply because the government was seeking the name of an anonymous political speaker, which may discourage other people from speaking out politically.

(Public Service Announcement: This is NOT like almost every time free speech comes up on your Facebook timeline, invoked about a private corporation or citizen telling another citizen to shut up or get off their website or go speak somewhere else. Remember this and you’ll never be the least informed person on Facebook: the right of free speech only prevents the government from silencing you. Any private person or company can refuse to let you speak on their land or in their house or on their website. Anyone. Ever. Always.)

Anyway, the government demanded Twitter disclose the identity of an anonymous account, but made the demand using a summons applicable only to imported goods. 

So, someone stupid at Customs and Border Protection probably got fired, because the whole thing is pretty embarrassing to the government - and not merely because they didn’t get the info they wanted, but because they didn’t even “demand” it in the right way, and had to retreat with their legal tail between their legs.

This was legal, but can you imagine the sound the airline’s PR department must have made when they saw it…

United wanted to put some employees on an overbooked flight and, when offering money to passengers to convince some to leave the flight had failed, a doctor with appointments the next morning in the destination city was beaten and removed by force. 

The fact that United personnel thought this was okay may be a function of that fact that it was, in fact, legal. But maybe that’s the problem: should authorities be allowed to use violence to remove a nonviolent, calm passenger posing no threat at all to anyone’s safety?

LiveJournal is a blogging platform. Many years ago, in my teens, I had a blog at a similar but way cooler site called DeadJournal (which is experiencing a massive influx of LiveJournal defectors now). One day, LiveJournal was sold to a Russian company. Now, well, it’s just like every other Russia-based community: sterilized so as not to hurt Vladdy P’s eyes with any free speech.

I just can’t even at all.