PREMIUM: "Free Speech" On Twitter with Andrew Lowenthal

<p>Can governments regulate “misinformation”? Or is that just a pretext for controlling what you can say? Were “the Twitter Files” a bombshell revelation of censorship, or a paranoid beat-up? How should Big Tech have grappled with issues like Russia, Covid, and the FBI?</p> <p> </p> <p>Andrew Lowenthal worked with Matt Taibbi for months on the Twitter Files. He helped to create the Westminster Declaration to oppose any restrictions on online speech.</p> <p> </p> <p>He used to work with leftie NGOs fighting for the digital rights of dissenters across the Asia-Pacific, until he saw his activist colleagues drift away from free speech towards the opposite – what he calls "anti-disinformation".</p> <p> </p> <p>He now runs a digital civil liberties initiative called liber-net which argues that, under the cloak of countering misinformation, the powers-that-be suppress information, ideas, and opinions expressed by everyday people. Andrew is an Australian based in Europe and he was kind enough to stop by the Uncomfy Studios on a recent trip to Sydney.</p> <p> </p> <p>Watch the in-the-flesh video on the <a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_">YouTube page</a> (subscribe while you’re there) and if you’re not a paid Substack subscriber, enjoy this preview of a much longer, gripping convo.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>To get the whole shebang, get your own personalised premium podcast feed at</strong> <a href="https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe">https://uncomfortableconversations.substack.com/subscribe</a></p> <p><a href="http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_">http://youtube.com/@JoshSzeps_</a></p> <p><a href="http://twitter.com/joshzepps">http://twitter.com/joshzepps</a></p> <p><a href="http://instagram.com/joshszeps/">http://instagram.com/joshszeps/</a></p> <p><a href="http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations">http://tiktok.com/@uncomfyconversations</a></p> <p> </p>