Views on First

Dating back to the Obama administration, the U.S. government has been using its authority over the border to justify the surveillance of visitors’ and immigrants’ social media accounts. Host Anna Diakun explores the chilling effect this digital surveillance has on the speech and associations of millions of people around the world. Guest Faiza Patel, Senior Director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses not only the legal concerns raised by the government's social media surveillance program but also the lack of evidence that it serves any national security purpose. Journalist and 404 Media co-founder Joseph Cox shares his findings about the array of surveillance technologies purchased by the government, and explains just how much we don’t know about how the government uses the information it obtains to make immigration and other law enforcement decisions.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

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From the war on anarchism to President Trump’s extreme vetting policies, the U.S. government’s practice of using the border as a justification to exclude ideas considered “dangerous” is as American as apple pie. In the first episode of “Views on First: Speech & the Border,” host George Wang invites lawyer and historian Julia Rose Kraut to explore the history of ideological exclusion and the government’s authority to bar individuals from the country on the basis of their speech, beliefs, and associations. Illustrating how these policies continue to bear on noncitizens today, immigration activist Ravi Ragbir shares his ongoing fight with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s attempt to target him for deportation based on his activism and organizing. 

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

We’ve all been hearing a lot about “the border”—in news headlines, candidates’ speeches, and political debates. On our third season of “Views on First: Speech & the Border” we examine the frontiers of censorship and surveillance. Today, the U.S. government uses its authority over the border to justify the exclusion of certain people and ideas, the surveillance of social media, the warrantless search of travelers’ laptops and cellphones, and the imposition of limits on access to foreign communications platforms. New digital technologies are reshaping the border and reinforcing the government’s power to control the flow of information and ideas, with dangerous consequences for democracy. Each episode, you'll hear from a Knight Institute lawyer involved in cases aimed at protecting vital First Amendment rights at the border and beyond. 

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

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Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman talks with Jameel Jaffer about whether and when universities should issue statements about social and political issues, and about the pros and cons of institutional neutrality.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Cornell Law School’s Michael Dorf talks with Jameel Jaffer about how federal anti-discrimination law is shaping universities’ responses to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, and about the tensions between anti-discrimination law and the First Amendment.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch and Evelyn Douek of Stanford Law talk with Jameel Jaffer about the role that social media platforms are playing in shaping, suppressing, and distorting public discourse about the war. 

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia’s Journalism School, and Isabella Ramirez, Editor in Chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator, talk with Jameel Jaffer about the crisis at Columbia, and about the challenges of reporting on it.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Jameel Jaffer returns to the issue of free speech on campus with Jeannie Suk Gersen, professor of law at Harvard, contributing writer to the New Yorker, founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. They talk about the challenges facing academic freedom on college campuses since October 7th. 

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Jameel Jaffer returns to the issue of free speech on campus with Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). They talk about “cancellations” before and after October 7, the difference between free speech law and free speech culture, and the free speech implications of Title VI, the law that requires universities to take action against discriminatory harassment. 

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.

Radhika Sainath, senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal, talks with Jameel Jaffer about the climate for speech supportive of Palestinians, defining discrimination, and the “Palestine Exception” to the First Amendment.

Views on First is brought to you by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Please subscribe and leave a review. We’d love to know what you think.

To learn more about the Knight Institute, visit our website, knightcolumbia.org, and follow us on social media.