A Preview of Views on First: Speech & the Border

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. 

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Transcript

George Wang:

Hi, I'm George Wang, a lawyer at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. On the next season of our podcast, Views on First, we're diving deep into an issue we've all been hearing a lot about.

Montage:

The border. The border. The border. Our border. Our border. The border. The border.

George Wang:

But we're going to look at this issue from a different perspective. We're going to look at the border as a site for censorship and surveillance.

Joseph Cox:

I just want to know what technology the US government is buying. It turns out, a lot of that technology is at the border.

George Wang:

At the Knight First Amendment Institute, we fight to defend the freedoms of speech and the press guaranteed by the US Constitution, freedoms that were meant for everyone to enjoy. But the truth is the international border is a gray area where those First Amendment protections become fuzzy. For example, nearly all people who apply for a visa to enter the United States are required to hand over their social media account information to the State Department. That information gets swallowed up by shadowy surveillance programs inside the federal government.

Faiza Patel:

Once you give the social media handle to the government, it's not just going to keep it, right? It's going to use it in order to find out stuff about you.

George Wang:

In fact, anyone crossing any border into the United States can have their devices seized and searched, whether they like it or not.

Akram Shibly:

I still, to this day, don't know what they did with my phone and why I was singled out.

Stephanie Krent:

They're told in some instances that, "We're at the border, we can do whatever we want."

George Wang:

It may sound hard to believe, but the government has even used this power to try to selectively deport permanent residents for engaging in constitutionally protected protest. Not 100 years ago. Recently.

Julia Rose Kraut:

Why should we be afraid of this man and his ideas?

Ravi Ragbir:

This is about every single immigrant who is under the threat of deportation, who lives under that.

George Wang:

Even US citizens face government efforts to ban speech from abroad, like a certain app that might be on your phone right now.

Meredith Whittaker:

There's been anxiety about TikTok as a potential influence that it could exert over youth.

Anupam Chander:

If TikTok is shuttered, it goes dark on January 19th, 2025, it will be a black mark for the United States.

George Wang:

This is not just happening in the United States. On a global scale, repressive governments are turning to digital tools to reach across borders, to stifle the speech of journalists and activists.

John Scott-Railton:

Maybe they're interested in her contact lists or her call logs. Maybe they want to peek at her emails or her voice notes or her private and intimate photographs.

Nelson Rauda Zablah:

This is not an attack on journalists. This is an attack on people, on the people right now.

George Wang:

From the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University comes Speech and the Border at the Frontiers of Censorship and Surveillance. Each episode, you'll hear from a Knight Institute lawyer, like me, involved in cases aimed at protecting vital First Amendment interests, at the border and beyond. Available wherever you listen to podcasts on November 13th.