Protecting Free Tweets: Taking Back Freedom of Expression in Canada's 'Town Square'

Recording 

National Post: "Canadian lawyers accusing Twitter of stifling free speech score first victory in novel lawsuit"
Globe & Mail: "Companies wary as Twitter’s verification checkmark policy fuels imposter accounts"
CNN: "Twitter removes transgender protections from hateful conduct policy"
CBC: "Russian, Chinese propaganda surging on Twitter amid platform changes"

With Twitter making headlines daily, Allard Law Professor Joel Bakan, along with co-counsel Sujit Choudhry, is taking Twitter to court over their refusal to run paid promotions for his award-winning 2020 documentary, The New Corporation. The documentary, which exposes the corrosive impact on democracy of large corporations’ unbridled power, was deemed to violate Twitter’s Political Content policy. Professor Bakan alleges that Twitter is stifling free speech, using a novel legal approach to make his case. Should he win this precedent setting case, the impact on the North American social media landscape would be groundbreaking. 

Join Professors Joel Bakan and Hoi Kong, The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professor in Constitutional Law, for a fascinating conversation about the lawsuit and recent controversies surrounding Twitter. 

Reception: 5:15pm - 6:00pm
Discussion: 6:00pm - 7:15pm

Tickets are available for $20 (including tax). Your ticket includes one drink and light appetizers. 

This event is held in partnership with alumni UBC. We look forward to seeing you there!

Host: Peg Fong

Peg Fong is the Vancouver correspondent for The Economist Magazine and was a staff newspaper reporter at The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. She was a television and radio reporter for the CBC. She teaches media ethics and the fundamentals of reporting at Langara College and is a sessional instructor at the Sauder School of Business UBC. In 2020, she created and hosted the international podcast Alone Together: A Curious Exploration of Loneliness where she interviewed more than 150 experts around the world. Her book, based on the podcast, will be published in March 2024 by Orca Books. 

Professor Joel Bakan

Professor Joel Bakan is an author, filmmaker and a professor of law at the University of British Columbia. His work examines the social, economic, and political dimensions of law, and he has published in leading legal and social science journals as well as in the popular press. Bakan has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, worked on landmark legal cases and government policy, and served frequently as a media commentator.

Professor Hoi Kong

Professor Hoi Kong is the inaugural holder of The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professorship in Constitutional Law, which he assumed in 2018. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Program on Constitutional Studies and a Peter Wall Scholar (2020-2021). He researches and teaches in the areas of constitutional, administrative, municipal and comparative law, and constitutional and public law theory.