[governance] Caution on Twitter urged as tourists barred from US

[Norbert Bollow]

Matthias C. Kettemann <matthias.kettemann at uni-graz.at> wrote:

> The US Constitution, Art 19 ICCPR and Article 10 ECHR protect jokes,
> just as any other form of speech, but there are limits to these rights.
> Restrictions are possible if they are "in accordance with law", pursue a
> legitime aim (e.g. national security, public safety, protecting the
> rights of others) and are "necessary in a democratic society".
> 
> When it comes to border control agents, the situation is different
> insofar as tourist don't have a right to enter the US and border patrol
> agents thus a rather large leeway in establishing reasons to deny access.

This is of course true, yes - but I would still think that these
legal protections of freedom of speech imply that the goverment must
not adopt policies that have the chilling effect that people must
be careful, even when not in the physical presence of representatives
of the government, to avoid communicating to friends and family in
ways that government representatives could misinterpret.

In the present case it's even worse, because this US government policy
implies that some people outside the US must avoid communicating with
family and friends in some ways that are currently perfectly normal in
their culture.

Greetings,
Norbert

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