“Free Speech” protest attacked, canceled in Frisco

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A free speech demonstration staged by conservative activists quickly fell apart in downtown San Francisco on Saturday after several hundred counterprotesters surged the area, outnumbering and attacking those gathered, including knocking one in the mouth.

Three San Francisco Police officers were recovering from non-life-threatening injuries sustained when they were assaulted with pepper spray and caustic chemicals.

Team Save America organized the rally to protest Twitter, which it said squelches conservative speech.

Pro-Trump free-speech supporters and liberal anti-Trump plus anti-fascist protesters faced off at San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza and on a street near Twitter’s Market Street headquarters in a protest over the social media giant’s policing policy of hate speech and fake political news.

Members of the group wore red “Make America Great Again” Trump campaign hats and carried pro-police “Thin Blue Line” flags and U.S. flags.

The Proud Boys were supposed to attend but organizers said they didn’t show up.

Within minutes of when the protest started, there was pushing, shoving and some punches thrown between those protesting with opposing views. One of the protest organizers — Philip Anderson — was punched in the face.

Anderson posted photos to social media of his bloody mouth with a front tooth missing and another hanging loosely. He said anti-fascist protesters attacked him “for no reason.”

San Francisco police said several people and three officers were injured. Paramedics took one officer to the hospital for treatment. They told KPIX no arrests were made.

When the right side say free speech, they mean things like saying racist things, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia.

I don't see the left side or anyone else whining about censorship or free speech because we are not going around saying this s**t so we don't need to talk about free speech because we don't feel censored.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended Ann Coulter’s right to speak without disruption or intimidation and criticized those who seek to prevent controversial speakers from being heard on college campuses.

So many conservative capitalists will go on and on about the right of businesses and universities to freely choose what speech they allow on their property and platforms up until the moment they try to curtail hate speech and fake news. Then the victim complex comes out for all to see.

Lots of false assumptions in these posts. Might be a good idea to get to know some people who have different points of view rather than just vilifying them.

Lots of false assumptions in these posts. Might be a good idea to get to know some people who have different points of view rather than just vilifying them.

We are all to aware of them and their points of view. It is not for a lack of understanding that their views are being rejected.
They are choosing to protest Twitter regulating hate speech and intentional misinformation on their sites. That's what they're choosing to protest. They're either taking issue with a private company regulating the use of its own service in general, which would go against their free market capitalism. Or they are protesting the regulation of hate speech and misinformation in particular, which is reprehensible.
Not to mention that the Proud Boys were originally planned to accompany these protesters--so it's clear their beliefs go beyond just "free speech".

I beg to differ. Conservatives and republicans are not racists or homophobes. This is more of a political issue about the coming election. The problem with social media is that it has created this echo chamber where people only see the things that validate their own biases.

I beg to differ. Conservatives and republicans are not racists or homophobes. This is more of a political issue about the coming election. The problem with social media is that it has created this echo chamber where people only see the things that validate their own biases.

I fail to see how protesting a ban on hate speech and fake news could have a negative effect on the electoral process. And suggesting that curtailing hate speech or fake news would be detrimental to the Republican cause in particular does not reflect well on them or those supporters of theirs who think that.
People do not exist solely on social media. We do have lives outside the internet. I got no shortage of toxic conservative perspectives growing up and I haven't had a shortage of them since. They're spouting the same things I've been hearing since I was 10. Listening to them whine about hate speech and fake news bans is not going to change my mind or make me think better of them.
And, again, this groups association with the Proud Boys makes it very hard for me to think they are not racist or homophobic. And the fact that they're taking issue with a ban on hate speech, but that should go without saying.

Invariably when one starts banning toxic ideas good ideas that are out of the mainstream don't get heard or are not allowed to get out of the fringes. Society would be a lot better if we did not have to deal with and hear the likes of the Proud Boys. The thing is there is this expression "The Price of Freedom". The price has generally thought of as soldiers dying and being wounded in battle but the price also involves having to deal with the ramifications of toxic speech. The fact the free speech movement has been hijacked by a combination of the alt-right and hypocritical self-serving people does not change why the sometimes painful tolerance of free expression of ideas overall is a good thing.

Invariably when one starts banning toxic ideas good ideas that are out of the mainstream don't get heard or are not allowed to get out of the fringes. Society would be a lot better if we did not have to deal with and hear the likes of the Proud Boys. The thing is there is this expression "The Price of Freedom". The price has generally thought of as soldiers dying and being wounded in battle but the price also involves having to deal with the ramifications of toxic speech. The fact the free speech movement has been hijacked by a combination of the alt-right and hypocritical self-serving people does not change why the sometimes painful tolerance of free expression of ideas overall is a good thing.