There's a small group of men and women - "Deciders" - at big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter who make decisions everyday about what offensive speech is pulled from their sites. The huge scale of those sites gives those Deciders enormous influence over the state of free speech on the web. Bob speaks with George Washington University Law professor Jeffrey Rosen, who wrote about the Deciders and their many decisions in The New Republic.

Since 1935, the National Labor Relations Act has protected the right of private-sector employees to discuss workplace conditions. But as conversations shift from the break room to the sphere of social media, regulators are facing new challenges in distinguishing protected speech from "mere griping." Bob talks with Lafe Solomon, General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, about what can and can't be tweeted about the workplace.

With the first Libyan elections in 40 years just a month away, the shadow of the Gaddafi regime looms large. The National Transitional Council (which holds power in Libya until those elections) recently passed a law that criminalizes glorifying Gaddafi as well as offending the revolution. Bob speaks with Libya Herald editor Sami Zaptia about the implications of the law for speech in Libya.

Pieter-Dirk Uys and Jonathan Shapiro are satirists with different mediums, but a similar mission. Shapiro is a political cartoonist who publishes under the name Zapiro. Uys is a performer whose character Evita Bezuidenhout is billed as the most famous white woman in South Africa. Bob talks to the two about their work under apartheid, when their criticism of the government was as constant as it was ruthless.

Vusi Mahlasela - Two Birds

Pieter-Dirk Uys and Jonathan Shapiro are satirists with different mediums, but a similar mission. Shapiro is a political cartoonist who publishes under the name Zapiro. Uys is a performer whose character Evita Bezuidenhout is billed as the most famous white woman in South Africa. Bob talks to the two about their work under apartheid, when their criticism of the government was as constant as it was ruthless.

Vusi Mahlasela – "Two Birds"