Category:Free Speech

January 6, 2023 | Post

As social media platforms use artificial intelligence to curate users’ feeds with the content they are most likely to engage with, this erects barriers to communication among people of differing opinions.

January 5, 2023 | Post

Technological advances have made it much easier for individuals to express themselves, but are major tech companies now stifling free speech?

December 16, 2022 | Post

On December 15, 2022, under Elon Musk, Twitter suspended several prominent journalists’ accounts from publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, among others.

November 16, 2022 | Post

Elon Musk, who has described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has stated in the past that there should be no permanent bans on the platform. Despite these promises, mere days into Musk’s term at the helm of Twitter, things already spun wildly out of control. Kathy Griffin has already been permanently banned from Twitter for a parody tweet, “impersonating” Musk and encouraging his followers to vote Democrat in the recent midterms.

September 23, 2022 | Post

When you arrive at “we think differently, and that is OK” – all interaction stops. Nobody will convince anyone of anything. Nobody is searching for answers. They simply do not want to get their feelings hurt, so they stop thinking about reality altogether. We must not place comfort above truth.

August 26, 2022 | Post

The message of liberty is too important to be diluted with lies. When we propagate false narratives that appear to help us achieve our goals, we are little better than those who peddle outright lies to sell their own agenda. 

August 11, 2022 | Post

Do not let fear of being different or the assumption of ‘cancel culture’ define you or your college experience. You are entitled as much as anyone one else to express your view in a courteous and intelligent way; let the chips fall where they may.

July 14, 2022 | Post

Once again, Americans are at each other’s throats, ready to fight over extremely partisan lines. Typically, this opens opportunities for the liberty movement, but our discourse has its own problems

June 17, 2022 | Post

Freedom of speech during wartime is crucial for transparency. If this right doesn’t apply during wartime, does it even exist in any meaningful sense?

June 8, 2022 | Video

While pro-liberty messages often get drowned in a sea of Culture War nonsense, movies have given us some awesome moments; you just have to look for them. And that’s what we did. We found 9 times libertarian truth bombs made it onto the big screen — either by making a free-market or free-speech argument eloquently […]

May 12, 2022 | Post

Only in a society which treasures and protects the precious right to free speech can we move the truth forward and shed light on disinformation

April 27, 2022 | Post

What will Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter actually mean for the future of social media and free speech online? What changes can we expect?

April 6, 2022 | Post

The Prague Spring of 1968 has a legacy that proved influential in the downfall of the Eastern Bloc a generation later, and continues to inspire to this day.

March 31, 2022 | Post

Proponents of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill claim it’s about protecting students and families, yet it’s merely a pretext for limiting freedom.

February 18, 2022 | Post

Is free expression only an instrumental good, i.e., good because it results in good consequences? Or is it intrinsically good, in and of itself? The answer is both.

December 3, 2021 | Post

E.M. Forster once said, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” He was observing that, in our brains, thoughts often bounce and jump around frenetically; for many of us, we have to verbalize — or write down — our thoughts before they gain clarity. So, in a sense, the […]

November 24, 2021 | Post

Over the past 4 Thursdays, we’ve highlighted some of the most original and prolific writers in the history of economic and political thought. Ayn Rand, Frederic Bastiat, Thomas Sowell, and Lysander Spooner inspired us all and helped lay the foundation for the modern liberty movement. But today is not an ordinary Thursday. In the United […]

November 18, 2021 | Video

There’s a reason the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech (and there’s a reason it’s the first right authoritarian governments try to restrict). In many ways, free speech enables all other aspects and rights of a free society.

In Session 8 of our Law 201 series, Robert Corn-Revere, Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Washington, D.C., walks us through the basics of first amendment law in the U.S. and similar free speech protection in Europe.

July 29, 2021 | Post

Recently, Cuba has seen an unprecedented wave of protests against the ruling communist regime. Could freedom be on the horizon for Cuba?

July 15, 2021 | Post

Self-identified libertarians have a variety of core principles, and different stressors can push some towards more nefarious ideologies, like the far-right

May 13, 2021 | Post

Liz Cheney maintaining her position with the GOP was contingent on an unspoken agreement that she’d stop publicly disagreeing with Donald Trump over the validity of the 2020 election. Cheney did not do this. Instead, in her defiance, she has highlighted exactly why those who love and seek to protect freedom of speech shouldn’t count on the GOP or the right to maintain it.

April 28, 2021 | Video

As a user of the internet, you most likely use one or more internet platforms to read the news, share status updates, or connect with your friends and acquaintances. But what made it possible in the first place?

A small part of the Communications Decency Act, called Section 230, is a short clause that enables free speech on the internet today.

Section 230 says, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” It means that online outlets can host many kinds of content, and they would not be the legal owner of the content.

This sentence allowed big tech organizations like Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, and many more to exist. However, Section 230 also creates an opportunity for people from all walks of life to join the conversation on the net and start movements, build businesses, and exchange opinions.

Nevertheless, members of the right and the left have joined the call to repeal Section 230.

In this video, you will learn how Section 230 enables free speech, and why there is a movement against it. We spoke with Jennifer Huddleston, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at the American Action Forum, who is a specialist in the topic. Special thanks to Ashkhen Kazaryan.

February 8, 2018 | Video

Video Description: Social critic Wendy Kaminer agrees that political correctness has become a real problem, but also asks: to what degree are complaints about “PC” and being “self-censored” a cover for individual timidity?   Excerpted from Spiked Magazine’s ‘Unsafe Space Tour’ panel discussion at Harvard University.

January 22, 2018 | Video

When someone tries to disrupt a public speaker, are they making an assault on freedom of speech, or just utilizing their own freedom of speech? Prof. Angus Johnston and journalist Brendan O’Neill share their thoughts. Excerpted from Spiked Magazine’s ‘Unsafe Space Tour’ panel discussion at New York Law School.