Roundtable on Generative AI and Freedom of Expression: Challenges and Policy Pathways
📍 Venue: Örebro University, Hörsal M
📅 Date: 1 December 2025
🕛 Time: 12:15–16:15 CET
🎓 Organized by: The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University & Örebro University
Download PDF Call for Participants
About the Project
The roundtable is part of a two-year initiative led by The Future of Free Speech and supported by the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation.
The project examines the intersection between generative AI and freedom of expression, aiming to map and analyze censorship practices across 12 countries and corporate AI models. It seeks to generate policy guidance based on international human rights law to ensure that emerging technologies, specifically generative AI, support rather than suppress the right to freedom of expression and democratic discourse.
About the Problem
Generative AI technologies such as OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini, are transforming how we communicate, create, and access information. However, their rapid deployment has raised urgent concerns around misinformation, bias, and safety. Regulatory efforts to mitigate these risks often lack adequate safeguards for freedom of expression, resulting in unintended censorship, particularly around sensitive topics like politics or identity.
In authoritarian contexts, the dangers are even more severe. Generative AI is being harnessed to survey, censor, and suppress dissent, reinforcing state control over public discourse. Globally, inconsistent regulatory frameworks further complicate accountability and cross-border cooperation. The result is a growing erosion of public trust, reduced access to diverse viewpoints, and deepening inequalities, especially for marginalized communities.
This roundtable addresses the urgent need to develop rights-based, transparent, and democratic frameworks for governing generative AI.
Project Outputs
- Two annual reports assessing AI-driven censorship globally.
- AI state and company censorship rankings.
- The Generative AI Free Expression Guidelines.
- An interactive censorship map.
- Academic outputs in peer-reviewed journals and policy forums.
Purpose of the Roundtable
This roundtable will bring together academics, policymakers, the industry, civil society actors, and other relevant stakeholders to:
- Discuss the regulatory landscape of generative AI within the framework of freedom of expression across Sweden, the EU and globally.
- Explore preliminary research findings on AI and speech governance conducted within the framework of this project.
- Contribute critical feedback to the forthcoming Generative AI Free Expression Guidelines.
- Look at practical pathways for aligning AI development and the protection of freedom of expression standards.
Moreover, the roundtable will be a platform to exchange national, regional, and cross-sectoral perspectives, with an emphasis on identifying gaps and opportunities in law, policy, and corporate practice.
Who Should Participate?
We welcome expressions of interest from individuals and organizations in the following sectors:
- Academia.
- Government and Parliamentarians involved in digital rights, AI governance, or media law.
- Civil Society Organizations working on freedom of expression, privacy, technology, and human rights.
- Private Sector and Tech Developers, especially those involved in platform governance and AI development.
- Students and early-career researchers with relevant interests or specializations.
The event will be held in English and is open to participants from Sweden as well as international participants.
Travel Support
We are able to offer travel reimbursement of up to SEK 1000 for participants from cities outside Örebro and 200 EUR for international participants.
Other details
A buffet networking lunch and refreshments will be offered at the venue.
How to Apply
Please send an expression of interest (max 100 words) to natalie@futurefreespeech.com by 30 September 2025, including:
- Your Name and Affiliation.
- Role or expertise relevant to the roundtable
- Reasons for participation
- Whether or not you need travel support to participate
Participants will be selected based on relevance, diversity of expertise, and available space.
Apply NowFormat
The roundtable will be closed-door, in-person, and conducted under Chatham House Rule to encourage open and constructive exchange. It will feature short expert interventions followed by a moderated group discussion.
Additional Information
This event is one of two roundtables hosted at Örebro University as part of the broader research and policy engagement strategy of our project.
Staff
The staff involved in the implementation of this project are:
Emmanuel Vargas Penagos, Örebro University
Emmanuel Vargas Penagos is PhD researcher at Örebro University since 2023. He is a lawyer from Los Andes University and studied a specialization in journalism at that same institution. He holds an LLM in Information Law from the University of Amsterdam. His areas of research include freedom of expression, privacy, data protection, online content moderation and Human Rights implications of Artificial Intelligence. His current PhD research relates to the Human Rights implications of automated content moderation by social media platforms. Prior to working at Örebro, Emmanuel had worked at different roles in relation to the defence of freedom of expression at Colombian, international and intergovernmental organisations, such as the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), Media Defence and UNESCO. He has also worked as a consultant for the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and International Freedom of Expression Exchange – IFEX. Emmanuel is the founder of El Veinte, a Colombian NGO dedicated to the legal defence of freedom of expression. Emmanuel has also worked as a lead lecturer for courses on media law at the Journalism Department in El Rosario University and the Law Faculty in Los Andes University, both in Colombia.
Joan Barata, The Future of Free Speech
Joan Barata is a Senior Legal Fellow for The Future of Free Speech. He works on freedom of expression, media regulation, and intermediary liability issues. He is a Fellow of the Program on Platform Regulation at the Stanford Cyber Policy Center. He has published a large number of articles and books on these subjects, both in academic and popular press. His work has taken him to most regions of the world, and he is regularly involved in projects with international organizations such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where he was the principal advisor to the Representative on Media Freedom. Joan also has experience as a regulator, as he held the position of Secretary General of the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia in Spain and was a member of the Permanent Secretariat of the Mediterranean Network of Regulatory Authorities.
Jordi Calvet-Bademunt, The Future of Free Speech
Jordi Calvet-Bademunt is a Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University. He is also a Visiting Legal Researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, where he advises on trustworthy AI. His work focuses on AI policy and digital governance, and he has written extensively and provided commentary in both specialist and mainstream media. Previously, Jordi spent about a decade working at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and as an associate at leading European law firms. He holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
Katalin Kelemen, Örebro University
Katalin is Associate Professor in Law. Her primary area of research is comparative law, in particular comparative constitutional law, judicial reasoning, judicial dissent, East-Central European and Nordic legal systems. Her current focus is constitutional reasoning, private rule-making, and European governance of AI, and legal consciousness in the tech community. From 2021 to 2024 she headed the research project “Nordic exceptionalism? Mapping constitutional reasoning in Nordic countries” (Nordic CONREASON Project) sponsored by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond with 5.8 million SEK. The project involved five Nordic constitutional scholars, a statistician, and an international advisory board. Katalin teaches comparative law, comparative constitutional la,w and EU constitutional law. In 2020-2021, she was the coordinator of the Legal Science Programme.
This project is kindly supported by:
