By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, recording the horrors and sharing them online. The attack triggered a bloody Israeli invasion of Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. It also had immediate consequences far beyond the region.
In Canada, Jewish communities experienced what Deborah Lyons, the former Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, called an “unprecedented wave” of antisemitism involving“harassment, intimidation, threats of violence” and a near tripling of hate crimes. In Europe, pro-Palestinian demonstrations were marred by antisemitic chants. In Berlin, a synagogue was attacked with firebombs while Stars ofDavid were scrawled on apartments housing Jews, reminiscent of Nazi intimidation.
The global surge in antisemitism after Oct. 7 is real and deeply troubling. But the policy response it has provoked should worry anyone who cares about both free expression and tolerance. Values that in democracies are mutually reinforcing, but all too often are treated as mutually exclusive. Among the main drivers of this trend is the prevalent idea that restrictions on free speech are necessary to combat hatred and extremism. That premise has become especially powerful in Europe, producing a dense web of hate speech and extremism laws.
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Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
Jeff Kosseff is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow for The Future of Free Speech. He writes about online speech, the First Amendment, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.