By Josephine Walker
Between the lines: Jacob Mchangama, the executive director of nonpartisan think tank The Future of Free Speech, told Axios that the database may not be illegal, but it could have a chilling effect on debate in America.
- “It is perfectly legitimate to heavily criticize someone who has made callous remarks about the killing of Charlie Kirk,” Mchangama said.
- “That is part and parcel of free speech. But when you make a searchable database … that seems to be with the intention of essentially chilling speech by making sure that there are punitive consequences for people who have said things that the organizers don’t like.”
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).