Is free speech in global decline? A new survey suggests public support for free expression is dropping worldwide, with citizens in authoritarian countries like Venezuela and Hungary showing stronger commitment to free speech than many living in democracies. From the unfulfilled digital promises of the Arab Spring to Europe’s controversial Digital Services Act, the Internet […]
Photo credit: Marcelo Camargo Jacob Mchangama uses the word “necrophilia” to describe how Minister Alexandre de Moraes interpreted and applied John Stuart Mill’s ideas in his decision to ban the Rumble platform in Brazil. Mchangama argues that Moraes “vandalized the main point” of Mill’s work, “On Liberty,” by using it to justify censorship. He […]
On June 27th, the Supreme Court ruled in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton that Texas’s age-verification law did not violate the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Justice Thomas wrote the Court’s opinion, holding that States had a right to protect children from obscenity, even if that meant incidentally burdening adults’ own access to that content. […]
Brussels Signal’s Head of News, Justin Stares, sits down with Jacob Mchangama, human rights advocate and CEO of The Future of Free Speech, to discuss the growing challenges to free expression in the digital age. From the European Union’s Digital Services Act to the stark contrast with US free-speech values, this interview dives deep into: Why […]
Jacob Mchangama, author of “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media,” joins Michael to examine the evolving landscape of free expression amid rising political and cultural tensions. They discuss how far governments, universities, and tech platforms should go in regulating speech, and what’s at stake when they do. In this episode: Should non-citizens […]
By Joel J. Miller Fragile Inheritance: How Free Speech Was Won and Could Be Lost by Joel J Miller A Conversation with Jacob Mchangama on the Long History—and Uncertain Future—of Our Most Essential Liberty Read on Substack In America today, you can say almost anything—until you do. From college campuses to social media feeds, company […]
In this episode, host Peter Boghossian speaks with Jacob Mchangama, founder of The Future of Free Speech, research professor at Vanderbilt, and Senior Fellow at FIRE. While they’re both staunch free speech advocates, they debated its best “branding.” Peter argued for framing free speech less as a moral absolute—how Peter once described it as cognitive […]
Jacob Mchangama joins the So To Speak Podcast as host and guests travel from America to Europe, Russia, China, and more places to answer the question: Is there a global free speech recession? Host: Nico Perrino, FIRE Executive Vice President Guests: – Sarah McLaughlin: FIRE senior scholar, global expression – James Kirchick: FIRE senior fellow
Host Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama explore the different approaches—and proliferating threats—to free expression. Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a research professor at Vanderbilt University, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). His book Free Speech: A History From Socrates to […]
From the State of the Net Conference hosted by the Internet Education Foundation. Jacob Mchangama discusses the relationship between government, Big Tech content moderation, and free speech online—drawing on Europe’s regulatory approach to bring much-needed global context to the conversation.