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 […]
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 […]
Free speech is under assault from all political sides in the West. In the US, the Trump administration is arresting and revoking the visas of foreign students and campus activists, seemingly for their views on Gaza. In Europe, hate-speech laws are enforced with ever increasing vigour by woke technocrats. Even blasphemy laws are making a […]
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 Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives conference at the University of Southern California, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Jacob Mchangama discusses The Free Speech Recession and How to Reverse It: 5 Lessons from History.
At Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner 2024, Jacob Mchangama, founder of The Future of Free Speech, delivered this Cornerstone Talk on threats to free speech around the world and what they mean for the future of classical liberal ideas.
In the digital age, free speech faces unprecedented threats—not just from authoritarian regimes, but from the algorithms and AI systems that govern online platforms. Once fought in physical spaces, the battlefield for free expression has moved online, where Big Tech and new digital regulations increasingly decide what we can and cannot say. In this talk […]