European Center for Populism Studies: Liberal Institutions Are Becoming Increasingly Illiberal in Their Attempts to Fight Populism

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in AI, Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

Interview by Selcuk Gultasli In an in-depth interview with the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS), Professor Jacob Mchangama warns that liberal institutions are becoming “increasingly illiberal” in their efforts to combat populism and disinformation. Examining electoral censorship in Brazil, Germany’s militant democracy, and the EU’s Digital Services Act, he argues that restrictive speech policies […]

Business Untitled: Who Controls Free Speech in the AI Era?

Posted on by Ashkhen Kazaryan in AI, Digital Regulation, Featured Multimedia, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

 In this episode of Business Untitled, the crew is joined by Ashkhen Kazaryan, a First Amendment lawyer and former Meta content regulation lead, for a wide-ranging conversation about AI, free speech, social media, Section 230, TikTok, copyright, data privacy, deepfakes, and who should be responsible when platforms or AI systems shape what people see […]

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie: The Global War on Free Speech

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff in Digital Regulation, Disinformation, Featured Multimedia, First Amendment, Free Speech History, Global Free Speech, Hate Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff are co-authors of The Future of Free Speech, a new book examining what they describe as a global “free speech recession.” In this episode, Mchangama and Kosseff talk with Nick Gillespie about why democracies are increasingly embracing speech restrictions once associated with authoritarian regimes, how fears about misinformation and child […]

Keen on America: Can I Say It?

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in Digital Regulation, First Amendment, Free Speech History, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

“Once you start clamping down on speech, it will have serious collateral damage. And we’re starting to see that now.” — Jacob Mchangama The Jyllands-Posten editor who published those Mohammed cartoons in 2005 spent a decade under round-the-clock protection from Danish intelligence services. He’d commissioned artists to say it with their pens, but the mob […]

So To Speak: Anonymity from The Founding to The Digital Age

Posted on by Jeff Kosseff in Digital Regulation, Disinformation, First Amendment, Free Speech History, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

In the years leading up to the American Revolution, newspapers and pamphlets overflowed with essays signed “Publius,” “Brutus,” and “A Farmer.” Those arguments helped shape a nation, but the authors’ real names were nowhere to be found. Americans have long relied on anonymous speech to challenge the powerful, protect dissenters, and keep the focus on […]

Lawfare Podcast: Scaling Laws: AI Chatbots and the Future of Free Expression

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama and Jacob Shapiro in AI, Digital Regulation, Featured Multimedia, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

Renée DiResta, Lawfare contributing editor and associate research professor at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, and Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Lawfare senior editor and associate professor of law the University of Minnesota, spoke with Jacob Mchangama, research professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and founder of The Future of Free Speech, and Jacob Shapiro, […]

Tech Policy Podcast: Algorithms Rule The Internet (And Ash Feels Fine)

Posted on by Ashkhen Kazaryan in Digital Regulation, First Amendment, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

Former host Ash Kazaryan (Future of Free Speech) returns for a wide-ranging discussion about powerful algorithms, attacks on Section 230, and much, much more. Topics include: Ash: this is your life! In defense of tHe aLGoRitHm In defense of Section 230 Once more: Anderson v. TikTok is so bad Has information gotten too cheap? Why […]

Big Think: Even AI Is Self-Censoring. Here’s Why That Matters

Posted on by Jacob Mchangama in AI, Culture, Digital Regulation, Featured Multimedia, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

If the people controlling AI are biased, the output will also be. Free speech scholar Jacob Mchangama makes the case for completely open-source AI. Free speech scholar Jacob Mchangama warns that AI’s growing role in search, email, and word processing means its hidden biases could shape freedom of thought itself. With his team at the […]

CTRL-ALT-SPEECH: Live at TrustCon 2025

Posted on by Ashkhen Kazaryan in AI, Digital Regulation, Featured Multimedia, Global Free Speech, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

Trust & safety influencer Alice Hunsberger and The Future of Free Speech Senior Legal Fellow Ashkhen Kazaryan joined Mike Masnick to cover: As millions adopt Grok to fact-check, misinformation abounds (Al Jazeera) Analysis Of Grok’s Epstein Comments Show How This AI Chatbot Is Learning (Forbes) People With Body Dysmorphia Are Spiraling Out After Asking AI to Rate […]

Fourth Branch Podcast: Privacy & Safety: Examining the FSC, Inc. v. Paxton Decision

Posted on by Ashkhen Kazaryan in Digital Regulation, First Amendment, Multimedia, Online Content Moderation

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. […]