Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of several cartoons of the supposed Prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (see also our latest image of the week). I spoke with Danish free speech activist and author of Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media (2022) Jacob Mchangama about that controversy […]
Free speech may be messy, but censorship is deadly. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama explains. America’s real danger isn’t free speech. It’s silence. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama argues that free speech is not a threat but society’s strongest safeguard against violence. Suppressing expression creates a pressure […]
Free speech can amplify hatred, but it also protects the fight against it. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama explains. Jacob Mchangama, founder of The Future of Free Speech, explains how free speech has shaped America, from Frederick Douglass fighting slavery to Supreme Court cases protecting voices that promote hate. He argues […]
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 […]
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 […]