FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEW REPORT: AI LAWS AND CHATBOTS FACE A GLOBAL FREE SPEECH TEST Study ranks countries’ AI policies and leading chatbots by how they handle lawful but controversial speech NASHVILLE, Tenn. — October 17, 2025 — Does your chatbot respond to prompts about controversial topics — or dodge them? That’s one of the […]
By Jacob Mchangama Growing up in Denmark in the early 2000s, I rarely worried about my right to free speech. In this cozy haven of liberal values and secular democracy, speaking freely felt as natural as breathing. Few contested this state of affairs, least of all religious groups, whose influence had long since faded. That […]
By Ebenezer Obadare As a paradigm for the contemporary travails of free thought and freedom of worship, the ongoing saga of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu would be infuriating if it were not so depressing. The Nigerian musician, an adherent of the Tijaniyya Sufi Islamic order, has been running the legal gauntlet since he was first arrested in March 2020 for […]
By Katerina Nicolaou Natalie Alkiviadou, Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University (USA), argues in her new book that the European Court of Human Rights has become too restrictive on freedom of expression, often backing governments in silencing speech that is merely offensive. Alkiviadou, an expert on free expression, hate speech […]
By Jacob Mchangama In 1742 David Hume boasted that: “Nothing is more apt to surprise a foreigner than the extreme liberty which we enjoy in this country of communicating whatever we please to the public”. Voltaire saw 18th-century Britain as a paradise of tolerance and freedom that stood in stark contrast to despotic France. Today […]
By Tyler Katzenberger Ed Howard, a lawyer and policy advocate at the University of San Diego Children’s Advocacy Institute (which is sponsoring SB 771), told POLITICO that Pratt’s claims about the bill are “180 degrees from what the bill does.” [ . . . ] Howard said SB 771 only punishes platforms if their content […]
By Benedict Neff Collective mental hygiene When political views are banned or canceled, distrust of the state grows. The ruling elite exposes itself to suspicion of wanting to fend off critical individuals and opinions. The COVID-19 era is a lesson in this regard. In some countries, governments and the media have marginalized anti-vaccine activists and […]
By Jonathan Shorman [ . . . ] Two days after Kirk’s assassination, Rokita urged his followers on X to submit to him any evidence of educators or school administrators celebrating or rationalizing the killing. He wrote that they must be held accountable and “have no place teaching our students.” But Rokita has also said […]
By Jacob Mchangama The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a tragic illustration of the public’s collapsing belief in free speech. His arguments weren’t met with rebuttals, but bullets — a shocking affront to America’s longstanding commitment to civil discourse. For a brief moment, it seemed Americans of all political stripes might unite in denouncing the […]
By J.D. Tuccille We Need To Revive a Culture of Free Speech But, as Kirk himself warned, “when people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues.” We’re not there yet. From the left, Van Jones called for more dialogue and less violence. From […]