By Jacob Mchangama and Samantha Barbas The Bondi Beach massacre of Dec. 14, in which 15 people were murdered during a Hanukkah celebration, has become a grim symbol of rising antisemitic violence across Western democracies. In Sydney, as well as in places like Paris, London, Berlin and Copenhagen, Jews have been living in fear of […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou George Gavriel and the Politics of Offence under Article 10 ECHR An art exhibition by Cypriot artist George Gavriel was cancelled last month following intense political and social reactions after its inauguration. Officials from the country’s conservative party DISY dismissed the paintings as obscenity and rejected freedom of expression as a justification. […]
How to fight back against government censorship of chatbots. By Jacob Mchangama “Well, then you need to shut it down.” That was Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn’s reaction when a Google executive explained during a recent Senate hearing that large language models (LLMs) sometimes “hallucinate” and generate false information. The Tennessee senator was outraged that Google’s […]
China is exporting its AI governance model; democracies must act now or risk letting others define the future of speech. By Jordi Calvet-Bademunt and Jacob Mchangama “China is going to win the AI race,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang warned recently. In a follow-up statement released shortly after making that bold proclamation, Huang softened his tone, […]
As 2025 comes to a close, The Future of Free Speech team wants to thank you for making this year its most productive yet. At a time when both the legal foundations and the culture of free expression face mounting pressure worldwide, your support helped produce timely, independent work that brought much-needed clarity to an […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ÖREBRO, Sweden — December 16, 2025 — As generative AI becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, it is paramount that it protects the ability to speak, question, and share freely. Otherwise, it risks restricted or biased outputs corroding the public discourse on which democracy relies. On December 1, 2025, The Future of […]
Has Europe’s crackdown on free speech become a bigger threat to democracy than ‘the extremists’ it seeks to contain? By Jacob Mchangama On the morning of November 26, three armed police officers showed up at the Berlin apartment of American playwright C.J. Hopkins. They presented a warrant, seized his computer, and questioned both him and […]
By Jacob Mchangama and Jordi Calvet-Bademunt The Trump administration is waging a public crusade against so-called “woke AI,” emphasizing the need for “neutral models” that engage in “truth seeking” instead of promoting certain (left-leaning) biases. We recently warned that such actions pose significant risks to free expression. Many Europeans are likely to roll their eyes […]
By Sammy Westfall The Macrons are fighting the defamation claims in France’s criminal courts. “While France prioritizes reputation protections, the U.S. champions a national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be ‘uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,’” said Jacob Mchangama, executive director of the Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University, […]
By Adam Růžička “Hate is hatred – no one should be exposed to it,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. The fight against hatred is growing in Europe, but critics point out that sanctions are both ineffective and threaten freedom of speech. We discussed the topic with Natalie Alkiviada, a leading expert on […]