By Jordi Calvet-Bademunt With the U.S. midterms approaching, about 1 in 5 voters has asked AI chatbots about elections and politics, a recent survey found. But many voters may not know that governments around the world increasingly shape what chatbots can say. And because many tech companies apply the same policies worldwide, the answers American […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 30, 2026 — NASHVILLE, Tenn. —The Future of Free Speech has submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission, warning that a proposed policy statement on “suppression of accuracy in AI systems” would violate the First Amendment. The filing responds to an FTC notice seeking public comment on whether prohibitions on deceptive […]
A new policy paper from the UK-based Prosperity Institute, “Reversing Britain’s Free Speech Recession,” cites The Future of Free Speech’s Executive Director Jacob Mchangama on the European Court of Human Rights’ record. In the paper, barrister Jon Holbrook traces the decline of free expression in Britain to decades of speech-restrictive legislation and proposes a draft […]
By Caitlin Babcock On Monday night, the House of Representatives passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act on a bipartisan basis, 267-117. The sweeping children’s safety package combines text from over a dozen other bills. Its provisions, among others, include blocking platforms from using children’s personal data for targeted ads and requiring AI […]
By Jenna Monnin The FCC is reviewing whether “The View” qualifies for the equal-time exemption for its political interviews. News programs are exempt from federal law that requires equal time for political candidates’ viewpoints, and ABC says that its show meets the requirements as a “bona fide news interview program.” The comments, by and large, […]
By: Jacob Mchangama At this year’s Munich Security Conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed Europe’s “long tradition in freedom of speech.” Then she drew a redline. “We are very clear with digital sovereignty . . . that what is forbidden offline is forbidden online,” she added. Von der Leyen’s maxim would have […]
By Jacob Mchangama Irakli Miladze, a food courier in Tbilisi, spent long shifts dodging not only the weather, but also fines for using bus lanes. They were the same bus lanes that government officials sped down in their fancy vehicles with impunity. In late 2022, Miladze did what citizens in a modern democracy are supposed […]
By Angele Latham A free speech legal group in Nashville has pushed back on a recent Federal Communications Commission inquiry into television programming involving “gender identity” issues, calling the move constitutionally concerning. The Future of Free Speech, an international free speech advocacy think tank based in Nashville, filed comments responding to a recent FCC inquiry that debates whether current […]
By Joe Lancaster The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering new content ratings for TV shows that depict or discuss gender identity. Doing so would be well outside the FCC’s legal authority, and some free speech organizations warn that such a request could constitute a violation of the First Amendment. At the direction of the Telecommunications […]
By Katrina Gulliver Last week, I had the great pleasure of welcoming to Atlanta Jacob Mchangama, who came to talk to me about his book. We had a standing-room-only crowd of Freeman readers as I asked him what he thought about the past—and future—of free speech. (The conversation below has been edited for length.) One […]