By Ashkhen Kazaryan and Ashley Haek A 2023 complaint filed by Missouri, Louisiana, and other individual plaintiffs against the Biden administration argued that executive branch officials “coerced, threatened, and pressured social-media platforms to censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints by using threats of adverse government action,” thus violating the First Amendment. That lawsuit alleged that the […]
By Erich Thomas Mafra The global decline in freedom of expression isn’t limited to authoritarian states, but is also affecting established democracies. This assertion comes from one of the world’s most respected voices on the topic of freedom of expression: Danish lawyer Jacob Mchangama . According to him, “democracies are increasingly restricting freedom of expression. […]
Photo Credit: Palácio do Planalto By Fernanda Trompcynski Last week, the global debate over freedom of expression took on even more serious and worrying dimensions. US President Donald Trump announced the imposition of a 50% tariff on imports of all Brazilian products, generating concerns about the national economy, as the US is Brazil’s second-largest trading […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NASHVILLE, Tenn. — July 14, 2025 — A sweeping new rule proposed by the Missouri Attorney General would turn state regulators into online speech overseers, warns The Future of Free Speech in a public comment submitted Monday. The rule, labeled as a consumer protection measure, in fact mandates ideological balance in content […]
By Erich Thomas Mafra The Danish Jacob Mchangama, considered a global reference in the defense of freedom of expression and author of the work “Freedom of expression: from Socrates to social media”, will be in Brazil next week for a masterclass on the subject . In an exclusive interview with Gazeta do Povo , the […]
Photo Credit: Palácio do Planalto By Mario Sabino If there were a serious discussion about freedom of expression here, it would be inevitable to look at the book Free Speech: a History from Socrates to Social Media , by Danish lawyer Jacob Mchangama, the most notorious defender of freedom of expression on the international stage. […]
By Joan Barata The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ( STF ) formed a majority to substantially change Article 19 of the Internet Civil Rights Framework — a rule that defines the responsibility of platforms for user content in the absence of a court order. The decision reflects growing pressure from government officials for laws that would force platforms to […]
By Gabby Miller — By the numbers: The Future of Free Speech, an independent think tank at Vanderbilt University, kicked off its comments arguing that conservative voices — including accounts, influencers and news sources — outperform on social media platforms. “From engagement metrics on Facebook to favorable algorithmic treatment on X (formerly Twitter) … the […]
By Ashkhen Kazaryan Key Takeaways The First Amendment protects people’s, corporations’ and other legal entities’ free speech rights from government restriction, but no court has found that AI programs themselves have the same free speech rights. AI-generated content is generally afforded the same First Amendment protections as content created by people or corporations and other […]
By Jacob Sullum [ . . . ] The FTC’s authority under Section 5 “does not, and constitutionally cannot, extend to penalizing social media platforms for how they choose to moderate user content,” Ashkhen Kazaryan, a senior legal fellow at the Future of Free Speech, argues in a comment that the organization submitted on Tuesday. “Platforms’ content […]