Background. The European Commission has been busy at work since the entry of the Digital Services Act (DSA) into force in November 2022. The DSA aims to create “a safe, predictable and trusted online environment.” To do so, it imposes a number of due process, transparency, and due diligence obligations on online companies, referred to by the law […]
AI-powered lies and manipulation constitute the gravest threat to humanity. At least this is the dystopian scenario espoused by the collective wisdom of 1,500 experts surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks Report last week. Unfortunately, such outbreaks of “elite panic” are a recurring phenomenon. Whenever the public sphere is expanded through new communications technology, […]
Simon Tisdall mentions The Future of Free Speech’s new research on free speech developments in 22 democracies in the report “The Free Speech Recession Hits Home‘ “The principle of free speech, essential to fully functioning democracy, is also under attack, rights campaigner Jacob Mchangama argued in Foreign Policy magazine. “Even open democracies have imposed restrictive measures to […]
Evidence Is Growing That Free Speech Is Declining! Jacob Mchangama is unfolding the findings from our latest report in Foreign Policy. “The scale of speech restrictions in the shrinking club of open democracies suggests that while democracies face serious challenges, the prescribed cure to these ills risks becoming worse than the disease.” Read the piece
“Those who support silencing “dangerous” opinions coercively have failed to answer the question: Are we really safer when we know less about what motivates our neighbors?” – CEO Jacob Mchangama in Persuasion Access article
Joan Barata Senior Legal Fellow, Future of Free Speech (Justitia) Introduction The Digital Services Act (DSA) constitutes the new legal horizontal framework in the EU regarding the provision of online services. It formally came into force on 16 November 2022. However, a significant number of rules and obligations included in this Regulation will become enforceable […]
In 2017, then–Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen proclaimed: “I’m proud and happy that we live in a country where we have abolished the blasphemy provision and where you’re allowed to be critical—even in satire and cartoons—of religious symbols.” Last week, however, Rasmussen, who is now the minister of foreign affairs, did an about-face. The Quran […]
In TIME, Jacob Mchangama explains how Denmark and Sweden’s plans to criminalize Quran burnings forebode a future in which democratic states willingly yield their fundamental principles to religious dogmatism. “On the one hand, there are good reasons to be critical of book burnings. It is a poor substitute for reasoned debate and will forever be […]
In 1766, Sweden enacted its landmark Press Freedom Act, becoming the first country in the world to implement such protections. In 1770, Denmark outpaced this achievement by formally abolishing all forms of censorship. Despite intermittent setbacks, these pioneering acts cultivated a vibrant culture of free expression. The Scandinavian countries evolved into global symbols of democracy, freedom, […]
“The Digital Services Act can out of good intentions have bad consequences around the world” – Jacob Mchangama in The Debate on FRANCE 24 Watch the full debate here.