By J.D. Tuccille It’s no secret that governments around the world are chiseling away at people’s liberties. Rights advocates document a nearly two decade decline in freedom. Civil liberties activists warn of a worldwide free speech recession. And while American restrictions on government power hold the line better than pale equivalents elsewhere, the political class seems determined […]
By Joan Barata After two years of intense negotiations, the new United Nations (UN) Convention on “Strengthening international cooperation for combating certain crimes committed by means of information and communications technology systems and for the sharing of evidence in electronic form of serious crimes” (also known as the Cybercrime Convention) was adopted by consensus by […]
By J.D. Tuccille It’s appropriate that, days after the French government arrested Pavel Durov, CEO of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, for failing to monitor and restrict communications as demanded by officials in Paris, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that his company, which owns Facebook, was subjected to censorship pressures by U.S. officials. Durov’s arrest, […]
By Tim Keary Key Takeaways Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has left Europe following the arrest of the Telegram CEO by French authorities. Pavlovski said French authorities have “crossed a red line”. The arrest of Durov has sparked a significant backlash from free speech advocates. Prominent figures like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin have criticized the […]
By J.D. Tuccille Earlier this month, European Union Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton raised eyebrows when he publicly warned Elon Musk to respect the E.U.’s censorship laws during a then-pending interview with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Even for the E.U., which has been slipping not-so-slowly towards soft totalitarianism, the attempt to extend E.U. jurisdiction […]
By Julia Tar Civil society groups and academics have criticised European Commissioner Thierry Breton’s recent letter to Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, arguing that it misinterprets the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and threatens free expression. The Open Letters In one of the letters, dated Wednesday (21 August), signed by The […]
By Jackson Walker The free speech advocates on Wednesday rebuked Breton for appearing to “disregard” free expression in favor of enforcing DSA. “Your letter reflects an alarming disregard for freedom of expression,” the letter reads. “It is inconsistent with the design of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and, indeed, with the very spirit of a […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NASHVILLE, Tenn. August 20, 2024 — The Future of Free Speech is thrilled to announce Sir Salman Rushdie and Masih Alinejad—two of the world’s leading advocates for freedom of expression—for our inaugural Global Free Speech Summit this fall, hosted by The Future of Free Speech and Dialogue Vanderbilt. Sir Salman Rushdie will have […]
By Jacob Mchangama A recent spate of neo-Nazi demonstrations in Nashville has heightened tensions in an already polarized political environment. Fortunately, there has been bipartisan condemnation of these vile and obscene efforts to promote hatred in our community. However, some Tennessee public officials want to go beyond condemnation, claiming that “hate speech is not free […]
By Jordi Calvet-Bademunt Overview: The European Commission issued the first-of-its-kind preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act (DSA). X was accused of employing a deceptive user interface, failing to adhere to advertising transparency requirements, and failing to provide researchers with adequate access to data. X now has the opportunity to respond to these preliminary findings. […]