Even if it’s the act of a “lone wolf”, as first suggested by US President Donald Trump, Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner drama certainly did not happen in a vacuum. And just as mass shootings have become commonplace in a United States overrun by firearms, so have attempts on the lives of political figures. […]
By Peggy Sastre Since October 7, 2023, and the terrorist massacre perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, and since the obscene jubilation that has all too often accompanied it, even in the comfort of our own societies, antisemitism has resurfaced in France. It wears that familiar, simultaneously archaic and very contemporary face : brutal, mimetic, and […]
Germany built aggressive systems to combat hate speech, but the line between defending democracy and undermining it may be beginning to blur. Excerpted from The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff. Copyright 2026. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press. By Jacob […]
By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, recording the horrors and sharing them online. The attack triggered a bloody Israeli invasion of Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. It also had immediate consequences far beyond the region. In Canada, […]
Editor’s Note: This essay is adapted from the new book, The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff (Johns Hopkins University Press). By Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives carried out the deadliest single attack on Jews since […]
Interviewer: Jillian York Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer, human rights advocate, and public commentator. He is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. His new book with Jeff Kosseff, The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential […]
By Miguel Angel Aguilar On March 11, the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced the launch of the tool “HODIO: Hate and Polarization footprint” that will have the function of measuring the presence, evolution and scope of hate speech on digital platforms. [ . . . ] As Jacob Mchangama has written in his […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou Hate speech is a real problem. But takedowns and deplatforming are ineffective and carry damaging side effects. A better and more liberal response is to confront hateful speech directly. Hate speech emerges in concrete moments that reveal how language can hurt, marginalize and affect public participation. One such moment occurred in Brazil […]
By Adam Creighton The proposed additional federal hate law would lower the bar of criminality even further. It’s bound to massively chill political speech and pave the way for vexatious and politicised charges that will drag individuals through the courts even if they ultimately avoid conviction. Comedy and artistic expression will become all the more […]
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 […]