Washington Post Editoral: These universities are pushing back on censorious students. Finally.

A similar defense is being waged at private institutions. At Harvard University, a group of more than 50 faculty members last month established the Council on Academic Freedom, a group “devoted to free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse.” Vanderbilt University, likewise, announced last month that it would become the U.S. foothold for the Future of Free […]

AEI: In Search of Principles to Govern Free Speech, Hate Speech, and Web Censorship

The article discusses the challenges of governing free speech, hate speech, and web censorship in the age of the internet, and cites the views  Jacob Mchangama. Mchangama’s proposals for balancing the need to protect free expression with the harms caused by hate speech and misinformation are highlighted, and the article suggests that his principles could […]

ARTE TV: Social media: a danger to democracy?

Hosted by Nora Hamadi, this new magazine approaches Europe from a collaborative perspective. We will hear the analyses and testimonies of Europeans gathered during our collective brainstorming session. And to discuss this, we welcome Nina Gorenc, a language professor at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and a researcher in political rhetoric. She denounces the democratic […]

AFP: Sexting chatbot ban points to looming battle over AI rules

From the AFP article “Sexting chatbot ban points to looming battle over AI rules”: Jacob Mchangama, author of “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media”, disagrees. “Even if bots don’t have free speech rights, we must be careful about unfettered access for governments to suppress even synthetic speech,” he said. Mchangama is among […]

WBUR: The history of the price of free speech

Author Salman Rushdie spent years hiding because Iran’s religious leaders wanted him dead for a book they didn’t like. Rushdie remained a fierce defender of free speech. In 2015, when gunmen killed 12 at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, he spoke out. WBUR is a nonprofit news organization. Our coverage relies on your financial support. If […]

Reuters: From Musk to Brussels – three leading experts on the future of free speech online

Will Tesla’s founder and EU new laws change social media forever? Jacob Mchangama, Ethan Zuckerman and Jennifer Petersen weigh in Free speech: are platforms different? Protected by law (albeit differently) both in the EU and in the US, freedom of speech, and the extent to which this fundamental right applies to what we post online, is one of […]

Fortune: Elon Musk says he’s ‘exactly aligned’ with Europe’s new rules for online content. But the law may threaten his free speech ideals

The rules Breton was referring to are embedded in a recently-agreed EU law called the Digital Services Act (DSA), which Breton, the internal market commissioner, helped design. Soon, the law will govern how Twitter must remove content from its platform—and if the U.S. firm doesn’t play ball, Breton warned, it could face mega-fines and perhaps […]