By Jacob Mchangama and Jules White The brave new world of Generative AI has become the latest battleground for U.S. culture wars. Google issued an apology after anti-woke X-users, including Elon Musk, shared examples of Google’s chatbot Gemini refusing to generate images of white people—including historical figures—even when specifically prompted to do so. Gemini’s insistence on prioritizing diversity […]
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 […]
Jeff Kosseff in New York Times This term, the Supreme Court will reconsider America’s laissez-faire approach to regulating the internet, and in doing so it will address vital and new First Amendment questions. Can states stop social media sites from blocking certain content? Can the federal government pressure platforms to remove content it disagrees with? […]
The global landscape for free speech is under threat, a new report shows, as open democracies implement restrictive measures in response to challenges. The report is a comprehensive analysis by the Future of Free Speech project, examining data from 22 open democracies spanning 2015 to 2022. The project is housed at Vanderbilt University. And the […]
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
The FoFS Tracker for DSA Enforcement compiles the investigations undertaken by the European Commission on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) following the entry into force of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The tracker has been prepared by The Future of Free Speech (FoFS), based on the press releases […]
Far-right provocateurs burning Qurans led Denmark to pass a law forbidding “improper treatment” of religious texts. History shows this is a very bad idea. Read the article
WHAT The Future of Free Speech Project (FFS) cordially invites you to register for our forthcoming (November 2023) training sessions on our new counter-speech toolkit developed in cooperation with the Dangerous Speech Project. Experts will offer insights into the meaning, role and use of counter-speech. counter-speech toolkit The trainings are primarily targeted for civil society […]