Sportico: Anonymous College Athlete Feedback Site Seeks Coach Input, Sans Subpoenas

Davenport University is a private institution in Grand Rapids, Mich., with an undergraduate enrollment below 6,000 students. The school maintains 27 varsity athletic programs that compete in the NCAA’s Division II, where they have mostly languished in national obscurity. Yet a quick Google search leads to a place where the Davenport Panthers have drawn notice, […]

Digital Rights Expert Farzaneh Badiei Joins The Future of Free Speech as Senior Research Fellow

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nashville, TN — April 13, 2026 — The Future of Free Speech is pleased to announce that Farzaneh Badiei, a leading expert in Internet governance and digital rights, is joining the organization as a Senior Research Fellow. Badiei will lead a new project on digital sovereignty — examining how the growing push […]

Boston Globe: Mass. Can Sue Meta in Social Media Addiction Case, High Court Rule

In the latest body blow to the social media industry, Massachusetts’ highest court on Friday ruled that the state can sue technology giant Meta over allegations its popular online sites Facebook and Instagram are too addictive to minors. The ruling comes in the wake of major courtroom defeats for the industry in other states. Just […]

Big Think: Militant Democracy Or Creeping Illiberalism? Germany’s Free Speech Dilemma

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 […]

The Globe and Mail: After Oct. 7, Hate-Speech Laws Looked Like The Answer. Europe Shows Why They Aren’t

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, […]

The Dispatch: Does Free Speech Have A Future?

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 […]

New Book Calls for a Global Recommitment to Free Speech as Democracies Retreat

Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff argue that protecting free expression—rather than restricting it—is essential to democracy’s survival April 7, 2026 — NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As governments across the world tighten controls on speech in the name of combating disinformation, hate speech, and political extremism, a new book from leading free speech scholars warns that democracies […]

EFF: Speaking Freely: Jacob Mchangama

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 […]

Notario: The HODIO Fever

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 […]

TechDirt: Free Speech Experts: Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Panic Is As Old As Democracy Itself

By Mike Masnick We’ve been saying for years now that Jonathan Haidt’s crusade against social media and kids is a moral panic dressed up in academic robes, and that the evidence simply does not support the sweeping claims he’s been making. A new piece in the Wall Street Journal by Jacob Mchangama and Jeff Kosseff […]