By Alexander Hohlfeld In her speech at the 2024 Copenhagen Democracy Summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen argued that Europe should not “fight the authoritarians or the extremes at their own game,” but instead “fight them by offering a positive vision of the future” that “protects what we hold dear – our democracy and our […]
By Ashkhen Kazaryan Below is an excerpt from our pubic comment. Click here to read the full submission. In Response to the Federal Trade Commission’s Request for Information: Technology Platform Censorship The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. We work to reaffirm freedom of expression as the […]
On December 27, 2024, The Future of Free Speech joined the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Institute for Justice, Reason Foundation, and several other civil liberties organizations in an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in urging the Supreme Court to overturn the law banning TikTok. The brief argues that the national ban on […]
ABSTRACT In contemporary society, the rise of social media has dramatically transformed the sharing of information, bypassing traditional editorial and governmental controls. This shift has enabled rapid global information sharing but also raised concerns about the influence of social media platforms, even in democratic societies. Legislative responses, such as Germany’s Network Enforcement Act of 2017, […]
An Assessment of Social Media Content Removal in France, Germany, and Sweden The over-removal of legal content on social media platforms raises concerns about the chilling effect on free expression and the potential suppression of legitimate discourse online. This report found that a substantial majority (87.5% to 99.7%) of deleted comments on Facebook and YouTube […]
By Joan Barata and Andrei Richter This paper contributes to the discussions surrounding the internet and the challenges of its regulation. It is divided into two parts. Part one documents the international standards that have emerged pertaining to internet shutdowns, and part two explores the relevant case law at the national and international levels. The […]
By Natalie Alkiviadou Abstract This paper looks at the developments of hate speech regulation online, specifically its horizontalization, with private companies increasingly ruling on the permissibility levels of speech, placing the right to free speech at peril. To elucidate issues at stake, the paper will look at the meaning of hate speech, the online landscape […]
Thoughts on the DSA: Challenges, Ideas and the Way Forward through International Human Rights Law Abstract National and regional legislative measures/proposals that dramatically enhance platform liability for content developed by users such as the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) and the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) place free speech at risk and potentially shrink […]
Read the report (Sorry, only in Danish) Summary of the report This report investigates the extent of illegal comments on selected Danish Facebook pages. On the basis of a representative sample, the report estimates that one out of 15,000 comments on Danish Facebook pages constitutes a hate crime. In particular, a representative segment of 63 […]
A Framework of First Reference – Decoding a Human Rights Approach to content moderation on social media SUMMARY 4.66 billion people have Internet access, and 4.20 billion are active social media users. Despite the unprecedented scale and ease with which information and opinions are shared globally, Internet freedom is seen more and more as both […]