The Dispatch: Does Free Speech Have A Future?

Around 1,200 people were killed, including hundreds of civilians—children, the elderly, and women. Many of the terrorists proudly recorded the horrific details on smartphones and shared them on messaging apps, and went public from there. The Hamas attack triggered a bloody Israeli invasion of Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. It also had immediate consequences for already tense debates about the limits of free speech around the globe, including open democracies far removed from the carnage in the Middle East.

Students and academics at elite universities in the United States protested Israel’s invasion of Gaza. In several instances protesters justified—and some celebrated—the mass slaughter of Israeli civilians. In Europe and Australia, several pro-Palestinian demonstrations were marred by horrific antisemitic chants. In Berlin, a synagogue was attacked with firebombs while Stars of David were scrawled on apartments housing Jews, reminiscent of Nazi intimidation in the 1930s. In Denmark, the intelligence services advised Jews to cancel planned pro-Israeli demonstrations, out of fear of terrorist attacks. Though Jews were much more frequently targeted, Muslims also became victims. On Thanksgiving weekend 2023, three Palestinian American students were gunned down in Burlington, Vermont, in a suspected hate crime.

The public justifications for the Hamas attack led to demands for tougher responses to antisemitism, including on U.S. college campuses. The presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania testified at a House Education and the Workforce Committee (HEWC) hearing on antisemitism on December 5, 2023. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York aggressively pressed the visibly uncomfortable university presidents on whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated their universities’ policies on bullying and harassment. The presidents all condemned Hamas and antisemitism but emphasized their commitment to free speech and explained that context and conduct were key in policy violations.

This principled stand marked a stark contrast with how these universities had previously addressed and sanctioned much less virulent speech on race, gender, and diversity. Intense criticism and accusations of elite universities’ hypocrisy on free speech led to the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s president and a HEWC resolution condemning the testimonies of the university presidents. They also prompted the House of Representatives to pass the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which included some criticism of Israel in its broad and vague definition of antisemitism. The bill was deemed unconstitutional by free speech groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which stated that the bill would “leave students and faculty unsure about expressing statements and opinions that could get them into trouble, causing many to stay silent rather than risk investigation and discipline.”

The surge in antisemitism after the Hamas attack also alarmed European governments. In response, authorities in France and Germany banned pro-Palestinian protests, leading to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators and numerous charges for glorification of terrorism or hate speech. Meanwhile, The Guardian terminated cartoonist Steve Bell over a cartoon critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which the newspaper deemed antisemitic. Several cultural events in Europe and the United States featuring Palestinian authors, filmmakers, and musicians were canceled, despite having no connection to or support for terrorism.

The European Union seized on the Hamas terrorist attack as an opportunity to exercise its newly acquired regulatory authority under the Digital Services Act—expansive legislation requiring technology companies to assess and remove illegal content and address systemic risks from “harmful” content, including alleged disinformation. Thierry Breton, the then European Commission’s internal market commissioner, issued a series of stern public warnings to major tech company executives, claiming inadequate content moderation, which drew criticism from civil rights groups.