A loss for words
Popular support for free speech has been eroding, to judge by a forthcoming study from The Future of Free Speech, a think-tank. Since the previous survey, in 2021, America had the third-largest decline in support for free speech among 33 countries, behind only Japan and Israel. America ranks 9th, after some of the European countries Mr. Vance criticised. Jacob Mchangama, the executive director of the think-tank, fears that even if the Supreme Court eventually upholds America’s present standards for speech, the culture that has supported it may change as self-censorship takes hold. Many people, he says, will think it’s not “a great idea to be on the receiving end of the ire of a president who is not above using the law to go after his enemies, real or perceived.”
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Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).