Yes, Free Speech Depends on A Resilient Culture A response to Ken White’s polemic against “free speech culture.”

White’s argument on this important issue requires a good-faith attempt to test it against principle, logic, and history.

I do that here: www.bedrockprinciple.com/p/yes-free-s...

An excerpt:

Recently, @kenwhite.bsky.social wrote that “free speech culture” is being invoked as a rhetorical shield for the powerful and a pretext for state censorship.

I disagree. Hypocrisy and grifting don’t discredit the idea that underpins our strong legal protections for free speech.

2025 Year in Review - The Future of Free Speech As 2025 comes to a close, The Future of Free Speech team wants to thank you for making this year its most productive yet.  At a time when both the legal foundations and the culture of free expression ...

Explore the full breadth of what you made possible this year—and why your continued support is crucial for the road ahead. Read our Year in Review: futurefreespeech.org/2025-year-in...

Support Our Work - The Future of Free Speech YOU CAN SAFEGUARD FREE SPEECH Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and the bulwark of liberty. But it’s under siege like never before. From authoritarian crackdowns on dissent to digital censorship...

If you believe free speech remains the bedrock of a free and democratic society, please make a year-end gift to support this work: futurefreespeech.org/donate/

Free expression is facing mounting pressure worldwide. In the most productive year in our history, your support made critical, independent work possible. But the challenges are only accelerating—and your support matters now more than ever.

How Fear of Social Punishment Shapes Campus Discourse | Greg Lukianoff, Ash Kazaryan, Kevin Goldberg YouTube video by The Future of Free Speech

Calling for someone to be cancelled is often protected by the First Amendment, but do we want to live in a society that rewards silence and conformity over opinions and debate?

Thanks to our sponsors: @thefireorg.bsky.social & @1stforall.bsky.social.

📺: youtu.be/5D1YTeSZ6bI?...

Free speech isn't protected by laws alone. At @futurefreespeech.org, our vision is to further a culture that reinforces it. At our #FreeSpeechSummit2025, @glukianoff explains why the instinct to cancel is bad for democracy.

The Future of Free Speech The Future of Free Speech is an independent, non-partisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. We work to restore a resilient global culture of free speech in the digital age through knowledge...

From firings triggered by online outrage to government jawboning, this wide-ranging discussion is thoughtful, sharp, and essential for anyone who wants to defend free speech.

SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube for more videos from our 2025 Summit: www.youtube.com/@FutureFreeS...

Is Security The New Excuse To Silence Speech? | Advisory Opinions Live ft. Sarah Isgur, David French YouTube video by The Future of Free Speech

ICYM our #FreeSpeechSummit2025, here’s a standout session.

In a live recording of Advisory Opinions, @davidfrenchjag.bsky.social and Sarah Isgur dig into some of the biggest First Amendment battles unfolding in America. youtu.be/aEDJyyc8LVY?...

Cancel Culture & the New Culture Wars ft. Michael Moynihan, John Wood Jr, Thomas Chatterton Williams YouTube video by The Future of Free Speech

🔗 Watch the full conversation available on @futurefreespeech.org's YouTube now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPMA...

Democracy cannot function without open discourse.

At #TheFreeSpeechSummit2025, John Wood Jr.,
@chatterton.bsky.social, and Michael Moynihan explored how we must restore our faith in civil dialogue, especially when we disagree.

We pitched an ambitious project focused on a global effort to revive free expression by sharing three core First Amendment principles with democratic swing states experiencing a deepening free speech recession.

Warm congratulations to the winners and fellow competitors—so many powerful ideas aimed at strengthening freedom in places that need it most.

Deeply honored to take part in Atlas Network's Smart Bets Pitch Competition. A huge thank you to the Atlas team for giving us the opportunity to share our project.

The Future of Free Speech Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy's Most Essential Freedom

Out April 2026.

Pre-Order Now: www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

The page proofs for my forthcoming book with @jkosseff.bsky.social have arrived!

Here’s a sneak peek at the contents:

Who Has Free Speech? The global fight over a powerful idea.

To read my @foreignaffairs.com piece cited in the clip above, see here: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/who-...

Last look: Trump and Europe’s clash over free speech | CNN Fareed argues that the Trump administration’s continued attack on European free speech restrictions may have some merit — but it should also be practicing at home what it preaches abroad.

Zakaria also rightly points out that, even though criticisms of European policy from U.S. officials are true, it doesn’t make their hypocrisy on free speech any better.

Watch the full segment here: www.cnn.com/2025/10/26/w...

The efforts to shed light on just how bad things have gotten in Europe are gaining momentum. Another mainstream U.S. news outlet (Fareed Zakaria's GPS at @cnn.com) details the free speech recession we have been warning about for years.

Who Has Free Speech? The global fight over a powerful idea.

“When free-speech restrictions are deemed legitimate only if imposed by the ‘right’ people against the ‘wrong’ ones, then free speech indeed becomes an artificial concept,” writes @mchangama.bsky.social.

Instead, there's mostly a furious denial that Europe is restricting free speech at all (after all, hate speech — as defined by European states and institutions — is not free speech, you simpleton!).

The need for European civil-libertarian free speech groups has never been greater.

Unfortunately, I have seen very little evidence that mainstream European opinion views the steady increase of speech-restrictive laws and policies as a problem.

Fortunately for Americans, the First Amendment protects against such blatant viewpoint discrimination, which is wide open to political abuse.

Meanwhile, European law actively encourages it.

This is the type of proposal that many people would condemn as "authoritarian" if proposed by Trump, but praise as a "defense of democracy" when proposed by EU member states.

Putins All the Way Down How Russia was remade.

In a review of “Our Dear Friends in Moscow” by Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov and “Ideology and Meaning-Making Under the Putin Regime” by Marlene Laruelle, Joshua Yaffa discusses the forces that have shaped the Putin era.

Who Has Free Speech? The global fight over a powerful idea.

🔗 Read the full essay here: www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/who-...

The timing of Dabhoiwala’s criticism of U.S. Free Speech Exceptionalism could not be more ironic as the Trump admin targets progressive ideologies, institutions, and individuals. A stark reminder that free speech, properly understood and robustly defended, benefits us all.

My review argues that Dabhoiwala ignores how free speech, for all its flaws, has been a genuine engine of emancipation—not a cynical cover for power.

In @foreignaffairs.com, I review Fara Dabhoiwala’s "What Is Free Speech? The History of a Dangerous Idea"—a book that treats the First Amendment as chiefly benefiting “propertied white men” and Europe's “balanced” approach as virtuous.