Free speech has long been a cornerstone of democratic society. But today, its principles face increasing pressure.

Around the world, governments are expanding speech restrictions in the name of combating misinformation, hate speech, and extremism, while new technologies make it easier to monitor and control public discourse.

Many free speech advocates warn that these efforts risk eroding democracy itself.

Joining the show to discuss this "global free speech recession" is Jacob Mchangama, a senior fellow at FIRE and the founder and executive director of The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University, and Jeff Kosseff, a senior fellow at The Future of Free Speech. Their new book is "The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy's Most Essential Freedom."

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:07 Why write this book?

04:40 Where free speech stands in America today

05:53 What is a "global free speech recession"?

11:22 Free speech's high point and what changed

18:56 Election misinformation, disinformation, and the role of AI

34:40 The EU's Digital Services Act and the UK's Online Safety Act

40:00 Are democracies starting to adopt more restrictive speech laws?

43:52 Solutions to reversing the free speech recession

52:25 Outro

Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.

If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.

In 18th century America, news traveled slowly across the Atlantic. Newspapers reprinted secondhand reports, private letters, and unverified stories from abroad, leaving readers with multiple versions of reality.

In a world educated by an unverifiable news cycle, how did misinformation shape early American life?

To explore how news, rumor, and misrepresentation influenced the course of the American Revolution and the nation that followed, we are joined by Jordan Taylor, a historian of American history and the author of Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:05 How colonists got their news

08:28 Why foreign news dominated early newspapers

17:33 How colonial newspapers verified information

22:32 Did miscommunication help spark the Revolution?

29:57 The XYZ Affair and the Sedition Act

39:21 The First Amendment's original meaning

44:34 Current day parallels

55:41 Outro

Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.

If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.

In March, juries in California and New Mexico delivered seminal verdicts holding Meta and YouTube liable for failing to protect young users from harm.

Both verdicts found that the companies were negligent in the design or operation of their platforms and that each company knew their platforms could be dangerous when used by a minor.

The courts found that the design elements of the platforms could be separated from the content hosted on the platforms, thus removing the need to consider the First Amendment or Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Joining us to break down the rulings and their possible free speech implications is Mike Masnick, CEO & founder of Techdirt & the Copia Institute.

Masnick is the author of "Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They're Actually Cheering For."

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:29 Why these verdicts scare the hell out of Mike

10:34 Are social media algorithms "addictive"?

21:45 Did Meta fail to protect kids?

30:37 The First Amendment and Section 230

43:13 Is social media the new Big Tobacco?

55:15 The role of parents in social media use

59:04: Outro

Enjoy listening to the podcast? Donate to FIRE today and get exclusive content like member webinars, special episodes, and more.

If you became a FIRE Member through a donation to FIRE at thefire.org and would like access to Substack's paid subscriber podcast feed, please email sotospeak@thefire.org.