What if the only way Americans will truly value free speech is by losing it? @JMchangama’s most pessimistic take: it may take experiencing authoritarianism to understand what’s at stake

Ep. 269: Is free speech declining worldwide? 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 @TheFIREorg's @NicoPerrino to discuss this “global free speech recession” is @JMchangama, a senior fellow at FIRE and the founder and executive director of @SpeechFuture at Vanderbilt University, and Jeff Kosseff, a senior fellow at The Future of Free Speech. 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

Ep. 270: The fight for privacy and free speech in the surveillance age The early internet opened unprecedented avenues for speech, creativity, and connection without traditional gatekeepers. But it also raised civil liberties questions: Do our offline freedoms exist online? And if so, how far do they extend? Today, those questions are more urgent than ever. Advances in AI have given governments powerful new tools to track, monitor, and analyze our behavior, raising fundamental concerns about the future of free expression in the digital age. Today, @TheFIREorg's @NicoPerrino is joined by Cindy Cohn, the executive director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She has spent thirty years as a civil liberties attorney specializing in digital rights, which she documents in her newly published memoir Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 05:17 Why write this book now? 09:11 Does privacy make free speech possible? 14:52 Code as speech: Bernstein v. United States 33:34 The Patriot Act and government spying 51:09 National security letters and Section 702 57:57 Who is Tony Coppolino? 01:06:06 Why EFF left X 01:11:05 What’s next for Cindy 01:13:56 Outro

If faced with an unknown future, I think America must be a country that errs on the side of freedom when balancing risks. My brief closing remarks at @TheFIREorg's latest Free Speech Future event:

The Uncensored Library is a living archive inside @Minecraft that preserves censored journalism. Its newest wing focuses on the US, because free speech threats don’t stop at authoritarian borders. It’s not always about obvious censorship. Sometimes it’s erased data, restricted access, or even silence.

NEWS: Elon Musk's @xAI has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado, challenging its new artificial intelligence anti-discrimination law on the grounds that it violates free speech protections. The complaint, filed in federal court, argues the legislation's requirements for transparency and bias mitigation unconstitutionally restrict the development and deployment of AI models. Colorado's law is one of the first in the US to establish comprehensive guardrails for AI systems.

NEWS: British MP Max Wilkinson complains to a panel that X allows users to criticize immigration that will spread "not in a way I'm comfortable with". Many X users in the UK have praised Elon's ownership of X for preserving an important outlet for free speech in the country.

Dems like censoring ‘misinfo’ on social media. Of course, 'misinfo' really means 'info Dems don't like.' They censored the lab leak theory (which was clearly true!), while making social media sites tell us to wear masks 24/7. Truth Social & GETTR have always put free speech first.

This is utterly ridiculous. The Watertown school district in Wisconsin just banned students from playing a song with no lyrics whatsoever. "A Mother of a Revolution" was banned because it was an old song written to honor the life of a transgender activist. Listen to the pathetic excuses these Republicans give for banning students from playing the song. "This is a perfect example of what everyone sitting at this table ran on, which was ending indoctrination in the classrooms and ending radical curriculum. The board said it violates their controversial issues policy by quote, indoctrinating kids and endorsing violence." Republicans don't care about free speech.

Our media will not speak with Zelensky's former Press Secretary and our governments will pretend she does not exist. Their job is not to inform you or to "help" Ukraine, they are selling a war to enable NATO fighting to the last Ukrainian to weaken a strategic rival - Russia. NATO countries have for years smeared, censored, cancelled and even sanctioned their own citizens who criticised the NATO war narratives. Free speech itself could be cancelled with the empty accusation of "Russian propaganda".