We know a few things to be certain about the freedom of speech here in the United States: It’s written in the Constitution, it’s fiercely defended by lawyers and laypeople alike, and we’ve got it better than a lot of other countries.
From my vantage point (this laptop), free speech is a complicated, deeply nuanced ideal.
It is that freedom, the freedom of speech, that allows us to disagree, to learn and share, to voice once unspoken thoughts, to engineer a more verbally and intellectually diverse world. But it’s also in no small part to blame for our unbelievable penchant for “well, actually…”
And for that reason, it has limits. Freedom of speech is not an absolute freedom, nor should it be. But most of the lines drawn in the sand were drawn centuries ago, long before Facebook was just a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.
And now...Pandora’s Box has been opened, and we have the receipts to show how wildly impactful free online speech can be. You were online this last year, right?
So how do we, citizens of a country famous for how much it loves freedom, interpret freedom of speech in a changing and increasingly online world? Who gets to speak freely on the internet? Well buckle up, because we’re about to start thinking it through.
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