Julian Adorney: Free Speech Is Under Attack Across the World

For the past few years, the world has been falling into what Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)’s Matthew Harwood calls a “free speech recession.”

It’s tempting for those of us who grew up in a robust culture of free speech to think that the problem is just limited to authoritarian regimes like China and Iran and Russia. But unfortunately the problem runs much deeper. Many developed countries, including countries that pride themselves on their democracy and international respectability, are deciding that they ought to have the power to imprison citizens who say anything that these countries’ leaders disagree with.

Julian Adorney - Hate Speech Laws: The Best Arguments for Them—and Against Them

What is hate speech, and why is it so controversial?

Hate speech is tricky to define (more on that later), but a workable definition is:

"Any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color[,] sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin."