February 1, 2021
CITI Fellows program: All-Fellows Roundtable
Reprise of the discussion initiated by Nadine Strossen's, presentation January 4 "The paradox of free speech in the digital world."
Private-sector censors are not restricted by the First Amendment; to the contrary, they are shielded by it. Worse yet, government officials pressure the companies to limit expression in ways that governments themselves could not lawfully do. No matter how strictly courts curb government censorship, we won’t enjoy meaningful freedom of speech if cancel culture and the platforms’ speech restrictions proceed unchecked.
How then do we rein in, if at all, violent and racist speech, disinformation and similar threats to civil society without undermining what are generally accepted as fundamental rights?