"So the nature of power is to protect its own status and expand its existing powers. And so power rests in an uneasy relationship with free speech because free speech is explicitly in place to allow those who don't have power to confront those in power. If you want to shine a light on abuses of government, if you want to petition politicians for change, your most important weapon really is free speech. It's the most important freedom."
"Right now, we're living through what I would call a free speech recession. For more than 10 years, maybe approaching 15 years, free speech has been in decline. You know, there was a time around the 1990s, the early 2000s, when I think people were very bullish and optimistic about the future of free speech and democracy and saw technology as supercharging these values. But what we see is that authoritarian states have learned to reverse engineer the technology that was supposed to be liberating."
Power seeks to protect and expand itself, producing tension with free speech that enables those without power to confront authority. Free speech serves as the primary mechanism for exposing government abuses and petitioning for political change. Democratic confidence in free expression has declined after years of optimism about technology's liberating effects. Authoritarian regimes have repurposed digital tools for surveillance and censorship. Democracies are increasingly apprehensive about online harms, viewing expression as a vector for disinformation, hate, and extremism. Eroding trust in free speech endangers accountability, civic oversight, and democratic protections.
Read at Big Think
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