The UK Daily Mail reports on a study, by Matthew
Wright, from the Washington DC think tank “The Campaign for Free Speech” that more
Americans, especially under age 38, think that the First Amendment should be
changed to ban hate speech and that “alternative media sources” outside of
licensed media should be regulated.
However, the findings are not as striking statistically
as the tone of the article would suggest. For example, hate crimes can in many
states (and sometimes in federal law) draw stiffer sentences.
The Campaign for Free Speech has a summary page which
is disturbing. Many Americans don’t
understand that the First Amendment applies only to government, not to what private
companies including social media or even hosting platforms can do in establishing
their own terms of service.
There was also a curious reference to “current social norms”. It is difficult to delineate what this
means? Misgendering trans people with
pronouns? It is difficult at this level
to determine if this is about political threats or security threats (from the “radical
right” and white supremacy) or more about the hyper-competitiveness that leaves
many people with disadvantaged backgrounds behind.
The Campaign for Free Speech doesn’t seem to be the
same group as New America, which held an interesting forum “The Future of Free
Expression” which I attended in July.
That group seemed to have very interesting people working there.
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