Cato Institute Book Discussion: "The Future of Free Speech"

Event Title:
Online Book Forum: "The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy’s Most Essential Freedom"

Registering for the Online Event:
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Event Description:
The Future of Free Speech confronts a stark truth: The right to speak freely is under siege. Once celebrated as a cornerstone of democratic societies, free expression is now met with growing suspicion and retaliation across the globe.

The authors examine a century in which speech rights expanded dramatically―including postwar democratic revolutions and the sweeping protections of the First Amendment―only to find those rights unraveling in the face of new political, technological, and cultural pressures. Today, liberal democracies are imposing speech controls, authoritarian regimes are cloaking censorship in democratic language, and digital platforms wield unprecedented power over global discourse. This book examines the backlash against free speech from all sides: governments criminalizing dissent in the name of national security; lawmakers and activists demanding tighter controls on misinformation, hate speech, and offensive content; and AI systems removing speech at a scale and speed that dwarfs historical forms of censorship. At the same time, faith in free speech itself is waning, even in the very societies that once championed it.

Join Mchangama and Kosseff for a discussion with moderator David Inserra on how free speech can meet modern challenges without abandoning its foundational role in sustaining democracy, human rights, and shared understanding.

About the Speakers:
* Jacob Mchangama is a Danish lawyer and human-rights advocate who is the Founder and Director of Justitia and Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University.
* Jeff Kosseff is a cybersecurity law professor at the United States Naval Academy and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University.
* David Inserra is a Fellow for Free Expression and Technology at the Cato Institute, and formerly a Content Policy Associate Manager for Meta where he was responsible for crafting and enforcing Meta’s Community Standards, focusing on hate speech, violent speech, restricted goods and services, and support to Meta’s Oversight Board.

About the Cato Institute:
Founded in 1976, the Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. The institute advocates for free market economic policies, protection of civil liberties, criminal justice reform, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. It publishes the annual "Human Freedom Index" that ranks countries based on their levels of personal & economic freedoms, and it hosts cross-partisan discussions monthly at "Cato Unbound". To learn more, go to https://www.cato.org/about

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