National Free Speech News & Commentary

Greg Lukianoff and Sean Stevens
The Eternally Radical Idea

Excerpt: Last week we demonstrated that deplatforming attempts involving students have exploded over the past decade, supporting one aspect of Sean and Jonathan Haidt’s “new dynamic” hypothesis — which states that college students have become more hostile toward free speech over the past decade than in previous generations.

But Sean and Haidt’s hypothesis was also about how students would increasingly target conservative expression for deplatforming, and a deep dive into FIRE’s Campus Deplatforming Database indicates that it’s true: Students did in fact target conservative expression more often over the past decade than they did in the preceding 16 years.

Academic Freedom Alliance

The Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA) today sent a letter to Columbia University regarding its investigation into a professor for criticizing the political statements of certain students and student groups on social media. On February 8, 2024, Columbia’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action informed Professor Shai Davidai that it had begun the investigation based on complaints that he “harassed” members of the community, asserting that his “public commentary since October 2023 . . . is perceived to be anti-Palestinian/Arab.”

Jessica Wills
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: Alumni are banding together at Northwestern to protect free speech.

Just weeks after Northwestern President Michael Schill announced the creation of the Advisory Committee on Free Expression and Institutional Speech, the newly formed Northwestern Free Speech Alliance has released an open letter asking the university to adopt a strong free expression statement and commit to institutional neutrality.

Samuel J. Abrams
Washington Examiner

Excerpt: Higher education is in crisis. A week rarely passes without an incident on a college campus in which cancel culture manages to shut down a speaker or an event. And while this sad state of affairs on campuses is now too familiar, self-censorship has moved well beyond leafy quads, lecture halls, and student unions and into the mainstream.

Samuel J. Abrams
Minding the Campus

Excerpt: The past five months have shown the world just how toxic speech is on college campuses. The climate for open inquiry and dialogue is under attack nationwide, and students are scared to speak, question, and express themselves freely. Using disparaging rhetoric, even violence, to prevent speech is now commonplace on campus, and thus, many students are turning inward, and genuine liberal learning is being interrupted. Yet, most college presidents believe their campuses are perfect examples of viewpoint diversity.

Alexandra Alter
The New York Times

Excerpt: After several years of rising book bans, censorship efforts continued to surge last year, reaching the highest levels ever recorded by the American Library Association. Last year, 4,240 individual titles were targeted for removal from libraries, up from 2,571 titles in 2022, according to a report released Thursday by the association.

Those figures likely fail to capture the full scale of book removals, as many go unreported. The American Library Association, which has tracked book bans for more than 20 years, compiles data from book challenges that library professionals reported to the group and information gathered from news reports.