Langue Verte

David Kaye is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. In that role, which he has held since 2014, Kaye has traveled across the globe to address issues related to free speech, human rights, disinformation, propaganda, and the internet. In Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet, Kaye compiles much of what he has learned in those travels to provide suggestions for governments, politicians, social media companies, and individuals on how to navigate free speech in the modern era. No group is blameless. Governments across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia have responded too strongly to online disinformation campaigns, threatening free expression globally. Politicians have used disinformation to gain power and have attacked democratic institutions like the free press. Social media companies have responded more to market demands than the best interest of their consumers. Kaye's solution is simple, though he acknowledges that it leaves questions unanswered. For him, governance of expression, whether by governments or corporations, should be grounded in transparency, democracy, accountability, and human rights law.

In current debates over free speech and social justice, friends and foes alike agree that you cannot have both. On one hand, “Social Justice Warriors” criticize free speech as a tool of repression or a form of violence against marginalized communities. On the other hand, “Anti-PC” folks criticize social justice as repressive and hypocritical. This blog seeks to go beyond this tired debate. Using historical examples and analysis, this blog makes two key arguments. First, free speech and social justice are not opposed. In fact, they often work together to support one another. Second, our disagreements are often more illusion than reality. In reality, most Americans agree that issues around social justice and free speech are complicated – they just don't argue about them that way.