The Digital Free Speech Erosion: Are We Sacrificing Liberty for Safety?
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” — George Orwell
In the Western world, freedom of speech has long been celebrated as a fundamental right and a cornerstone of democratic societies. However, this right is increasingly coming under threat as governments, tech giants, and social forces impose tighter controls on what can and cannot be said online. Governments, even in democratic nations, are ramping up regulations intended to tackle harmful content, misinformation, and extremism. For instance, the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) are introducing stringent rules that will hold tech companies accountable for illegal content on their platforms, with penalties reaching up to 6% of a company’s global revenue. For companies like Meta and Google, this translates into billions of dollars in potential fines.
Reports like those from Freedom House highlight a troubling trend: internet freedom has declined globally for the 11th consecutive year, with over 60% of the world’s population now living in countries where online speech is severely restricted. Even in the United States, long seen as a beacon of free speech, internet freedom scores have been declining due to increasing surveillance and growing…
