Following the re-election of Donald Trump, free speech advocates are looking forward to his arrival in the Oval Office. During the campaign, he committed to protect free speech at a time when some argue the First Amendment is outdated and needs to be redefined.
Once banned from Twitter and other social media platforms, President-elect Trump knows the consequences of censorship. His election could allow him to help reverse what many, including popular podcaster Joe Rogan, believe is a dangerous trend toward suppressing free speech.
"It's a dangerous path that we were on, we were on that path," said Rogan. "Trump has vowed to have free speech become a very important part of what he is standing for and that this censoring of information needs to stop."
As to reversing this trend, a recent Wall Street Journal editorial recommended an executive order mandating that if federal employees encourage private companies to censor individuals' First Amendment rights, those actions must be reported to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB would then publish these reports online.
Others propose revising the traditional interpretation of speech rights that are unlimited under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In 2017, Columbia Law School Professor Timothy Wu wrote the right to free speech is "entering a new period of political irrelevance." He went further a year later at an Aspen Institute forum asking attendees to consider if "The First Amendment to the United States Constitution has become obsolete."
Since then, certain U.S. political figures such as former Secretary of State John Kerry have expressed concerns that freedom of speech in this social media era allows the distribution of false information.
"Look, if people go to only one source and the source they go to is sick and, you know, has an agenda and they're putting out disinformation," Kerry insisted. "Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence."
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley says, "This is the most dangerous anti-free speech period in our history because we've never seen an alliance with the government, media, academia, corporations like this one."
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A recent poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found 53% of American adults believe the First Amendment goes too far in protecting free speech.
Turley finds this statistic alarming. He believes current American culture is producing a new generation fearful of free speech.
"These kids have been told their entire lives that free speech is harmful and it's triggering, and you don't have to hear opposing views...You see, it's very hard to get a free people to give up freedom. They have to be really afraid or really angry and that's what we're seeing," Turley said.
New York University Law School Professor Kenji Yoshino believes there is a new landscape in the United States today.
"Anyone with a social media account can be a publisher of their own speech. And that's a really wonderful thing from the perspective of expression. But we also need a different model that says the only threat to speech or the primary threat is not necessarily government," Yoshino said.
Yoshino believes the American commitment to this right needs to be updated. He argues that is due to many changes in the country's political and cultural landscape since the First Amendment was established.
Long before social media and the internet, people publicly shared their views primarily at school board and city council meetings. They also expressed opinions through letters to local newspapers, where editors often censored or rejected their submissions.
Today, with smartphones in hand, nearly everyone can share their thoughts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X. Many previously marginalized voices are now heard, although some share false information or hate speech. While this type of speech is protected by the First Amendment, it also poses significant challenges.
"Sometimes that's going to mean you're going to protect some Nazis. You can protect some Klan members," explained Yale Law School's Dr. Keith Whittington. "But it also means you can protect some abolitionists, can protect some suffragettes. And the question is, is there an alternative that would work better?"
Some legal scholars and politicians want oversight boards established to monitor speech on social media. Whittington sees that as problematic.
"I suggest if you start empowering government officials to pick and choose which speech they want to protect because they really think it is valuable and which speech they want to suppress because they really think it's pretty bad, people shouldn't have to listen to that, the result is not going to be good for democracy or for the margins of society or for the progress of society more bluntly," Whittington said.
Turley believes Americans must understand this right was granted to humanity by the Creator, not by the government. The government is responsible for safeguarding this right, and each generation must actively defend it.
"We have to have a type of awakening. You know, we have to remind ourselves of why this right is indispensable... Because if free speech was given to us by God, if it is part of being human, if it's in our DNA, then you can never really kill it without killing us."
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