Jacob Mchangama describes what he terms a “cross-fertilization of censorship,” in which regimes both free and unfree are in the process of copying one another’s restrictions on expressive freedoms. More liberal countries still frequently restrict hate speech, while less liberal ones use those restrictions to justify still more restrictive acts. The world’s centuries-long march toward freedom of expression seems to have halted. Can it be restarted?
Read the essay in Cato Unbound.
The essays will be followed up by Anthony Leaker, June 13; Jeremy Waldron, June 15; and Jonathan Rauch, June 18. Conversation through the end of the month.
