Syracuse University: Is Free Speech Killing Democracy?

The State of Democracy Lecture Series welcomed Jacob Mchangama, Founder and Executive Director of Justitia, and host of the podcast Clear and Present Danger: a history of free speech. Justitia is Denmark’s first judicial think tank aiming to promote the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedom rights both within Denmark and abroad. Mchangama discussed the idea advanced by many that free speech has been “weaponized” by extremists and turned against the very values this freedom was meant to serve, as witnessed by the attack on the Capitol on January 6th which could not have happened without a campaign of lies and disinformation that went viral on social media. But it will use both historical and contemporary examples to argue that free speech is still the “Bulwark of Liberty.”