FIRE sues Rubio, Angel & I get idiomatic, the global free speech recession continues, & more!
Bringing you the latest free speech news (8/10/25)
Stories of the week
*Huge thanks to
for writing about the case!Liberalism demands more. It asks us to defend the right to express views we do not share and even actively dislike, so long as they do not incite violence. Very many people support this principle and yet we lack an organised campaign to address suppression of freedom of speech consistently, rather than in relation to specific issues. This keeps the specific issues in the spotlight, while the broader principle of free speech is sidelined or instrumentalised when it is, in fact, both vital and urgent.
Join us for a special FIRE webinar (in collaboration with
& ERI) tomorrow at 4pm Eastern about the latest developments at Harvard with former Harvard President, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, & current FIRE Advisory Council member Lawrence H. Summers & me (moderated by ). Don’t sweat it if you can’t make it, we’ll post the full recording here on ERI.
This week in ERI
This week in
This week in FIRE’s blog
Fiction is not a felony by Karan Kuppa-Apte
This week on
This week on So to Speak, FIRE EVP & host
spoke with FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere, Institute for Justice Managing Attorney Justin Pearson , and the Hoover Institution Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh about whether commercial speech should receive unique constitutional treatment.
London Calling: Ronnie’s First Amendment Roundup
London is not calling but rather vacationing this week—see you all next week!
International free speech stories of the week
Exclusive: Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after 'pressure' from Beijing (Reuters) by Poppy Mcpherson & Napat Wesshasartar
10 Examples of Absurd Fallout From the U.K.'s Online Safety Act (Reason) by Elizabeth Nolan Brown
A post on X that featured an image of Saturn Devouring His Son, a famed 19th century painting by Francisco de Goya, was restricted for U.K. users until their ages could be verified, according to the BBC.
Belarus targets dozens of government critics with raids and detention, advocates say (AP) by Yuras Karmanau
10 Years in Prison for Selling a T-Shirt of a Hugo Chávez Statue Getting Smashed (Reason) by César Báez
The case of Pabón and RodrÃguez is part of a broader crackdown on dissent. As of July 21, 2025, the Maduro regime has 853 political prisoners in custody, according to the nongovernmental organization Foro Penal. Over a 72-hour period in July, at least 20 opposition members and electoral witnesses were detained, which the opposition leader MarÃa Corina Machado denounced as a "brutal wave of repression."
Podcast of the week
- is a friend and a comedian, so I took the opportunity to be a little more like my actual self on his podcast, . I was there to talk about my new book with former ACLU president, current FIRE senior fellow, and free speech hero , War On Words. Let me know if you like it or if I should continue to hide my light under a bushel.
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Free speech is a right certain countries grant their own citisens when those citisens are in their home countries. It means that in those countries, those countries' citisens can freely speak their minds. As an American I can say nearly anything and even a lot in the UK. Yet unless specifically invited to the UK to make a public speech I cannot not make anti-UK foreign policy speeches there. If I do, the UK can cancel the implied courtesy allowing me there.
To speak his/her mind freely a citisen-speaker must be clearly heard.
A citisen cannot be clearly heard if audience-members or others boo speakers or drown them out with air horns or other noise-makers. Nor can any citisen- or other speaker be heard if s/he was cancelled after an invitation to speak was given.
Universities especially should require incoming students sign pledges ensuring free [easily heard] speech to all speakers legally on those universities' campuses.
Only clearly heard Ideas can be exchanged or refuted.
Harvard allowed pro-Palestine speaker to be heard without interference. Wasn't such a right also good enough for pro-Israel speakers?
Harvard's brilliant President Alan Garber, BA, MA, PhD, and MD, misses the point when he claims that suspending US aid attacks Harvard's academic freedom. Is he serious? When Harvard blocks some of its students' free speech it ceases being a university that is owed tax-exemption and certainly it is owed no US aid.
I do not agree with your position that illegal people in this country have First Amendment rights. They should have no rights under our constitution because they are not here legally. They should be expelled, no matter what political positions they take!