Free Speech News
The Daily Signal provides coverage of free speech battles, censorship issues, and constitutional debates. Includes commentary and opinion pieces on protecting civil liberties in America.
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opinion
France Escalates Weaponization of Hate Speech Laws to Silence Islam’s Critics
Summary In past weeks, France has been rocked by protests by anarchist leftists who seek to tear the country apart and unassimilated Muslim agitators looking to loot and pillage a country they have no investment in. So, now the French government is cracking down. Oh, not on the rioters (or “students,” as we’ve been told… -
news
Ohio Student Facing Felony Charge After Allegedly Threatening Pro-Life Students With ‘Kirk’ Reference
An incident late last month at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, has garnered attention on social media as a student faces a felony charge for allegedly threatening pro-life students with a reference to the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September of last year. Screenshots of the Miami Ohio page on the Yik Yak social media… -
opinion
Why Privacy Matters
We are living in the midst of an ongoing and accelerating artificial intelligence revolution. That revolution leads to many possible futures, some beautiful and some terrifying. One possible future is a world of mass surveillance in which everything you say and do is meticulously recorded and analyzed, and even the content of your thoughts can… -
opinion
German Chancellor’s Attack on Free Speech Reveals Europe’s Growing Fear of Dissent
Free speech isn’t just dying in Europe; it’s being ruthlessly strangled by an out-of-touch ruling class that’s desperate to snuff it out before it loses power. And those elites are hardly hiding their contempt for what we here in America consider a foundational, God-given right. On Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz made a public, frontal… -
news
Georgia Tech Gets 3rd Place for Free Speech
Georgia Tech’s main campus placed third for free speech in a recent ranking released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Out of the 261 schools surveyed, Georgia Tech’s main campus placed only behind the University of Chicago, which ranked first, and Claremont McKenna College, which ranked second. The report comes one year after… -
opinion
We Spend a Lot More on Welfare Than Bombs. That’s a Problem.
The other day, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told Qatari state media that the United States was “spending tens of billions of dollars on killing people” when that money “could have been used to make life easier” for the public. “There always seems to be money for war,” he went on, “but not to… -
news
McKinney Recall Fight Intensifies as Petitioners Allege Intimidation
A recall effort targeting four McKinney elected officials faces opposition from former officials and residents as petitioners allege intimidation and harassment. -
opinion
Does the First Amendment Give You the Right to Disrupt a Church Service?
The First Amendment protects both freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, but those rights do not give activists carte blanche to invade a church and take over the service. Or so I thought. Now, however, a group of activists who did just that has filed a motion to dismiss federal civil rights charges, arguing… -
opinion
In Wake of Arday Scandal, European Elite Institutions Attack Free Speech
The Western value of free speech appears to be hitting a terminal phase outside the United States, especially in the Anglosphere where censorship in the name of political correctness now runs rampant. That’s my takeaway from the ongoing “Arday affair” which, if anything, solidifies just how pathological and ultimately tyrannical the DEI obsession has become… -
opinion
Conservative College Students Need Courage
It was freshman year at my small liberal arts college. I walked into my social psychology class and was immediately asked to share my “preferred pronouns.” I was appalled by the question. “Do I not look like a girl?” I thought to myself. I hoped that would be the most uncomfortable part of my first semester; I was blissfully unaware that I would soon spend three weeks trying to “unlearn my whiteness.” Growing up in a small, rural town in Pennsylvania, I had… -
opinion
The SPLC’s ‘Hate Map’ Is Still Used to Limit Giving to Conservative Organizations
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s descent from its once-vaunted role as a sentinel against extremism has been precipitous and ironic. An organization whose “hate map” promiscuously equates parental rights groups such as Moms for Liberty with neo-Nazi organizations now stands indicted by the Department of Justice on charges of wire fraud, false statements, and conspiracy… -
exclusive
‘NO MORE CENSORING’: How NIH Director Wants to Restore Trust in Public Health
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said he was blacklisted on X during the COVID-19 pandemic because he questioned certain mandates like masks for toddlers. Now, as director of the National Institutes of Health, he is making sure no other scientist is censored due to their political views. Bhattacharya, then a professor of health policy at Stanford University… -
opinion
‘YOU COULD HEAR THE SOBS OF A WIDOW’: Inside Charlie Kirk’s Murder Trial
The following is an excerpt of Daily Signal Politics Editor Bradley Devlin’s interview with Ryan Helfenbein, a friend of Charlie Kirk who attended the preliminary hearings in the case against the accused assassin Tyler Robinson, for the “Signal Sitdown,” which premieres on the Daily Signal’s YouTube page at 6:30 a.m. EDT on July 16. This… -
opinion
It’s Time for Democrats to Dial Down the Violent Talk
We all know what needs to happen for the nation to dial down the temperature of our political discourse—Democrats need to chill. Sadly, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon. Why would it? Before Saturday night’s foiled attack at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton, there were at least two known assassination attempts against President… -
opinion
From Carson to Clowns: How Trump Derangement Syndrome Destroyed Late Night
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. Jack Fowler: Jimmy Kimmel, who’s got a role in this kerfuffle—it’s not a kerfuffle. This is an assassination attempt egged on by… -
news
As States Hint Resistance to SCOTUS Ruling on Gender Counseling, What’s Next for Free Speech?
Even after a decisive Supreme Court ruling on free speech in gender counseling, more such cases could be on the way as state and local governments across the country have bans of some sort on reparative therapy. The Supreme Court recently ruled 8-1 against Colorado’s law that required counseling to conform to gender ideology. Some… -
opinion
Major Software Company Stops Using Leftist Smear Factory to Blacklist Conservatives
Is corporate America finally seeing the light on the Southern Poverty Law Center? Salesforce, a software company with more than 75,000 employees, became the latest firm to announce it will no longer use the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map” to determine eligibility for its employee giving program. In a 2022 blog post, Salesforce had… -
opinion
Free Speech in Britain—a Visitor’s Snapshot
By now, most know that free speech is under threat in Great Britain. In August, Vice President JD Vance “raised some criticism [and] concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic” while in England on vacation and for official meetings. I just went back to my old college, St. Andrews in Scotland. I’d… -
news
‘CULTURE OF DEMONIZATION’: Shareholders Demand Companies Drop SPLC After FBI Move Against It
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Conservative shareholders at eight major corporations have filed resolutions urging those companies to stop using politicized tools like the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map,” which added Turning Point USA a few months before the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The Heritage Foundation and portfolio manager David Bahnsen, which have held thousands… -
news
The Sneaky Way Corporate America Blacklists Conservatives, and How Some Are Fighting Back
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Hundreds of companies use the software company Benevity to connect with nonprofits, allowing employees to donate their time and money, but Benevity systematically blacklists conservative nonprofits, and those nonprofits are now speaking out. “We, the undersigned organizations, urge Benevity to immediately end the use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Hate…