On Saturday, we received the good news that the Irish government had abandoned its dangerous new hate speech legislation. It is a huge victory for all of us who put a lot of effort into defeating the bill, which would have allowed the police to invade homes and read people’s cell phones and computers. We congratulate the courageous Irish citizens, Senators, members of the parliament, Free Speech Ireland, and the Alliance Defending Freedom for their leadership, which led to this important victory for all of us who love and are working to defend free speech around the world. Like the one in Brazil, the free speech fight in Ireland was never just about Ireland.
Unfortunately, the pressure and demand for censorship from governments, politicians, and journalists continue to grow by the day. X faces a Hobson’s choice in Brazil. It could remain blocked for the 20 million and growing Brazilians who used the platform to defend the principle of not bowing to that nation’s Supreme Court Justice-turned-de facto dictator, Alexandre de Moraes. Or X could accede to Moraes’ demands and sacrifice some accounts so that millions have access. Few independent observers can deny that there are advantages and disadvantages for the people of Brazil in both scenarios.
Whatever X decides to do, the situation underscores the true peril of our current moment. The risk is that we are headed toward totalitarianism, with government censorship and overall control of information being the key to achieving it. And that risk comes directly from heads of state, heads of intelligence and security organizations, and mainstream news media owners and their employees. They are, en masse, demanding that the government censor social media platforms, including X, Google, and Meta, of legal, and constitutionally protected speech they don’t like.
With every free speech victory, we are handed a new threat of expanded government censorship. Three of the latest threats come from Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, and the Australian government. In a new Netflix documentary, Gates calls on governments to censor citizens who are “causing people not to take vaccines.” Clinton on MSNBC said that Americans who spread Russian propaganda should face criminal charges. And the Australian government recently announced that it will seek to fine social media platforms up to five percent of their total global revenue if they refuse to allow greater government censorship of their content.
