“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
– Benjamin Franklin
Freedom of speech, enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution, is the bedrock of our democracy. It allows individuals to express their ideas and challenge authority without fear of censorship. When it’s protected, societies thrive — when it’s restricted, innovation, accountability, and individual rights suffer.
The importance of freedom of speech in our democratic society is usually taken as a given; however, we are now witnessing some of the most significant threats to free speech in recent memory.
President Donald Trump is engaging in an all-out assault on speech rights using the power of the government to try to dictate what Americans can say, think, write, study, and believe. It is aimed at forcing many sectors of society to adopt his administration’s viewpoint or risk discrimination, punishment, and, in some cases, jail, revocation of rights and deportation.
Since taking office in January, Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern U.S. history, making moves similar to those of authoritarian leaders that he has often praised. He has extracted multimillion-dollar settlements, forced companies into costly litigation and prompted changes to programming that he found objectionable. Trump recently said federal regulators should consider revoking broadcast licenses for networks that “give me only bad publicity.”
Administration officials have encouraged the public to call the employers of anyone expressing views disfavored by the government and vowed to use every resource the Department of Justice and Homeland Security have to identify, disrupt, and destroy groups the administration perceives to be an enemy. Essentially, our government is turning into a speech police force.
“We’ve had periods in American history like the Red Scare, in which Americans were to turn in neighbors who they thought leaned left, but this is a nonstop, multifaceted, multiplatform attack on all of our free speech rights,” said Ken Paulson, former editor in chief of USA Today and now director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
“I’m actually quite stunned at the velocity of this and the boldness of it.” he added.
Across the country, media outlets, schools and public spaces are increasingly restricting speech. The consequential question is whether the American people are going to tolerate this assault on First Amendment rights. At this critical point in our history, it behooves us all to take a look at other societies where the muzzling and criminalization of free speech have had profound implications eroding other human rights along with increasing oppression, corruption, and abuses of power.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, freedom of expression has remained under severe pressure where nearly all independent media websites are now blocked, journalists are persecuted, and many social networks are inaccessible. The dissemination of certain information can be banned by presidential decree, bypassing the need for legislation. Restrictions on information dissemination now extend to new groups.
For instance, the designation of the ‘international LGBT movement’ as an extremist organization has made public statements defending LGBT rights extremely risky. Migrants face increasingly strict limitations on critical speech. Individuals who have been granted citizenship risk losing it if their statements are deemed extremist. The interpretation of participation in an ‘extremist community’ continues to broaden.
Ordinary citizens are not exempt from these repercussions either. Many have faced intimidation, job loss, or even imprisonment for sharing their views on social media platforms. There is a dominating systematic approach involving state hostility to neutralizing dissent and controlling public discourse, ultimately undermining the foundations of its supposed free society.
In China, there is no independent civil society; no freedom of expression, association, assembly or religion; and human rights defenders and other perceived critics of the government are systematically persecuted and tortured. The Chinese government controls all major channels of information, such as television, radio, and print publications. With the Chinese economy faltering, the government has prohibited discussions of its economic policies and penalized those critical of them. Many of the most egregious human rights abuses occur in the name of national security, which is frequently deployed as a pretext to silence critical expression by circumventing due process rights enshrined elsewhere in China’s legal system.
In North Korea, the government maintains strict control over personal liberties, including the expression of thoughts, opinions, and ideas. This pervasive censorship permeates all facets of life and effectively stifles any potential discourse that does not align with the state’s narrative. In this totalitarian regime, the government employs a broad array of measures to suppress dissenting voices. Any attempt to convey an idea that contradicts state ideology can lead to severe repercussions, including imprisonment, forced labor, or worse. The absence of a free media means that citizens are subjected to a constant stream of propaganda, designed to foster an image of the regime that is not only favorable but also unchallengeable.
It is not a stretch to connect certain aspects of the suppression of free speech in the dictatorial regimes of Russia, China, and North Korea with what we are beginning to witness and experience here in America. The loss of freedom of speech has the potential to enable greater authoritarianism, the erosion of other rights such as freedom of the press, cultural and intellectual stagnation, widespread fear and mistrust, and the spread of misinformation.
There is no democracy without freedom of expression, and this is only real if there is room for different, minority, or dissenting thoughts. For our society to thrive, freedom of speech must be vigorously protected and cherished as a fundamental and genuine human right. Citizens need to think for themselves, express their thoughts publicly in a climate of freedom – regardless of what they think – and contribute, within their means, to shaping the public principles of the society in which they live.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at bila.kolbe9@gmail.com.