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Japan Today
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
From defenders to skeptics: The sharp decline in young Americans' support for free speech
By Jacob Mchangama For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech's fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech. According to a March report by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank where I am executive director, support among 18- to 34-year-olds for allowing controversial or offensive speech has dropped sharply in recent years. In 2021, 71% of young Americans said people should be allowed to insult the U.S. flag, which is a key indicator of support for free speech, no matter how distasteful. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 43% – a 28-point drop. Support for pro‑LGBTQ+ speech declined by 20 percentage points, and tolerance for speech that offends religious beliefs fell by 14 points. This drop contributed to the U.S. having the third-largest decline in free speech support among the 33 countries that The Future of Free Speech surveyed – behind only Japan and Israel. Why has this support diminished so dramatically? Shift from past generations In the 1960s, college students led what was called the free speech movement, demanding the right to speak freely about political matters on campus, often clashing with older, more censorious generations. Sociologist Jean Twenge has tracked changes in attitudes using data from the General Social Survey, a biennial survey conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. Since the 1970s, this survey has asked Americans whether controversial figures – racists, communists and anti-religionists – should be allowed to speak. Support for such rights generally increased from the Greatest Generation, born between 1900-1924, to Gen X, born between 1965-1979. But Gen Z, those born between 1995-2004, has reversed that trend. Despite the fact that the Cold War, which pitted the communist Soviet Union and its allies against the democratic West, ended more than three decades ago, even support for the free speech rights of communists has declined. Political drift and cultural realignment At the same time, some data suggests that young Americans may be drifting rightward politically. A Harvard Institute of Politics poll in late 2024 found that men ages 18–24 now identify as slightly more conservative than those ages 25–29. Another Gallup survey showed that Gen Z teens are twice as likely as millennials to describe themselves as more conservative than their parents were at the same age. This shift may help explain changes in speech attitudes. Today's young Americans may be less likely to instinctively defend speech aligned with liberal or progressive causes. For example, support among 18- to 29-year-olds for same-sex marriage, generally considered a liberal or progressive cause, fell from 79% in 2018 to 71% in 2022, according to Pew Research. Attitudes toward hate speech The Future of Free Speech study found that younger Americans are especially hesitant to defend speech that offends minority groups. Only 47% of those ages 18 to 34 said such speech should be allowed, compared with 70% of those over 55. Similarly, tolerance for religiously offensive speech was 57% among younger respondents, down from 71% in 2021. This concern over harmful or bigoted speech is not new. A 2015 Pew survey found that 40% of millennials believed the government should be able to prevent offensive speech about minorities. More recently, a 2024 report by the nonpartisan free speech advocacy group FIRE found that 70% of U.S. college students supported disinviting speakers perceived as bigoted. Over a quarter said violence could be acceptable to stop campus speech in some cases. Broader implications Why does this matter? The First Amendment protects unpopular speech. It does not just shield offensive ideas, but it safeguards movements that once seemed fringe. Whether it's civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights or anti-war protests, history shows that ideas seen as dangerous or radical in one era often become widely accepted in another. Today's younger Americans will soon shape policies in universities, media, government, tech and the public square. If a growing share believes speech should be regulated to prevent offense, that could signal a shift in how free speech is interpreted and enforced in American institutions. To be sure, support for free speech in principle remains strong. The Future of Free Speech report found that 89% of Americans said people should be allowed to criticize government policy. But tolerance for more provocative or offensive speech appears to be eroding, especially among young people. This raises questions about whether these changes reflect a life-stage effect − will today's young people become more speech-tolerant as they age? Or are we seeing a deeper generational shift? The data suggests Americans across all generations still value free speech. But for younger Americans, especially, that support seems increasingly conditional. Jacob Mchangama is Research Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, Vanderbilt University. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. External Link © The Conversation
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German Censorship Highlights Europe's Eroding Free Speech Protections
There's a lot to dislike about Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the nativist–populist party that came in second in the country's recent election, but the party's battles against government suppression of its efforts to recruit supporters and criticize rivals aren't among them. Then again, members of the AfD aren't alone in being targeted for voicing disapproved ideas; across Germany, the U.K., and elsewhere in Europe, declining respect for liberal norms is breeding censorship and arrests for offending politicians. "Germany's spy agency BfV has labeled the entirety of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist entity," the German state-owned Deutsche Welle reported May 2. "The designation gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party, with measures such as intercepting phone calls and using undercover agents." The designation was quickly suspended pending an appeal and as the government contends with the unavoidable fact that the AfD is the main opposition party in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. In February's election, the country's conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), came in first with 28.6 percent, the AfD won 20.8 percent, and the previous main governing party, the Social Democrats (SDP), pulled 16.4 percent. The CDU/CSU and the SDP formed a coalition, which left the AfD the largest bloc of opposing legislators. Putting the main opposition party under an "extremist" designation subject to surveillance is a frightening step for a democracy. "One of the things I appreciate about America is that when the federal government attacks free speech there's instant pushback by civil society," Jacob Mchangama, the head of The Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University, responded to the controversy. "People take to the streets. In Europe free speech has been in steep decline for years, but there's no real public outcry, no mainstream concern about democratic backsliding. In fact, the Old World is in a state of delusional 'Censorship Denial.'" This wasn't an isolated incident. Last month, David Bendels, an AfD-associated editor, was sentenced to seven months' probation for posting a mocking meme of former German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser holding a sign digitally altered to say the German equivalent of "I hate freedom of speech." Like other members of the last coalition, Faeser has a censorious reputation; she banned Compact magazine as "extremist" just last summer. Germany, of course, has a special history in terms of extremism. The horrors committed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi government still cast a shadow and are frequently invoked as an excuse to suppress individuals, publications, or organizations government officials claim are trying to revive that evil legacy. In truth, AfD officials sometimes evoke the Nazi past in disturbing ways, though that fault is hard to apply to its large voter base. By contrast, the crimes of the communists who ran East Germany until reunification are often overlooked even though the Left Party, which won 8.8 percent in February, is the direct descendant of the party which ruled the totalitarian East. But nationalist "extremists" aren't the only targets of Germany's censors. "In an effort it says to protect discourse German authorities have started prosecuting online trolls and as we saw it often begins with a pre-dawn wakeup call from the police," CBS News' 60 Minutes reported in a February segment about German speech policing. Cameras followed cops pounding on an apartment door in one of "more than 50 similar raids" in a "coordinated effort to curb online hate speech." What is hate speech? As 60 Minutes noted, "German law prohibits any speech that could incite hatred or is deemed insulting." Last November, a Bavarian man was investigated for referring online to then- Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck with a pun that roughly translates as "idiot." Police raided the home of a Hamburg man for calling a local politician a "pimmel" (dick). Berlin banned the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." And Irish protesters in Germany were forbidden to speak in Gaelic because police wouldn't be able to tell if they were saying verboten things. Yascha Mounck, a German-born political science professor at Johns Hopkins notes that Germany has always been more restrictive about speech than the U.S., but that things have recently grown worse. "Over the past decade, a raft of new laws has further extended restrictions on free speech," he warns. One, the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz—usually shortened to NetzDG—imposes a duty on online platforms to remove "hate speech" and insults. Another criminalizes critical remarks about politicians. It's these laws, Mounck warns, "that major German politicians now routinely invoke to ask the police to prosecute citizens, from good-faith critics to run-of-the-mill social media trolls." Mounck points out that the NetzDG has been copied by authoritarian countries, including Russia. After all, if it's good enough for a western nation, why not them? And Germany isn't alone among European governments in growing more censorial. "The times in which Britons could confidently say whatever they wanted without fear of landing in jail are now long gone. It began, as in many European countries, with hate speech legislation," he adds. "It is now possible—and indeed quite common—for Britons to be jailed for up to six months for tweeting a stupid joke without ever coming into contact with a judge who has a law degree or being able to exercise the right to a trial by jury." The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) echoes such warnings. "Free speech in Europe is under debate at the moment, and for good reason," FIRE's Sarah McLaughlin wrote in February. "For anyone who is concerned about the preservation of free expression on a global scale, the restrictions on speech—including online speech—in countries like the United Kingdom and Germany in recent years have been alarming." McLaughlin also pointed to Italy where a musician from the band Placebo has been charged with "contempt of the institutions" after calling Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a "piece of shit, fascist, racist." Notably, Mchangama, Mounck, and FIRE have all opposed efforts by both the former Biden and current Trump administrations to suppress speech politicians don't like and to punish critics. But, as they point out, America has a robust free speech culture and civil liberties advocates who are quick to protest and litigate against government overreach. Maintaining America's tradition of free expression is important for the preservation of our liberty. It's that much more so when you realize this country is really the last bastion of free speech values. The post German Censorship Highlights Europe's Eroding Free Speech Protections appeared first on
