Sarah McLaughlin
FIRE Staff Speaker
Sarah graduated magna cum laude from Drexel University in 2014 with a B.S. in political science and a minor in history. In 2012, Sarah began working with FIRE as a Program Assistant through Drexel’s cooperative education program and remained on FIRE’s staff for through the rest of her undergraduate career. After graduation, Sarah defended students and faculty facing censorship in FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program, where she worked for five years. She also served as director of FIRE’s Targeted Advocacy program, where she focused on U.S. universities’ relationship with international threats to free speech and art censorship. Her writing about free speech issues, including protest and blasphemy laws, has been featured in publications including Foreign Policy, Artsy, The Huffington Post, and New York Daily News.
Recent Writings
- Police killings worsen crisis of mob violence against Pakistan’s blasphemers,
- Brazil bans X — and threatens daily $9,000 fine for those still trying to use it,
- UN may hand authoritarian governments new weapon to silence dissent,
- UK police threaten to prosecute speech from ‘further afield online’ while internet crackdowns and blackouts strike around the world,
- UK government issues warning: ‘Think before you post’,
- Tech companies’ censorship compliance abroad, dual U.S.-Saudi citizen facing jail time, and more free speech trouble in the UK,
- Media censorship in Israel, Tiananmen memorials criminalized, and the perils of criticizing the powerful ,
- VIDEO: On 35th anniversary of the massacre, ‘Tiananmen is important because it’s hope’,
- How court rulings in Hong Kong and Australia threaten the global internet,
- German police forbid ‘speaking Irish’ at Berlin protest,
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