Free speech in America is under threat.
Last year saw a record-breaking number of attempts to deplatform speakers on college campuses, with many students and professors silenced or self-censoring. Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), has called on President Trump to prioritize the protection of First Amendment rights during his second term.
The letter outlines key actions the administration should take:
- Strengthen free speech protections on campus: Support bipartisan legislation to eliminate restrictive "free speech zones" and other policies that suppress student and faculty speech rights at public universities.
- Address the abuse of campus anti-harassment policies that erode free speech: Align anti-harassment regulations with the Supreme Court’s clear, speech-protective precedent, allowing institutions to protect against patterns of discrimination, not to punish merely offensive speech.
- End government pressure on free speech: Restrict federal officials from pressuring social media companies to censor speech and refrain from threatening federal investigations of protected speech. Maintain transparency in government communications with companies about content moderation: FIRE’s SMART Act is one such model.
- Defend free speech in AI regulation: Reject AI regulations that would violate the First Amendment rights of the creators or users of AI tools.
America’s robust protection of free speech is a defining characteristic of who we are as a nation. Our democracy depends on free expression and open debate. Raise your voice. Urge the President to stand unwaveringly for our First Amendment rights.
