Free Speech Is America’s Radical Idea And Big Tech Must Defend It

The United States was founded on an idea so radical that much of the world still does not fully accept it: that human beings should be broadly free to speak, criticize, argue, offend, publish, dissent, and challenge authority without centralized control over thought itself. The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were not merely documents establishing another government. They were declarations that individual liberty, including political speech, stood above the comfort of rulers and above the desire of societies to silence dangerous or unpopular ideas. This was not an accidental oversight by the founders. They understood the risks. They knew free speech would produce lies, conspiracy theories, insults, political extremism, social unrest, and deeply offensive speech. The early American press was often vicious and reckless. The founders lived through rumor campaigns, political rage, foreign influence efforts, and open attacks on public officials. And yet they…