The big idea: what do we really mean by free speech?
Social media bosses are suddenly all for it, but can we take their enthusiasm at face value?
Free speech is in permacrisis – or so some would have you believe. Complaints that freedom of speech is under attack come mostly from the political right, from public figures who appear to the naked eye to be extremely free to say and do what they like, and see no irony in doing so via platforms with vast audiences.
These vigorous defenders of free speech also often have a curiously narrow set of interests over which they wish to exercise it. Far from the noble anti-authoritarian roots of the British liberal tradition, these figures – Nigel Farage, for example – prefer to use their platforms to punch down, often against already persecuted minority groups. Rather than wanting freer speech, what they actually want is freedom from the consequences of broadcasting their views. What the right calls cancel culture, philosopher Arianne Shahvisi writes, “is often just the supersized celebrity version of what the rest of us experience all the time: consequences for our mistakes and bigotries. You do something shitty and people distance themselves from you, especially if you refuse to acknowledge your wrongdoing and make amends.”
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