The Future of Free Speech

At The Future of Free Speech, our mission is to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled advocacy. We envision a world where everyone’s right to freedom of expression is protected by law and reinforced by a culture that tolerates diverse viewpoints. FoFS is located at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

To: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar We, the undersigned local and international civil society organisations, urge Pakistan’s authorities to end the escalating restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, including press freedom, access to information, and human rights advocacy.

The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. We work to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled advocacy. The Future of Free Speech seeks to create a world where everyone’s right to freedom of expression is protected by law and reinforced by a culture that tolerates diverse viewpoints.

July 30, 2026 — NASHVILLE, Tenn. —The Future of Free Speech has submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission, warning that a proposed policy statement on “suppression of accuracy in AI systems” would violate the First Amendment. The filing responds to an FTC notice seeking public comment on whether prohibitions on deceptive acts or practices in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act can apply to companies that market AI systems.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken the almost unprecedented step of requiring eight Disney owned ABC stations to renew their broadcast licenses years before they were otherwise due for renewal. Given the timing and context of this requirement, it’s clear that the FCC is attempting to abuse its regulatory authority to punish ABC because of its speech, and chill broadcasters from airing content that is critical of the Administration or which the administration doesn’t agree with.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International asked Britain’s charity regulator to review the status of 117 organizations whose views on sex and abortion it dislikes. It received the public thrashing it deserved. But the threatened libel campaign now being bankrolled against it risks converting a victory for counter-speech into a cautionary tale—one in which debates over first principles are decided by ruinously expensive litigation rather than the free battle of ideas. [. .

Andrew Novo, Harris Georgiades, Natalie Alkiviadou, and Alexander Kitroeff join Thanos Davelis as we look into both phases of Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974, whether we could be seeing a new push from the UN for talks, the importance of the European Parliament’s resolution on the impact of Turkey’s invasion on Cypriot women, and how the Cyprus invasion mobilized the Greek American community. Listen Here Natalie Alkiviadou is a Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Free Speech.

Introduction In Germany, an artist and activist was arrested multiple times, once for wearing a Palestinian flag and again for holding a sign that read “from the river to the sea, we demand equality.” [1] In France, a mayor was held criminally liable, not for what he said, but for failing to remove Islamophobic comments posted by others beneath one of his Facebook posts.

On 8 July 2026, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the Impact of the 1974 Turkish Invasion on Cypriot Women and Girls and the Crimes Committed by Turkish Forces and Consequences on Gender Equality. The Resolution acknowledges that Cypriot women’s experiences of violence during 1974 are “often being excluded from official historical, legal and institutional recognition” and thus calls to document testimonies and provide support for survivors.

The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at Vanderbilt University. We work to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled advocacy. The Future of Free Speech seeks to create a world where everyone’s right to freedom of expression is protected by law and reinforced by a culture that tolerates diverse viewpoints.