Freedom of speech is under constant assault these days by people who want to cement leftist power in place by silencing dissent. They think that they have found a justification for doing that by claiming that they only want to crack down on “hate speech.”
Writing in the Hill, law professor Jonathan Turley shows how misguided and dangerous that line of argument is.
He makes the crucial point that there is no way of limiting censorship and punishment once we start down the road of controlling speech. Turley writes:
Social media companies have used ‘hate speech’ to justify censorship of opposing views. LinkedIn reportedly has added its company name to this ignoble effort, according to an Air Force veteran whose account was disabled after criticizing calls for loan forgiveness. The site reportedly declared that opposing the Democratic plan for loan forgiveness is ‘hate speech.’ TikTok labeled as hate speech a video supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted of killing protesters in Kenosha, Wis., in 2020. The video discussed the effort by Arizona State University students to ban Rittenhouse from campus.
Any governmental efforts at regulating “hate speech” will inevitably be taken over by zealots who will silence or punish any speech that might run counter to their agenda. We’ve already seen something like this happen in other areas. We must fight to keep it from happening in this one.