Free Speech, Censorship, and the Age of Global Media

Catalog description

Disinformation, gag laws, de-platforming, violent hate speech, recommendation algorithms, chatbots, image generators. This course will help us make sense of our increasingly volatile public sphere by surveying the history of free speech and censorship from the print revolution to the information age. In democratic societies, freedom of expression is both a cultural value and protected right; yet governments routinely regulate speech through a variety of mechanisms: from direct censorship, to licensing and copyright laws, to high court decisions about what qualifies as speech. We'll track the categories of dangerous speech-blasphemy, pornography, treason, libel-as they've changed over time. And we'll also consider forms censorship that protect freedoms and ensure civil discourse, such as banning racial stereotyping or genocide denial.