Free speech in America is under threat.
Last year saw a record-breaking number of attempts to deplatform speakers on college campuses, with many students and professors silenced or self-censoring. Greg Lukianoff, President of the ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø (²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø), has called on President Trump to prioritize the protection of First Amendment rights during his second term.
The letter outlines key actions the administration should take:
- Strengthen free speech protections on campus: Support bipartisan legislation to eliminate restrictive "free speech zones" and other policies that suppress student and faculty speech rights at public universities.
- Address the abuse of campus anti-harassment policies that erode free speech: Align anti-harassment regulations with the Supreme Court’s clear, speech-protective precedent, allowing institutions to protect against patterns of discrimination, not to punish merely offensive speech.
- End government pressure on free speech: Restrict federal officials from pressuring social media companies to censor speech and refrain from threatening federal investigations of protected speech. Maintain transparency in government communications with companies about content moderation: ²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵAPP¹ÙÍø’s SMART Act is one such model.
- Defend free speech in AI regulation: Reject AI regulations that would violate the First Amendment rights of the creators or users of AI tools.
America’s robust protection of free speech is a defining characteristic of who we are as a nation. Our democracy depends on free expression and open debate. Raise your voice. Urge the President to stand unwaveringly for our First Amendment rights.
