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GLOBAL THREATS TO FREE EXPRESSION

And what it means for your rights in the U.S.

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THE FREE SPEECH RECESSION

Article 19: Only 13% of the world lives in “open” countries
Freedom House: continuous and "extensive" decline in global freedom
Cato’s Human Freedom Index: free expression was "the indicator that experienced the largest decline" among those surveyed
Vanderbilt University's Future of Free Speech: three and half times more speech restrictive developments (169) in democracies compared to speech protective developments (48) between 2015 and 2022.
The U.S.: not looking so good here, either

Over the past 18 years, Freedom House has identified a continuous and "extensive" decline in global freedom. While only 21 countries made some degree of progress in improving conditions for freedom, they could not compete with the 52 where civil liberties declined and rights diminished.
A 2023 report from Article 19 found that, compared to the year 2020, over six billion of the world's people had less freedom to express themselves than they did at the turn of the century, with only 13% living in "open" countries. In its 2024 Human Freedom Index, the Cato Institute found that free expression was "the indicator that experienced the largest decline" among those surveyed, with that right suffering across every region globally.
The "free speech recession" has hit democratic nations too. In a report documenting a seven-year period across democracies including Denmark, Canada, and France, Vanderbilt University's Future of Free Speech organization found that there were three and half times more speech restrictive developments (169) compared to speech protective developments (48) between 2015 and 2022.
In the Us. we've seen a barrage of threats to free expression from the Trump administration. These threats have come in the form of efforts to bully media outlets into silence, force compliance among law firms, punish perceived enemies of the administration, and what one of my Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression colleagues called the "extortion-industrial complex."

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THE MOST COMMON TARGETS OF CENSORSHIP

Social media and tech
Blasphemy
Political insult
LGBTQ expression
Israel & Palestine
Free press
National security
Transnational repression

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SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECH

-The UK has a lot of problems with speech on the internet, and their handling of it is becoming fairly aggressive. The UK has been arresting an avg of 33 people per day for offensive speech much of which has been taking place over the internet. UK police even threatened internet users outside of the country too.

But the UK is not alone in this. Lots of countries are expanding their legal codes and policing to specifically address online speech

But it’s not just about what people can post. It’s also about the regulation of the platforms themselves that they post on. The past year has been a busy one for countries’ treatment of tech companies and speech
A judge in Brazil was engaged in a monthslong battle with X over its content moderation that ultimately resulted in a temporary ban and a threat to charge Brazilians 9k a day for using a VPN to access it. Eventually X complied
And the online speech of young people is particularly at risk. More and more countries are looking into passing laws forcing social media platforms to ban teens and use age verification tools against them. Australia just passed the strictest law on this front, banning 16 and unders from social media with no exception for parental consent

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BLASPHEMY

- The UK just convicted a Kurdish Armenian asylum seeker of a religiously aggravated public order offence for burning a Quran and shouting Fuck Islam outside The Turkish consulate

- This summer Turkey arrested four magazine cartoonists and editors for inciting "public hatred" over a cartoon they allege depicts the Prophet Muhammad.

An Indonedian TikToker sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison after holding up a picture of Jesus in a video and saying, “You should not look like a woman,” adding that he should cut his hair. She was found guilty of hate speech against Christianity under Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions law for comments that could affect “public order” and “religious harmony.”

- And Moroccan feminist Ibtissam Lachgar, whose arrest I discussed in the last Dispatch, was found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, along with a $5,000 fine, for blasphemy after posting a photo of herself wearing a shirt with the message, “Allah is Lesbian.”

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POLITICAL INSULT

Brian Molko, a musician in Placebo, was charged with defamation for “contempt of the institutions,” after calling Italy’s Prime Minister a “piece of shit, fascist, racist”

In April, the editor-in-chief of a right wing outlet received a seven-month suspended sentence for “abuse, slander or defamation against persons in political life” for posting a photo of an Interior Minister so that a sign she held said, “I hate freedom of opinion.”

A Thai man already serving a record 50 years in prison on lese-majeste charges received yet another long sentence for insulting the monarchy in social media posts, bringing him to at least 59 years.

And even more than just people, this extends to state symbols. In Hong Kong last year, a man was found guilty of insulting the Chinese anthem at a volleyball game. He had reportedly covered his ears during the anthem and instead sang “Do You Hear the People Sing” from the musical “Les Misérables,” and also told police he “did not like the China team.”

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LGBTQ EXPRESSION

Hihglights: gay propaganda, pornography, and community values

Belarus arresting LGBT activsits on charges including “hooliganism” and “dissemination of pornography.” A LGBT rights group in the country suggests that the crackdown is related to a recent resolution “classifying any LGBT expressions as pornography” and an upcoming “LGBT propaganda law.”
China is cracking down on people who write gay fiction online under the country’s pornography laws
Malaysian police are investigating a queer sexual health workshop for “causing disharmony, disunity, or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.”
Kuwait has reportedly banned the release of “Wicked” within the country “amid reports that the film includes gay cast

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FREE PRESS

- Four journalists linked to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny were sentenced to spend five years and six months in a penal colony on Tuesday, after they were accused of working for a banned organization

- A Shanghai court sentenced documentary filmmaker Chen Pinlin to three and a half years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge commonly used against critics of the Chinese government. Chen had released a documentary about the country’s 2022 “White Paper” protests.

- A Hanoi court sentenced Vietnamese activist and reporter to five years in prison on charges of “making, storing, or disseminating information against the state.” He ran popular social media and YouTube accounts. Weeks later, another journalist was sentenced to seven years on similar charges for comments made in YouTube videos.

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ISRAEL & PALESTINE

-An Argentine legislator is being prosecuted for social media posts comparing Israel to the Nazi regime and calling it a “genocide state.” In 2020, Argentina adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism. (FIRE has repeatedly expressed concerns about codification of the IHRA definition and the likelihood it will censor or chill protected political speech.)
- The mayor of a mid size French banned display of Palestine’s flag in the city last month as well as “all pro-Palestine demonstrations.”

- A Berlin court convicted a Pro Palestine activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the four days after the Oct 7 attacks on Israel. There has been a lot of policing around speech about Israel in Palestine in Germnay, especially around the phrase from the river to the sea

- A 22-year-old Palestinian man was tortured and killed by Hamas militants after he criticized the group publicly and participated in an anti-Hamas protests in Gaza related to its war with Israel

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NATIONAL SECURITY

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TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION

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HOW ELSE DOES GLOBAL CENSORSHIP AFFECT US?

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DECRYING CENSORSHIP ABROAD WHILE ENFORCING IT AT HOME?

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QUESTIONS?

Need to reach me?

Email: sarah@thefire.org