The Future of Free Speech

Through the internet and social media, many previously marginalized groups have been given opportunities to access information and make their voices heard. A major downside to the openness of social media platforms is the increased spread of hate speech, extremism and misinformation. More and more money is being spent on content moderation and technical solutions to limit these negative aspects. This leads to arbitrary judgments and algorithmic censorship that easily fail, and it gives business corporations enormous power over the public conversation.

With this project, Justitia wants to work to preserve and strengthen freedom of expression by increasing the understanding of how it is gradually restricted even in democratic countries, developing methods that can deal with hate, extremism and misinformation on the internet without restrictive legislation.

The project is supported with SEK 2,320,000.

What does the project deliver?

– Mapping of global attitudes toward free speech and analyzing whether common concerns and arguments used to justify restrictions of free speech are based on real or imagined harms.
Strengthening existing standards needed to resist the global authoritarian deterioration of freedom of expression.
– Delivering the data to activists, policymakers, academics and other critical stakeholders through outreach.

Why do we support this project?

Freedom of expression is a basic prerequisite for a functioning democratic society. Protecting and understanding the importance of freedom of expression when hate and misinformation infect the conversation in social media is therefore urgent in Sweden and the rest of the world.