Lauren Jessop (Center Square)
(The Center Square) – The suppression of free speech on college campuses and censorship on social media often spark debate about the extent to which the First Amendment should protect Americans’ right to express their opinions, and who should get to decide that.
About 53% of Americans believe the First Amendment protects too many rights, according to a new poll conducted by the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
of voteThe survey, conducted from July 5 to 10, National Speech Indexis a quarterly survey designed by FIRE and Dartmouth College’s Polarization Research Lab to gauge public opinion on free speech.
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The 10-question survey consists of five permanent questions designed to track support for free speech and the First Amendment over time, and five rotating questions designed to capture public opinion on current events and newsworthy speech-related issues.
“Clearly, one in two Americans want to see fewer civil liberties,” said Shawn Stevens, chief research adviser at FIRE. “Many of them reject the right to assemble, the right to a free press, the right to petition the government. This is a dictator’s fantasy.”
Moreover, the report found that 69% of people surveyed believe their country is going in the wrong direction when it comes to freedom of speech, with only 5% believing their rights are “completely” protected and 12% saying they are not “at all” protected.
Some 65% of respondents have some confidence in the government’s ability to fairly determine what speech is deemed threatening or obscene, but only 32% said they would be “completely” worried about the government restricting the free speech of pro-Hamas protesters.
“Not only do many Americans want to rip the First Amendment apart with machetes, it’s also unclear whether they understand its limitations,” FIRE’s press releaseA majority of respondents also said that pro-Palestinian protests on campuses this spring should have continued, based on free speech grounds.
The group said that while many protests were “legitimate”, some involved “tent camping, vandalism and the occupation of buildings” that could not be legitimately protected “in the name of free speech”.
“Americans have little tolerance for certain protected forms of expression and very little tolerance for unprotected conduct, when in fact it should be the other way around,” Stevens said. “This poll makes clear the dire state of free speech in the United States.”
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Stevens told The Center Square that many Americans have little to no trust in the government to regulate free speech, pointing to past surveys, but at the same time, other data shows that many are willing to censor opinions they don’t like. They want someone to censor, but they don’t trust the government or social media companies to do it fairly, he said.
Stevens highlighted one encouraging result: There appears to be rare bipartisan agreement among Democrats and Republicans, 61% and 52%, respectively, that they are uncomfortable with the government censoring the speech of pro-Hamas protesters.
“I know what’s being said here will offend a lot of people,” he said, “but this is a strong free speech position.”
But half of Democrats and just a fifth of Republicans believe America is moving in the right direction when it comes to freedom of speech overall.
“The results of the study show that there is increased concern about the state of free speech among liberals, progressives and the left compared to six months ago,” Stevens said.
“Now they have a growing realization that their cattle are being gored and they see how easily the calls for censorship can be directed at them,” he said.
Other findings from the survey showed that the percentage of respondents who were “very” or “somewhat” worried about being fired because of a complaint about something they said fell from 28% in April to 20% in July, noting that the survey was conducted before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The percentage of people who self-censor “quite a bit” or “very” often also decreased, from 27% to 23%.
Distributed with permission From Centre Square.
