Free Speech Advocates
7. Massively Parallel Roles & Tasks
Free Speech Advocates defend the free flow of information between people with different perspectives and different sources of information. Examples of such organizations are FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Other examples include the Institute for Free Speech and Free Speech for People. In the past, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was a vigorous defender of free speech, defending, for example, the right of white supremacists to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1978, and even in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2018. More recently, however, they have, as Lara Bazelon documents, become part of a larger movement supporting limits on such rights for people whose views are seen as politically unacceptable. There is now a major conflict between this movement and more traditional free speech advocates who are actively opposing restrictions being advanced from left as well as right-leaning perspectives. These advocates include, for example, those talking about how to build a culture of free speech and how to deal with the unwillingness of some people to tolerate political opponents.
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