Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom, Michael J. Glennon
Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom, Michael J. Glennon
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Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom
The Dangerous Allure of Censorship in the Digital Era

Author: Michael J. Glennon

Narrator: Perry Daniels

Unabridged: 8 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Kalorama

Published: 02/27/2024


Synopsis

A vast censorship regime has smothered America's digital marketplace of ideas, squelching free speech on vital policy issues. Its supporters regard its benefits as morally and politically beyond question. They contend it's carried out by private social media platforms, not governmental authorities.

In Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom, Michael J. Glennon offers a timely and incisive response. The censors are short-sighted, he argues. Quibbling over outdated distinctions misses the real threat—which is the fusion of public and private power into a modern-day cartel able to overleap longstanding constitutional safeguards. American democracy, he argues, rests on a decentralized marketplace of ideas independent of the government. In crisp, trenchant terms, Glennon shows how concrete practical concerns justify protecting admittedly harmful online speech—even speech that advocates violence or embraces hatred or apparent falsehood.

To safely self-correct, democracy requires open channels of political communication. Glennon calls on the courts to unblock those channels—to measure such speech against enduring First Amendment precepts rather than pliable international norms—and to protect the speech interests not merely of the government and Big Tech, but of all participants in the marketplace of ideas.

About Michael J. Glennon

Michael J. Glennon is professor of constitutional and international law at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before entering teaching, he was the legal counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including National Security and Double Government and Constitutional Diplomacy. His op-ed pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, and Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nathaniel on April 03, 2025

Hard disagree with the first reviewer. I was riveted from start to end. The book was quite thorough, but with useful information and fascinating insight throughout. It covered the history from the framing to the modern era. It has a little something for everybody: - Free speech proponents will come a......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on April 01, 2024

I guess I’m the first to rate and review this book here so that’s cool but the book was just ok. Its title made it out to sound like it would be super interesting but most of it was too philosophical and dry. It was also badly edited and had several cases where a sentence was just repeated twice in......more