Story by Alex Russell
The right to free speech is part of our American identity, but what if some forms of speech use this idea of freedom against us? Increasingly, certain forms of speech — hate speech and disinformation in particular — threaten our society and the many freedoms we might take for granted.
In a new paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Jurisprudence, UC Davis philosopher and legal scholar Mark Reiff gives new insight into the source of the right to free speech and the limits that this right contains. The paper explains how these limits show us that hate speech and disinformation are not protected by the right, but rather must be limited to ensure all of our fundamental freedoms.
