A reckless version of free speech is spreading across America, partly because of unchecked rhetoric by Elon Musk, Kayne West, and Kyrie Irving. We can't be complicit.
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- Elon Musk and Ye are among multiple notable figures embracing a misguided notion of free speech.
- They feel free speech includes spreading hate and misinformation, and it's having consequences.
- Hate speech on Twitter recently spiked, and human-rights leaders are on edge.
Local politicians are getting physically assaulted. Libraries are closing because of bomb threats. Poll workers are fearful in the wake of death threats targeting election staff.
This is the influence of violent rhetoric and misinformation in the US. And it's likely to get worse amid a growing, misguided movement for free speech.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Ye (previously known as Kanye West), and the basketball star Kyrie Irving have become strange bedfellows in a growing fight for so-called free speech. Their rhetoric — which has, in recent weeks, outright spread or nodded to misinformation, bigotry, and hate — is a reckless understanding of the First Amendment. It's pushed many to spread racist, antisemitic, or false statements.
We might scoff, laugh off, or roll our eyes at their comments. But then we move on with our lives because we've become desensitized to them — and because we have other things to worry about.
The fatigue is real. After Musk's takeover of Twitter, for example, Chris Stedman, a professor at Augsburg University in Minneapolis tweeted, "Probably not leaving Twitter just like I didn't move to Canada. I'm used to living in hell."
But Musk's and others' schoolyard interpretation of the First Amendment is damaging our democracy. We can't just turn away. Their speech-before-responsibility approach is making life more dangerous for those whom diversity advocates seek to protect.
"The impact that these individuals are having is really a breakdown of our society and making folks feel like they're being gaslit," Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, a California librarian and the head of the American Library Association, said, referring to Musk and other notable figures who have spread falsehoods. "They're doing nothing but a disservice to our society."
The impact that these individuals are having is really a breakdown of our society.
Americans are on the precipice of accepting hate speech as free speech, and nobody is stepping up to say, "This is wrong." Instead, most of the public — and users of public forums like Twitter — looks away, a form of complacency. The collective silence harbors a form of agreement, which is making hate speech and extremism the new norm. Even human-rights organizations are on edge.
"Free speech is not a free pass," Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, wrote in an open letter to Musk published Saturday. "There is no place for hatred that incites discrimination, hostility or violence."
The UN leader noted Twitter's role in the spread of COVID-19 falsities, adding that he was writing with "concern and apprehension about our digital public square and Twitter's role in it."
But we have options, especially if we feel celebrities or authority figures are pushing the envelope too far. We could consider speaking up and challenging opinions that are based on little more than hate. We could consider not sending our dollars to brands whose famous frontmen amplify hate and unfollowing provocateurs on social media.
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."
Right now, the silence is pretty stark. Meanwhile, violence in America is increasing.
AP Photo/Michael Wyke, File
Of course, free-speech absolutists have the right to say most anything they want on any street corner, but in doing so, they might expect some pushback. Racist screeds, for example, would likely stir up a crowd of incensed witnesses. But put that same person behind a keyboard, and the threat of real retaliation gets watered down.
Hate-mongers are quick to point out their right to say whatever they want but not nearly so quick to ask whether they should say such things. They tend to ignore that free-speech protections apply to government censorship of speech — not what private actors like Twitter deem acceptable within its community.
Free-speech protections apply to government censorship of speech — not what private actors like Twitter deem acceptable within its community.
Platforms from Twitter to newspaper op-ed pages are entitled to implement and enforce standards of decency. If Elon Musk doesn't want white supremacists, for example, on his platform, he has every right to kick them off.
But too often those with abhorrent views — not just unpopular ones — get an implicit green light to keep going. Ye has leveled numerous antisemitic statements in recent weeks. Irving apologized for his actions but failed to say he was not antisemitic. Extremist groups are taking note.
There are limits to hazardous speech in this country. The trope about how it's illegal to falsely yell fire in a crowded theater isn't true; it's legal. But rather than getting caught up in distracting debates, we might be wiser to demand better speech from those around us.
Alone we have little hope, but together, we can stop the spread of hate. CEOs and business executives care about their reputation and, at the very least, their company's profits. Speaking out on social media against unbound free speech, or withholding your business from a company, sends a message to executive board rooms.
"Why do we continuously 'cancel' those who spew toxicity and division? It's because by allowing those who have a voice to spread their words, it enables others to do the same," one professional named Christopher Lin wrote on LinkedIn.
"Not even 12 hours when Elon took over Twitter, we saw hateful, bigoted, racist tweets spark up," he added. "This is why we have to hold those in power accountable for their words."
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