Institute of Politics

From the Muslim valedictorian whose speech was canceled at the University of Southern California and a proposed forced sale of TikTok by its Chinese owners to the ban of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the debate over who is censoring whom rages on in American life. How far do the protections under the First American reach when the line between dangerous and protected speech can feel blurred to some? Who has the power to censor or ban, and what have the protests on college campuses revealed about the current state of free speech?

Featuring Nico Perrino, Executive Vice President of FIRE; Casey Newton, founder of Platformer; Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Laurie Zoloth, Margaret E. Burton Professor of Religion and Ethics at UChicago. Moderated by Summer Lopez, Chief Program Officer of Free Expression Programs at PEN America.