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    Why Free Speech Matters
    Why Free Speech Matters
    Why Free Speech Matters
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Why Free Speech Matters

    By Jamie Whyte

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    About this ebook

    What is free speech? How is it under threat? And why should it be defended at all costs? In this succinct and insightful book, author Jamie Whyte contends that free speech brings fundamental benefits to society – it promotes the growth of knowledge and provides an essential bulwark against tyranny. He argues against new attempts to constrain free speech – particularly in social media – and critiques the rationale of politicians and activists who seek to limit it. And he proposes a key test – a limiting principle – which legislators and judges should apply against any proposed curtailment of free speech. Being offensive, for example, wouldn’t pass this test – because important new ideas are often offensive to people whose worldview they challenge. Whyte also issues a rallying cry: Those who prize free speech must once again come to its defence – as he outlines exactly Why Free Speech Matters.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLondon Publishing Partnership
    Release dateSep 23, 2021
    ISBN9780255368087
    Why Free Speech Matters
    Author

    Jamie Whyte

    Jamie Whyte writes about economics and philosophy, especially as they relate to public policy. Until 2019 he was Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs. In 2014 he was leader of the ACT Party of New Zealand, a position he resigned upon failing to be elected to parliament. He has previously worked as a management consultant for Oliver Wyman and as a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge University. Jamie is the author of Quack Policy (2013), Free Thoughts (2012), A Load of Blair (2005) and Crimes Against Logic (2004). He has published more than 200 opinion columns in newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Times. He won the Bastiat Prize for Economic Journalism in 2006 and was runner-up in 2010 and 2016.

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      Book preview

      Why Free Speech Matters - Jamie Whyte

      FREE_SPEECH_FRONT_COVER_RGB150.jpg

      First published in Great Britain in 2021 by

      The Institute of Economic Affairs

      2 Lord North Street

      Westminster

      London SW1P 3LB

      in association with London Publishing Partnership Ltd

      www.londonpublishingpartnership.co.uk

      The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

      Copyright © The Institute of Economic Affairs 2021

      The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      ISBN 978-0-255-36808-7 (ebk)

      Many IEA publications are translated into languages other than English or are reprinted. Permission to translate or to reprint should be sought from the Director General at the address above.

      Typeset in Kepler by T&T Productions Ltd

      www.tandtproductions.com

      The author

      Jamie Whyte writes about economics and philosophy, especially as they relate to public policy. Until 2019 he was Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs. In 2014 he was leader of the ACT Party of New Zealand, a position he resigned upon failing to be elected to parliament. He has previously worked as a management consultant for Oliver Wyman and as a philosophy lecturer at Cambridge University. Jamie is the author of Quack Policy (2013), Free Thoughts (2012), A Load of Blair (2005) and Crimes Against Logic (2004). He has published more than 200 opinion columns in newspapers including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Times. He won the Bastiat Prize for Economic Journalism in 2006 and was runner-up in 2010 and 2016.

      Summary

      Politicians and activists seek to further limit the right to free speech by extending hate speech laws and placing new legal constraints on the speech that can be posted on social media platforms.

      The Online Safety Bill is now before the UK parliament and several American politicians, including President Biden and former President Trump, have called for the revision or abolition of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996), which protects social media companies from being treated as publishers.

      Those who prize free speech must once again defend it. The central task of any defence of free speech is to explain why some limitations on speech, such as prohibitions on inciting crime and on fraud, are justified while others, such as those banning heresy or the expression of offensive ideas, are not.

      This short book argues that restrictions on speech are warranted only if they prevent harm without interfering with the primary means by which speech benefits society: namely, promoting the growth of knowledge and providing a bulwark against tyranny.

      The familiar and uncontroversial legal restrictions on speech – perjury, fraud and incitement to crime – pass this test. They do not impede the acquisition of knowledge. Nor do they prevent the powerful from being held to account. Laws against defamation are a borderline case.

      Laws aimed at preventing the expression of ideas deemed dangerous (for example, because they might increase the chance of racist murder) do not pass the test. Important new ideas are often considered dangerous. Banning their expression will inhibit the growth of knowledge. And politicians will use the power to ban the expression of dangerous ideas to protect their own power.

      Laws aimed at protecting people from being offended also fail the test. Important new ideas are often offensive to people whose worldview they challenge. Prohibitions on offensive speech thus inhibit the growth of knowledge. And ideas that challenge those in power can also be offensive, meaning that restrictions on offensive speech can be used to protect the powerful.

      Offence is not, in any case, the social harm it is taken to be, because many people enjoy being offended. They are offence masochists.

      No law that prohibits speech merely on the basis of the idea expressed can pass the test proposed in this book. So no such law should be passed. This is a simple ‘limiting principle’ that should guide legislators and judges.

      This principle must be applied without compromise. Politicians and bureaucrats cannot be trusted to exercise any discretion. In the absence of a rigidly applied limiting principle, politicians are placed at the top of a slippery slope of speech restrictions that self-interest gives them reason to slide down.

      The job at hand

      Many years ago, I was taken for lunch by a prominent figure in the London free-market think tank scene. Between courses I asked him what he thought was so good about liberty. ‘Well, it’s liberty, isn’t it?’, he replied.

      It was an impressively economical answer. Nevertheless, I didn’t find it entirely satisfactory. I doubted it would convince someone who wasn’t already a fan of liberty. Nor would it help anyone to identify the proper limits of personal freedom. Even the most ardent libertarian doesn’t think people should be allowed to do absolutely anything they want. Libertarians don’t favour legalising murder.

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