On March 6, 2024, Dr. Peter Ives gave a presentation titled, “Social Media as a Failed Free Expression Experiment” The talk argued that “free speech” controversies are increasingly unresolvable not because people have differing commitments to the principle of free speech, but because they have incompatible underlying rationales for why speech should be free. The rise of social media has restructured the nature of public discussion; however, I argue that it is not so much the new technology but instead legal structures, social and economic exigencies and political ideals that are central to understanding the contemporary characteristics of social media. I examine how many legal scholars and policy makers including those with strong commitments to the US First Amendment and Canada’s Charter Rights of Free Expression are coming to understand that such constitutional tools are outmoded when trying to address the misogyny, racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism, transphobia, and other forms of hatred that plague social media.
Peter Ives is professor of Political Science teaching primarily political theory. He was born and raised in Colorado, has a B.A. in Political Science from Reed College, Portland, Oregon; and an MA and PhD in Social & Political Thought from York University in Toronto. He is author of Gramsci’s Politics of Language (2004) and Language and Hegemony in Gramsci (2004), and co-editor with Rocco Lacorte of Gramsci, Language and Translation (2010). He has published in Rethinking Marxism, Political Studies, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy and Language Policy. He has researched and written extensively on the politics of “global English” and bridging the disciplines of language policy and political theory. He has contributed articles to The Conversation on free speech and academic freedom. He was on the editorial board of Rethinking Marxism for a decade and on the editorial collective of ARP (Arbeiter Ring Press) for many years. He is active in the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association. His writings have been translated into Italian, Turkish, Chinese, German and Portuguese.
You can watch the whole presentation below: