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America Must Fight for Free Speech in 2025

As 2025 unfolds, the United States faces a pivotal moment to reaffirm its foundational commitment to free speech—a principle that has propelled our republic and catalyzed global innovation. Yet the online expression that fuels these freedoms is under siege by creeping censorship frameworks, often imported from abroad. If America hopes to preserve free speech on the internet, it must reject these foreign blueprints for control and lead the world by example.

Across Europe, governments are enacting laws that wield sweeping authority over online platforms, often cloaked in language of safety and security. The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) and the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) are prime offenders. Their promises to clean up the internet mask a frightening reality: they empower bureaucrats to dictate what content is allowed. This top-down approach to regulating speech is incompatible with America’s First Amendment, which prioritizes liberty over centralized control.

These censorship models don’t remain confined to their countries of origin. The “STAR Framework,” a regulatory template for controlling online spaces, has inspired laws far beyond Europe, such as in Australia. Even in the U.S., this framework is being pushed in California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) and a federal bill considered by the last Congress, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

The American approach to speech has always been unique. Our First Amendment protects not just polite or popular opinions but the unruly, uncomfortable and dissenting voices that challenge authority and spark progress. Borrowing from foreign models undermines this legacy.

Take KOSA, for example. Its backers pitch it as a safeguard for children, but its resemblance to the UK’s Online Safety Act raises serious red flags. Beneath the good intentions lies the potential for expansive restrictions that could erode Americans’ ability to speak freely and innovate boldly. Once these frameworks take root, they’re hard to dismantle, as we’ve seen with our ever-growing regulatory state—and the American internet could be forever altered against freedom.

Global trends toward censorship are gaining momentum. Across the world, private individuals and businesses can be penalized and even arrested for peacefully debating important issues online.

In his recent announcement of Meta’s reorientation toward free speech principles, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called on the U.S. government to help our tech industry stand up to foreign and international attempts to push for greater censorship of online speech. At this pivotal time for free speech online, his plea is particularly pertinent: 

“The U.S. has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world. Europe has an ever increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative there. Latin American countries have secret courts that can order companies to quietly take things down. China has censored our apps from even working in the country. The only way that we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the U.S. government.”

In pursuit of this goal, Congress must reject censorship imports like KOSA so America can stand firm as the world’s beacon for free speech. This isn’t just about protecting individual rights; it’s about preserving the innovation and principles that enable America to lead the world.