Commentary: When shouting silences speaking: Disinvitations, shoutdowns, and civil disobedience

June 02, 2023 1 min read

By Amanda Nordstrom
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: Graduation time used to be known as “disinvitation season” around FIRE’s offices, as we prepared for the yearly increase in demands by faculty members and students to revoke the invitations of guest speakers — often commencement and keynote speakers — because of something the speaker did, said, or believes.

But in recent years, there’s been a dramatic increase in calls for disinvitations all year round, along with an increase in the use of violence, shoutdowns, and other disruptive tactics to silence speakers on college campuses.

Click here for link to full article

Leave a comment


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

Disinformation Experts Hate Trump's Free Speech Executive Order

January 23, 2025 1 min read

Robby Soave
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed a bevy of executive orders earlier this week, including one that seeks to end the federal government's pressure campaign on social media companies.

The "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship" executive order reaffirms the free speech rights of social media users and prohibits government agents from engaging in unconstitutional censorship.

Read More
Trump Takes Aim at DEI in Higher Ed

January 23, 2025 1 min read

Jessica Blake
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: One of President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders aims to end “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion policies and could upend programs that support underrepresented groups on college campuses.

Whether the order, signed late Tuesday night, will be effective is not clear, some experts cautioned Wednesday. Others celebrated it as the end of DEI in America.

Read More
Penn Professor’s Fight for Free Speech Heads to Federal Court

January 23, 2025 1 min read

Aaron Sibarium 
Washington Free Beacon 

Excerpt: Amy Wax, the tenured law professor who was sanctioned for her controversial remarks about racial issues, sued the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday for breach of contract and race discrimination, putting a dispute over tenure and academic freedom that has dragged on for almost three years into the hands of a federal court. The complaint comes after Wax was suspended for a year at half-pay and stripped of her named chair, penalties the lawsuit says are "illegal multiple times over."

Read More