Free Speech in the 21st Century Global Conference to Be Held July 3-4

Top Quote Virtual Conference Will Address What Is Free Speech and Feature Leading Legal, Academic, and Corporate Leaders. End Quote
  • (1888PressRelease) July 01, 2020 - The International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) and Alma Mater Europaea university announce the “Free Speech in the 21st Century”, a virtual conference discussing how the limits to our freedom of expression are changing with time will be held on July 3 – 4, 2020. The conference will include speakers such as Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet; András Sajó, a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board; Alma Mater Europaea university Professor Jurij Toplak, who is currently a visiting professor at Fordham University; Fordham University Law Professor Olivier Sylvain; University of Tokyo Professor Itsuko Yamaguchi; Elisa Bertolini, Assistant Professor at Bocconi University, and many more. The two-day conference will cover one of the most critical issues facing individuals and corporate entities in the twenty-first century, what is free speech in the age of social media and the 24/7 news cycle. The conference is virtual and is free for scholars who want to learn more about this critical and ever evolving issue. Registration is available on the conference website.

    Free speech is one of the essential democratic rights, and one of the most controversial. Whether it is Donald Trump’s Twitter account, Larry Flynt’s pornographic magazine, protests against police, the financing of an election campaign as determined in Citizens United, fake news, or hate speech directed at migrants, immigrants, or minorities, free speech incidents attract intense media coverage and regularly provoke debate as to its limits if any exist. Should Google, Facebook and Twitter have the authority to censor the contents and close users’ accounts arbitrarily? Or should they stay politically neutral and should be allowed to block users only when users violate specific terms? Given that these social networks are so powerful to easily affect global public opinion, should we continue to treat them as regular companies, or should we treat them as public utilities or ads-driven websites? This conference will attempt to answer these questions in its sessions with leading constitutional experts as well as members of the social media world.

    The limits to our freedom of expression are changing as our means of communication are changing with social media, texts, smartphones, and more technologies being developed. This conference will feature unique exploration into crucial freedom of speech issues. It will feature the most prominent names in constitutional law to debate the future of the human right that is so important to democratic society and is one of the cornerstones of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

    Alma Mater Europaea is an international university based in the Austrian city of Salzburg, with campuses in Slovenia and several other countries. It was founded by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a society of around 2000 prominent scholars, including 32 Nobel laureates.

    International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) is an international scholarly association, devoted to the advancement of constitutional law. It provides a forum in which constitutionalists from all parts of the world can research each other’s systems, reflect on their own, and engage in fruitful comparison.

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