The Freedom to Speak: A Sociolegal and Historical Analysis of Information Gatekeeping and Speech Censorship for the Digital Era

Abstract

This dissertation offers a philosophical and historical exploration of speech and content moderation to an interdisciplinary readership of students, scholars, corporate executives, policymakers, and thought leaders. Through critical textual analysis, it analyzes the sociolegal and historical objectives of protecting freedoms of expression, speech, and press. It challenges deep-seated legal premises, including the American “marketplace of ideas” and contextualizes the U.S. speech tradition within a global sociolegal framework. This inquiry is pressing. Scholarship has not thoroughly examined the implications of what I label American “speech imperialization” or “über-right fetishization:” an exceptionalist, typically latent, tendency to export neoliberal free-speech ideology internationally. Without this understanding of First Amendment deification, Americans, especially Silicon-Valley based communications companies, will be poorly positioned to handle international speech-related disputes when their speech-regulatory frameworks clash with international jurisprudence and philosophy.