Free Speech is Dying... or is it?

Thoughts on deplatforming and cancel culture

Jul 04, 2025

Cross-post from Maximum Freedom, Minimum Bullshit

Good thoughts, that also shows how freedom of speech isn't to be seen as something separate from other things going on in the world: it is, or should be, built into anything we do. -

Jorgen Winther

Hey there, you good?

Another week of rugpulls, censorship, and deplatforming.

Sigh.

Whatever happened to our free speech?

Maximum Freedom

This week, BTC Sessions had his YouTube channel nuked by Google.

They switched off his videos, and nine years of in-depth tutorials went down the drain (it was later restored after bitcoin X did its thing).

YouTube could not comment on why it was deleted, but it’s likely that AI content flagging and moderation had some part to play.

Big tech platforms are outsourcing moderation to AI, which is notoriously poor at identifying content which breaches their terms of service. Owning a censorship-free social identity and distributing your own content (algorithm-free) has never been more important.

If you haven’t already, join and use Nostr.

Platforms like YouTube, X, and Substack cannot uphold (or suppress) free speech. They can only enforce their own rules, which are built to maximize profit, not freedom.

But what even is freedom of speech?

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Pretty darned vague.

Free speech: an example

It is the opinion of this writer that the Solana blockchain is digital trash, silly little tokens designed to funnel wealth away from smooth-brained teenage degen gamblers. I also believe that XRP is a psyop designed to insert government bootlickers into positions of influence in order to control billions of citizens through dystopian CBDCs.

However, if I were to say what I actually think (including swear words and more graphic images), this email might be consigned to the spam folder by overactive email AI filters.

In some ways, the digital world is even less free than the meatspace. How nations adapt and enforce the vague concept of ‘free speech’ in the digital realm is up to them. It’s more about the group-think of ‘what is free’ and ‘what should not be permitted’.

“The health of free speech in any given nation depends more on a culture of free speech than on laws… You really have to get into the 1950s before free speech is consistently protected and reaches our modern threshold.”
Jacob Mchangama, lawyer and human rights advocate

This issue is not an easy one to fix. It cannot be solved by online screaming matches, over-regulation, censorship or a total lack of enforcement.

This week’s Maximum Freedom resource is a set of illuminating blogs from the always excellent Cato Insitute.

Learn more about Free Speech

As well as embracing privacy and anonymity tools to protect ourselves from getting cancelled (or worse), the best we can do is read, learn, publish, and practice freedom of speech as only we know how.

Minimum Bullshit

Lyn Alden appeared on the InstitutNationalBitcoin channel to discuss the French edition of Broken Money, Rupture Monétaire (French subs available). If you’d like to translate Broken Money into your language, get in touch with our team.

21 Futures has launched in audio form!
Get the full audiobook of Tales from the Timechain on Apple books.
(Audible, native download, and Nostr zap-to-unlock versions coming soon).
Brian Hirschfield has published an important book for those in finance, pensions, actuarial field and accounting. Bitcoin for Institutions is out now.
Worth a Read:
Aldona Bitcoin Daily (not daily) offers analysis and European insight on the big issues facing bitcoin. Aldona Żukowska-Caramés offers an English/Spanish bilingual perspective.

Thanks for reading.

Keep livin’ free.