Google's Highly Cited Scholar Wants a 'Farewell to Free Speech'

By Alexander Hall
NewsBusters
Nov. 09, 2018

Tech in Silicon Valley has an increasingly troubled relationship with free speech.

Tech writer and former editor Jason Pontin recently gained attention because he was quoted no less than nine times in Google’s leaked “The Good Censor” memo. Pontin, who previously served as Editor in Chief and Publisher of MIT Technology Review, is now arguing for “a little less goddamn talk altogether.” He also argued that one of the reasons why he wants to limit online speech is it’s too democratic and “people are terrible.”

In his Wired magazine piece “The Case for Less Speech,” Pontin lamented his former pro-free speech position. He explained that, “for a long time, I was a free-speech maximalist — someone who believed humanity needed as much free speech it could bear … I was wrong. ...”

He mentioned MIT Prof. Justin Khoo, whose “discursive tolerance” approach to this issue is similar to the censorius initiatives now becoming increasingly popular in Silicon Valley’s major tech companies. Justin defined it as “behavior that aims to impede the spread of these views without rationally engaging with them, for instance, by protesting, shaming, no-platforming, and voicing counter-narratives.”

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