Free Speech & Peace

Brexit’s Implications for Free Speech Online

June 29, 2016

Writing for Heat Street, Kieran Corcoran reflects on how the United Kingdom’s recent vote to exit the European Union, commonly referred to as “Brexit,” will exempt the U.K. from the EU’s expanding regime of “hate speech” laws.

Brexit further separates the U.K. from other EU regulations that touch on speech such as the “Right to be Forgotten” and the more recent “code of conduct,” an agreement between the EU, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and YouTube which requires these sites to remove contentious comments within 24 hours of their posting.

While the full implications of Brexit remain to be seen, Corcoran’s article illustrates that there is hope that when the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU, it will be able to maintain its historically robust tradition of freedom of expression—a tradition it shares with the United States.