Whose Free Speech Is It Anyway?

An open letter in Harper's Magazine argues that social media public shamings hamper free speech. A rebuttal letter argues that cancel culture is about shuffling who has a platform and the power to wield it. Claire Potter, professor of history at The New School, and the executive editor of Public Seminar, a digital magazine of politics and culture based at The New School, signed the letter, and Malaika Jabali, writer, activist and attorney, signed a response letter that argued the original letter “does not deal with the problem of power.”