Foreign Influence and the Immorality of Censorship

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Knight First Amendment Institute

Abstract

Americans have worried about foreign influence over domestic political affairs since the United States was founded. Today, those concerns have resulted in calls for restrictions on Americans’ rights, including the right to access political speech. Efforts to prevent restrictions on expression motivated by foreign influence have focused primarily on the ineffectiveness of propaganda at changing political views or behavior—and, accordingly, that such censorship is antithetical to free speech’s truth-seeking and democratic self-governance functions. I argue in this essay that these arguments, while correct, are incomplete because they fail to fully account for the importance of free speech in promoting individual dignity and autonomy. However, recognizing these moral values is critical to ensuring that First Amendment analyses of government attempts to combat foreign influence adequately account for regulated individuals’ interests. And they have important implications for resisting non-governmental censorship, as well.

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