From State Rep. Melissa Hortman’s murder to Luigi Mangione’s manifesto to Charlie Kirk’s assassination to whatever fresh horror will have meteor-impacted the news cycle between my typing these words and their publication, it has never been clearer that online radicalization is leading to real-world consequences.
My team at <a href="https://usthestory.org/">US the Story</a> last year analyzed just a handful of the most vile posts from 14 of the top full-blown hate accounts on one platform. These 14 posts showed a combined view count of over 50 million. The accounts themselves had a reach of 6,450,000,000 impressions. Engagement — the number of times people actually interacted with the content in total to like, quote, or share — crossed 448 million over the course of roughly 10 months.
These posts, their volume, and their reach create a permission structure for more and more hatred. It’s a quickening descent into violence and chaos; the more it becomes fair game to denigrate and threaten “the other group,” the more blaming and attacking that group becomes normalized.
One way of looking at this is as a network contagion issue. Debates around social-media-facilitated social contagions have raged in the culture wars for years. Young women in particular have been targeted by bots and accounts promoting anorexia, gender dysphoria, and more. Viral events such as the 2023 explosion of bin Laden’s “Letter to America” and widespread <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-20/tiktok-effects-on-mental-health-in-focus-after-teen-suicide">messaging encouraging suicidality</a> caused immediate concern in the broader culture. At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised that algos designed to maximize virality for profit at any cost fuel the most toxic, contagious, and sticky topics.
Studies have consistently shown that violent crime follows a Pareto distribution, with 1% of criminals committing up to 60% of crimes. The same is true of hateful content strategically riding the algos in the service of encouraging real-world violence. Do we really want our social media platforms taken over by psychopaths in a full-blown network contagion? And more importantly, what happens if we do?
Most contagions left unimpeded spread enough to damage and threaten the entire system. That’s why many such cases are fueled by foreign PSYOPs.
<div id="attachment_992051" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-992051" class="size-large wp-image-992051" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-864x576.jpg" alt="cream_ph. Getty Images. Young hacker working in the dark room and using laptops to steal private information" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />cream_ph. Getty Images.</div>
The aim of these contagions is never the stated topic at hand. They aren’t actually about trans rights or Jews or vaccinations or immigration. They’re about, first, setting Americans against one another in radicalized tribal conflicts, and, second, making these topics impossible or even dangerous to discuss productively (eliminating sane discussion, an obvious precondition for solving problems). During the Cold War, for instance, the KGB provided financial and logistical support to the Black Panthers while also sending forged menacing letters from the Ku Klux Klan to black leaders in order to stoke racial tensions.
The point is to poison both sides in order to sow maximum chaos to undermine and destroy Western democracies.
It’s nearly impossible to withstand algorithmically-driven content engineered to maximize rage, fear, and anxiety in the service of keeping people glued to their screens. It is indeed a type of mind control. This level of nervous-system hacking and the deluge of toxic messaging can trigger terrible instincts and behavior, especially in young people whose prefrontal cortexes are literally not yet fully developed.
On top of hostile regime influence and outrage algorithms maximized for profit, there are also bad-faith domestic players urging America along its path of destruction. Most of these behind-the-scenes manipulators exhibit the Dark Tetrad traits of sadism, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. These nefarious individuals are using sophisticated and furtive onboarding techniques to hijack the platforms.
Earlier this year, our team recorded a live conversation on a prominent social media platform between self-avowed neo-Nazis, one of whom has a sizable account with millions of views and reach. The conversation was a strategy session about how to manipulate larger non-ideologically aligned influencer accounts to share Nazi content. The strategy entails using carefully selected words, phrasing, and arguments that may be polarizing but aren’t explicitly antisemitic or racist. They target certain specific influencers and thought leaders’ interests that are political but outside the “Nazi diet.” When another large account interacts with a seemingly benign post by these Nazi accounts, it boosts that account algorithmically so the Nazi account gains followers, views, and increased power to change the culture on the platform and elsewhere. It’s the Nazi equivalent of algorithmic grooming.
The same holds true with radical leftist techniques. An April study by our partner group, <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/">NCRI</a>, found that more than 50% of self-identified people on the left of the political spectrum believed it at least somewhat acceptable to assassinate President Trump. And a whopping 78% of BlueSky users expressed some level of support for Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The biggest predictor of Mangione support? BlueSky usage.
Heavy social media use is indeed the one constant. Increasingly, when we dissect the social media diet and posts of those onboarded to radicalism, we are finding a toxic blend of ideologies. This is because the aim is not to support liberal or conservative politics. The aim is to get as many (especially young Americans) to arrive where far left and far right meet at the horseshoe of nihilism: the No Lives Matter cohort. Once the conditions are set for, say, a young man’s radicalization, it doesn’t matter to our hostile foreign adversaries whether the next bus he boards is filled with violent trans-Antifa-types or your-body-my-choice groypers.
We have no intention of vilifying the social media platforms (aside from those purposefully running full-blown foreign PSYOPs) or undermining free speech. In our informal engagements with leaders at these platforms, we have found them concerned and receptive to discussing ways to counter this. Vilifying CEOs, big tech, and the workers within these corporations not only forecloses on cooperative progress, but will likely shove them into a defensive posture. There are plenty of good people in tech leadership who have expressed a willingness to address this problem.
<div id="attachment_992053" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-992053" class="size-large wp-image-992053" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1024x576.jpg" alt="Outflow Designs. Getty Images. Technology icons transfer data through programming codes, artificial intelligence concept." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Outflow Designs. Getty Images.</div>
So how might we approach this?
Here are five concrete recommendations to turn down the temperature on destructive social media trends while protecting freedom of speech and steering clear of government overreach and censorship.
<h3>1. Make algorithms transparent.</h3>
Citizens, parents, and the free market (advertisers and content producers) have a right to know if they or their children are participating in platforms feeding suicidality, hate-mongering, violent pornography, anti-American propaganda, or anything else damaging. This is not about control or censorship but about allowing people to know what they are engaging with so they can make informed choices for themselves, their companies, and their children. We aren’t making a demand that the platforms publish their proprietary trade secrets in terms of the algorithms. Rather, we are suggesting to allow independent researchers access to the data required to assess algo impacts in relation to illegal activity and whether the platforms are enforcing their own rules as defined in their terms of service. That is indeed the contract with the user—and the free market.
There is a valid argument too for the right of Americans to explore fringe and even perilous ideas and viewpoints. The world is a dangerous place and neither the government nor corporations should foreclose on the rights of citizens to explore beyond the bounds of what is considered widely acceptable (excluding, of course, illicit materials). But contact with the terrible and extreme should be done knowingly, not as a result of covert algorithms that are optimized for profit and forced into your feed. Ideally, dipping into dangerous arenas should be inoculating, not poisoning.  

<h3>2. Reward those on social media who identify themselves as verified users and stand behind their words in the public square.</h3>
Social media participants who use their real identities deserve to have their opinions elevated above those who post anonymously and have zero accountability. A free marketplace of ideas should privilege a modicum of courage, transparency, and responsibility.
There are certainly arguments to be made for anonymous accounts, with whistleblowers being oft-cited. That’s fair enough. They can still post their information in a second tier of engagement below verified users. It just won’t be elevated to the top along with every anonymously cited conspiracy theory. 

<h3>3. Differentiate freedom of speech from freedom of reach for profit.</h3>
As a vehement free speech advocate, I believe in the right for people to explore what they want and express themselves how they wish. But algorithms pushing hatred, lies, and violence are waging an asymmetric war on the truth. Freedom of speech is one thing. Distortion of speech and covert manipulation of the free marketplace of ideas is another.
Sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant for bad ideas but light of day is insufficient to combat targeted deep-machine-learning computing power designed to elevate lies above all else and compounded by the machinations of psychopathic actors. This level of skew on the playing field makes a competition of ideas nearly impossible. Why hide the truth at the bottom of a cesspool? A hierarchy of values and a hierarchy of information is necessary for any endeavor that hopes to produce anything beyond chaos and ruin. 

<h3>4. Preserve human judgment at social media companies.</h3>
Of course, humans have biases and can fall victim to corruption. But that doesn’t mean that we should eliminate human good from the decision-making process. Shouldn’t we encourage and reward that which moves us toward greater truth and health? Rather than encouraging and rewarding the opposite? Every playing field needs a referee and every company should have stewards of common sense and common decency who assess the automated content moderation systems to ensure they’re not being gamed and to help enforce the agreed-upon rules of the game. Corporations are certainly equipped to encourage free speech, social engagement, and network health while ensuring that the tiny percentage of psychopathic accounts are not rocket-fueled by algos to infect the entire platform.
<h3>5. Identify and combat bot swarms and inauthentic coordinated material.</h3>
Users, advertisers, and the platforms themselves should know whether they are engaging with real accounts and ideas or with manipulative bad actors and swarms of bots from a Saint Petersburg troll farm. Independent research access to the data can bring additional resources to the table when it comes to identifying these threats to users and the platforms themselves. A bigger ecosystem of transparency is to our collective benefit. 
These five concrete recommendations will go a long way toward tamping down chaos, lies, and sadism online and in the real world.
* * *
Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 26 thrillers including the Orphan X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he’s written screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, and is an award-winning documentary producer. Gregg also wrote comics for AWA (including the critically acclaimed anthology NewThink), DC, and Marvel, and poetry. Currently, Gregg is working against polarization in politics and culture. To that end, he’s penned dozens of Op/Eds and pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark, Salon, and others, and pieces of creative content which have won numerous industry awards and achieved several hundred million views on digital TV platforms. He also helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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When Algorithms Turn Deadly: Five Fixes For Preserving Free Speech In A System Out Of Control

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Charlie Kirk was a tireless champion of the First Amendment and the sacred right to free speech it protects. He led the charge for every American to speak freely, believe openly, and challenge authority without fear. In standing up to a ruthless faction that despised those freedoms, Charlie paid the ultimate price. He became a martyr for the first protection in the Bill of Rights.
To honor his courage and his life’s work, the Media Research Center (MRC) is proud to award the annual MRC Free Speech Award exclusively to Charlie Kirk.
In 2024, the MRC recognized 35 individuals and groups for their defense of free expression. There are again many worthy champions this year. But Charlie’s leadership, clarity, and sacrifice deserve singular recognition.
The MRC presents this award during Free Speech Week, a national celebration that reminds Americans what separates us from every other nation on earth. Without the right to speak freely, there can be no democracy, no Republic, no America. Yet we now live in a time when many citizens no longer believe in that right. Some even view the First Amendment as a danger to the nation itself.
Charlie saw that storm coming. He warned that the Left’s growing intolerance would not stop at censorship, but would escalate into the criminalization of “wrongthink.” He said, “Leftists in the Western world want to criminalize wrongthink&#8230; This can only end badly if we don’t stop it first.” Those words were not rhetoric. They were prophecy.
Charlie understood the connection between speech and civilization. He knew that free expression is not a privilege granted by government but a moral necessity that allows truth to prevail over power. He also recognized that the modern threat did not come from a single politician or newsroom, but from a coordinated network of tech companies, bureaucrats, and cultural elites seeking to control the flow of information.
Through MRC’s Free Speech America division, we exposed 57 censorship programs operating across 93 federal agencies during the Biden years. Some of those programs targeted Charlie and Turning Point USA directly. He fought back not with anger, but with reason and courage. He saw that Big Tech platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, and X were no longer neutral conduits but ideological gatekeepers. He demanded that these corporations be treated as the publishers they had become, accountable for their choices and stripped of the immunity that shields their censorship.
Charlie was not motivated by partisanship. He was motivated by principle. As a man of faith, he saw free speech as an extension of free will — the God-given ability to think, speak, and act according to conscience. He knew that once a society loses the right to express truth, it soon loses the capacity to recognize it.
There are many who have continued this fight. President Donald Trump deserves special credit for reversing the Biden administration’s censorship directives and appointing officials who are restoring the First Amendment within government. Members of Congress, judges, and state leaders are carrying that same torch. But this year, one name stands above them all.
Charlie’s example must inspire our next steps. Congress should define the limits of Section 230 and end Big Tech’s abuse of it. The Trump administration should complete the work of dismantling every remaining censorship initiative. And states should act to protect consumers and elections from the tyranny of information control.
Charlie’s voice may be gone, but his conviction endures. The cause he gave his life for remains the cornerstone of the American experiment. It will only end if we fail to defend it.
Let’s not disappoint him.
* * *
David Bozell is president of the Media Research Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Addresses Turning Point USA Summit

Why MRC’s Free Speech Award Belongs To Charlie Kirk Alone

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University of Maryland administrators told its Turning Point USA chapter that it may not be able to host a Daily Wire journalist on Wednesday, unless the chapter pays for extensive additional security.
The event, featuring Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips, is virtually identical to the classes that occur every day on college campuses — except with an affable, center-right journalist at the head of the room instead of a cantankerous leftist professor.
That The Daily Wire has exposed not one, but two University of Maryland presidents for plagiarism — including the president of its flagship College Park campus, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Darryll Pines</a>, whose capitulation to Hamas supporters this publication has also chronicled — suggests that the college’s motives for the security requirement may be less than honorable.
Turning Point isn&#8217;t being charged for security because its members might be unruly. It&#8217;s because the university believes that its own students will commit ideologically motivated violence — and, instead of addressing that, it&#8217;s punishing their prospective victims. The group&#8217;s founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus six weeks ago, ending a career dedicated to facilitating ideological diversity and open debate at universities.
Maryland has taken the wrong lesson from that assassination.
Conservatives make up the majority of the voting public, as evidenced by the most recent national popular vote. If being exposed to center-right ideas is so unusual for college students that it would trigger violent rage, that&#8217;s the issue. Coming across someone like Phillips on campus shouldn&#8217;t be cause for violence. It should be just another Wednesday.
The move continues a pattern of selective commitment to free speech for Pines, who vociferously defended an anti-Israel group&#8217;s right to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, then threatened to<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> call the police</a> on a Jewish woman for complaining about it.
Jewish parents asked Pines, who is Black, to engage in a thought experiment: would he be as supportive if the KKK were burning crosses on campus? The analogy went right over his head, and in a twist of unfathomable irony, Pines banned all events that day because of what he suggested were anti-black threats and the prospect of violence by Jews. Then he paid the school&#8217;s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which proudly says it supports &#8220;armed struggle,&#8221; a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-will-pay-100000-to-anti-israel-group-that-held-campus-rally-on-october-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $100,000 settlement</a> when they filed suit over the cancellation.
His latest move suggests that it was a payoff to his allies, not a recognition of the need to preserve free speech.
Campus police told TPUSA that because of an &#8220;increase in threats related to Turning Point events,&#8221; police would staff the event, while TPUSA would be required to hire a security firm at its own expense to &#8220;conduct metal/weapons detection and bags checks upon entry.&#8221;
Lawyers from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) told the university that if increased security is required, &#8220;the law does not allow public institutions to shift this increased burden to the targeted group.&#8221;
“Doing so gives those most willing to engage in political violence the ability to silence or burden their opponents through the agency of the state. Raising costs on TPUSA in the wake of its leader&#8217;s assassination is a stark reminder of how literally deadly such a perverse incentive can be.&#8221;
In other words, UMD would be carrying water for terrorists.
&#8220;With the precedent UMD has set here, any student or community member could announce plans to disrupt a group&#8217;s campus event, and encourage others to do so, in the hope that UMD would respond by financially burdening the group,&#8221; FIRE wrote.
University of Maryland Associate General Counsel Christopher Lord replied with a denial that the fee was based on viewpoint. He said one of the factors the university uses to determine required security is &#8220;the history of similar events and/or of performer/speakers at other locations,&#8221; and invoked &#8220;the tragic assassination of Mr. Kirk.&#8221;
Lord also acknowledged that earlier this month, on October 7, the university bore the cost for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a &#8220;Boycott Israel fest,&#8221; as well as pro-Israel counter-protesters.
He said the university is more likely to cover costs for outdoor events due to a Fourth Circuit Court ruling deeming outdoor spaces &#8220;limited public forums.&#8221; That suggests that if the university has a commitment to free speech, it&#8217;s to the extent that a court forced it to, and that, ironically, it doesn&#8217;t apply in classrooms themselves. If a group like Turning Point wants to avoid fees, it can hold an event outdoors — like the sort at which Kirk was assassinated.
Making the situation all the more outlandish is that the Daily Wire personality at the center of this controversy, Cabot Phillips, is unaccustomed to being the center of controversy. Phillips is not an opinion commentator like Ben Shapiro or Michael Knowles; he is the genial and cheery personality at the center of news broadcasts like Morning Wire.
As Conor Clayton of the Maryland Turning Point chapter told us, Phillips is “not controversial.”
“It&#8217;s very strange that they would make this determination that there would be massive protests or threats,&#8221; Clayton said. Representatives for the University of Maryland and its parent organization didn&#8217;t respond when we asked if they could identify a single inflammatory statement by Phillips.
Given that Clayton told us that his chapter hosted another indoor event at a campus chapel, a vigil for Kirk, without being charged for security, that suggests that the Daily Wire’s involvement may be the critical wrinkle in this already sorry state of affairs.
Pines is currently under investigation for blatant plagiarism, which was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exposed</a> by The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak. It has been more than a year since Pines admitted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;recurrent language&#8221;</a> in an academic paper after it was unearthed by what he<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-acknowledges-recurrent-language-submits-to-plagiarism-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> called</a> &#8220;a blogger,&#8221; and he has faced no accountability.
This month, The Daily Wire<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-college-president-heidi-anderson-plagiarized-dissertation?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Another+College+President+Plagiarized+Her+Dissertation.+That%E2%80%99s+Just+The+Tip+Of+The+Iceberg." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> exposed a second president</a> of a Maryland campus, University of Maryland Eastern Shore&#8217;s Heidi Anderson, for massive plagiarism. All of this suggests a significant moral rot under the leadership of Jay Perman, the chancellor of the state&#8217;s public university system.
The security fee in question is minimal, just $150. But as Clayton lays out, that’s not the point.
&#8220;It&#8217;s really not about the monetary amount, it&#8217;s about ensuring that the university commits itself to the First Amendment,” Clayton told us. “This is a prior restraint on our free speech, because if we don&#8217;t pay this fee we can&#8217;t have the event.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s really a slap in the face. Charlie Kirk, literally all he did is talk with people and share a conservative message, and they killed him for it. The university sees that and instead of trying to encourage conservative speech, they&#8217;re doing everything they can to restrict our speech.”

Charlie Kirk and UMD President Darryll Pines

Revenge Of The Plagiarists? University Of Maryland Interferes With Turning Point USA Event

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Few Hollywood stars loathed President Donald Trump quite like Michael Rapaport. Think Robert De Niro-level rage, with more colorful language.
The “Beautiful Girls” alum routinely hurled words against Trump that can’t be repeated here. The first word of a common Rapaport epithet? Pig.
Rapaport, touring the country as a stand-up comedian, views the President differently today.
The veteran actor/comic is a loud and proud defender of Israel. He has used his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcW_OJMsc2o">eponymous podcast</a>, social media accounts, and media interviews to let people know he hasn’t forgotten about them … even if his Hollywood peers have been shockingly silent on the matter. It’s given him a strange, and well-earned, new respect for the Commander-in-Chief.
“My views have changed,” <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/michael-rapaport-on-standing-up-for-the-israeli-hostages/id1740762722?i=1000731058479">Rapaport told this reporter</a> and the host of Denver’s “Ryan Schuiling Live” October 8 on 630 KHOW. The star recalled meeting several freed hostages along with the family members of some killed by Hamas terrorists.
“Knowing in my heart, in my guts, in my soul that that’s why I was able to meet them, it’s because of Trump … I can’t make fun of him anymore. I can make fun in a fun, loving way, but I can’t be disrespectful knowing what I know … and I’m good with that.
“He deserves my respect, and he deserves Jews’ respect. I’m proud that I’ve changed,” said Rapaport, days after the President struck a tentative peace deal that includes the release of all remaining hostages.
<div id="attachment_877391" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-877391" class="size-large wp-image-877391" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2036403442-865x576.jpg" alt="TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - FEBRUARY 24: Michael Rapaport speaks to the crowd as people gather outside the HaKirya base which serves as the IDF’s headquarters to demand the return of the hostages held by Hamas on February 24, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel.” Frustrations with the government have grown as over 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza, after more than four months of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2036403442-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2036403442-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2036403442-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2036403442.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Roy Rochlin/Getty Images</div>
Rapaport has worked steadily in Hollywood for years, including on films directed by industry giants such as Spike Lee, Clint Eastwood, and James Mangold. He’s understandably frustrated that so few stars have spoken up on the hostages’ behalf.
“It’s very, very, very, very one-sided,” he said of the industry regarding the Israel/Palestinian divide. “I would accept [actors saying] ‘bring the hostages home and free Palestine,’” he said. “We’ve had two Oscars, two Grammys, two Emmys [ceremonies] in the two years, and not one person said it … These are my peers. It’s been very frustrating and disappointing.”
Rapaport spots a hypocrisy beyond the surface regarding the matter.
“This is a group that will scream and yell about everything … If there had been one, just one African-American from, let’s say, Miami, the entire perspective on this whole thing would be changed … or five college students from, say, Spellman or Clark or traditionally black universities.”
Rapaport, along with Debra Messing, Patricia Heaton, Five for Fighting’s John Ondrasik, and David Schwimmer, has been among the very few stars to either defend Israel, demand the hostages be released, or both.
And while he refuses to play the Victim Card, the “Atypical” star hints it has cost him professionally.
“I’m a proud Jewish man, of course, I’m gonna stand up and fight vigorously. What I’ve dealt with, the sacrifices I’ve made &#8230; doesn’t compare to people whose lives have been lost … the agony and the trauma and the terror [hostage families have] faced.”
“I’m built and ready for every little bit of ramifications … I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said. “I’ve been blessed to have the means and the forum and platform … I’ve been to Israel seven times. I’ve heard so many stories … I’ve gained far more than I’ve lost.”
<div id="attachment_986297" style="width: 748px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-986297" class="size-large wp-image-986297" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2237062025-738x576.jpg" alt="NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - SEPTEMBER 25: Michael Rapaport performs at The Stress Factory Comedy Club on September 25, 2025 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)" width="738" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2237062025-738x576.jpg 738w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2237062025-300x234.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2237062025-768x599.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2237062025.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px" />NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ &#8211; SEPTEMBER 25: Michael Rapaport performs at The Stress Factory Comedy Club on September 25, 2025, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)</div>
The latter refers to potential acting roles and stand-up gigs. Pro-Palestinian protesters previously coaxed clubs in Michigan and Alabama to cancel his stand-up shows. A Portland-based effort featured a poster of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/antifa-michael-rapaport-portland-protest/">Rapaport with X’s over his eyes.</a>
His Denver appearances at Comedy Works from October 9-11 had workers wanding patrons to make sure no weapons entered the club.
And while many stars publicly supported late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following his controversial, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kimmel-claims-his-comments-on-charlie-kirks-assassination-were-maliciously-mischaracterized">week-long suspension</a>, artists haven’t rallied behind Rapaport’s free speech rights.
Why? “Because they agree,” he said bluntly. “Not all of them, <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/global/stars-sign-pledge-complicit-israeli-film-companies-1236511010/">but 3,900 of them</a>,” he said, referencing a recent open letter signed by some of the industry’s biggest stars, including Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, and Emma Stone, who won’t work with Israeli-based groups on film projects.
“But what about me? I’m an individual &#8230; what happens when my name comes up?” he asked.
Rapaport holds no grudge against Kimmel. Just the opposite. He spoke glowingly of the far-left talker, saying he couldn’t be “nicer” or “sweeter” in real life. Rapaport still bristled at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-really-got-kimmel-suspended-i-hear-that-that-monologue-was-very-hot">the infamous comments Kimmel made</a> following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
“I don’t think there’s anything funny four days after somebody getting killed in cold blood,” Rapaport said of Kimmel’s monologue snippet. “I don’t care if [Kirk is] pro this, pro that &#8230; nothing to me is funny less than a week later about someone getting shot in front of the entire world in 4K for all of us to have to watch it, watch it, watch it.”
He still defended Kimmel’s right to say what he said.
“I’m a trash talker. I fully believe in free speech,” he added.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

“Jeff Ross: Take A Banana For The Ride” Broadway Opening Night

‘I Can’t Make Fun of Him Anymore’: Michael Rapaport On Trump, Israel, And Redemption

'I Can’t Make Fun of Him Anymore': Michael Rapaport On Trump, Israel, And Redemption

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This week, more than 100 leading free speech experts <a href="https://adfinternational.org/campaign/open-letter-dsa">warned</a> that the Digital Services Act (DSA), a piece of European Union legislation, threatens to impose online censorship across the world. The letter was addressed to the European Commission, the architect of the censorial law.
The DSA gives the EU authority to enforce “content moderation” on platforms and search engines with over 45 million monthly users. It is one of the most dangerous censorship regimes of the digital age, enabling bureaucrats to control online speech at scale under the guise of online “safety” and “protecting democracy.”
This, however, is far from just a European issue. Restrictive speech rules made in Brussels are increasingly shaping the global internet, including on platforms used by Americans.
The letter follows the recently expressed concerns of the U.S. Ambassador to the EU, <a href="https://x.com/US2EU/status/1973100030249640355">Andrew Puzder</a>, that the DSA threatens to censor American citizens online. As the Ambassador stated, President Trump will not “tolerate a foreign government restricting the First Amendment fundamental free speech, free expression rights of American citizens.”
Ambassador Puzder’s statement came shortly after Google’s startling admission that Europe’s censorship laws target American companies and threaten American speech.
Signatories of this week’s letter to the European Commission, which was coordinated by ADF International, include a former U.S. Senator, a former VP of Yahoo Europe, cross-party members of the European Parliament, award-winning journalist and author Michael Shellenberger, former President of the American Civil Liberties Union Nadine Strossen, and academics, lawyers, and experts from around the globe.
The letter urges the Commission to consult with free speech experts and address their concerns as part of the Commission’s formal review of the DSA, which will occur by November 17.
But how could European legislation affect the First Amendment rights of Americans online?
The DSA and its codes of conduct require online platforms, such as X, YouTube, and Facebook, to address “hate speech” and “disinformation” online. These are vague and subjective terms that lack clear legal definitions and, in practice, are used to justify the censorship of disfavored views.
The definition of “illegal content,” which platforms must remove under the DSA, is any content that breaches EU or any EU member state law. This means the most restrictive anti-free speech laws in any individual EU country — of which there are unfortunately many across Europe — will now be applied across the bloc, introducing a lowest-common-denominator of censorship across the EU.
The shocking case of Finnish parliamentarian <a href="https://adfinternational.org/cases/paivi">Päivi Räsänen</a> gives an example of what this censorship could look like in practice. For nearly seven years, Päivi has been dragged through the courts in her country for alleged “hate speech”, for a Twitter post, in which she peacefully expressed her faith-based views and included a picture of Bible text.
With legal support from ADF International, on October 30, she faces her third trial at the Finnish Supreme Court, despite being unanimously acquitted in two previous trials. Under the DSA, draconian “hate speech” legislation, like that used to prosecute Päivi, could be applied across the EU.
<div id="attachment_981733" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-981733" class="size-large wp-image-981733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-864x576.jpg" alt="Chairwoman Päivi Räsänen of the Christian Democrats campaigns in Helsinki, Finland on April 18, 2015 ahead of the parliamentary elections to take place on Sunday, April 19, 2015. Finns go to the polls on Sunday in legislative elections widely expected to oust the country's left-right coalition amid growing discontent over a floundering economy undergoing a painful restructuring. AFP PHOTO / LEHTIKUVA / RONI REKOMAA *** FINLAND OUT *** (Photo credit should read" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Päivi Räsänen/ Credit: Roni Rekomaa,Roni Rekomaa/AFP via Getty Images.</div>
What has emerged from the DSA is a vast censorship infrastructure with coercive enforcement tools and an opaque network of EU-approved NGOs and “trusted flaggers,” which identify content for removal. If platforms fail to quickly remove flagged content, they face enormous fines — up to 6% of global revenue — and even EU-wide suspension. Individuals can also be suspended from platforms if they “persistently” post “illegal content.”
Although nominally restricted to the European Union, the DSA’s restrictive approach to online speech will be exported across the world, including to the United States. Keep in mind that GDPR exported EU data privacy standards worldwide, and the DSA could do just that for European speech controls. Platforms will be incentivized to adopt a single global content moderation policy, which could now be made to comply with the DSA’s restrictive approach.
French Member of the European Parliament Virginie Joron, a signatory of this week’s letter to the Commission, has added to these concerns of global censorship from the DSA, saying: “The French digital regulator ARCOM told me they believe the DSA allows them to censor any post anywhere in the world using the DSA. That means even an American citizen posting in Alabama could potentially have their online post taken down, even if the publication would be legal in the US”.
These threats put European legislation on a direct collision course with the First Amendment, in what is perhaps the greatest threat to American online free speech today.
Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress has consistently warned that the DSA is coming for American speech. A July <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/media/press-releases/foreign-censorship-threat-how-european-unions-digital-services-act-compels">report</a> detailed how the DSA is a censorship tool that requires the world’s largest social media platforms to engage in the censorship of core political discourse in Europe, the United States, and around the world.
If the DSA is left unchecked, Brussels could well become the world’s speech police. Let all concerned with the protection of free speech be on alert about the DSA. 
The European Commission must urgently engage with the free speech concerns outlined in this week’s letter and act now to ensure that the free speech rights of people across the world are respected on the internet.
* * *
Paul Coleman (@Paul_B_Coleman) is Executive Director of free speech legal advocacy organization ADF International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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EU sets Out Its International Digital Strategy

EU’s Digital Services Act Is The Biggest Threat To Free Speech Yet, Experts Warn

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A Tennessee university on Thursday approved the creation of a Turning Point USA chapter on campus after the conservative group faced opposition from the school’s student government.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)’s Student Government Association on Wednesday voted against approving the Charlie Kirk-inspired club, sparking backlash from conservative lawmakers. Less than 24 hours after that vote, the university announced that it had approved the application in accordance with school guidelines. 
“The Dean of Students Office has determined that Turning Point USA is approved as a Registered Student Organization,” the university <a href="https://x.com/UTChattanooga/status/1976295599986122883">announced</a> Thursday morning. “While the Student Government Association may voice opinions, recognition of student organizations is determined by the UTC Dean of Students and Chancellor. Turning Point USA has been authorized in accordance with university policy and the law.”  
Calls to approve the club poured in after Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said that UTC’s student government had denied the request to approve the formation of the club. 
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“This decision effectively blocks our students from gaining official recognition on campus. As a result, the students will be forced to restart the process, reapplying and once again facing the same SGA that has already demonstrated clear bias against them. Tennessee, are these the values of your state? Your tax dollars are propping this garbage up,” Kolvet <a href="https://x.com/AndrewKolvet/status/1976125274065690716">posted</a> on X.
After the vote, the university stated that final approval for the club went through school officials, not the student government. 
Shortly before the university announced its decision to approve the club, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged school officials to “do the right thing.” 
“The Student Government Association at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga just voted to recommend that a [TPUSA] chapter not be approved,” Blackburn <a href="https://x.com/VoteMarsha/status/1976284203068293217">wrote</a> on X. “Do the right thing and approve the Turning Point chapter immediately.”
Several state Republican representatives also commented on the student government’s vote, saying that the university would approve the application. 
Rep. Jason Zachary, a Republican who represents part of Knoxville, <a href="https://x.com/JasonZacharyTN/status/1976255673911427512">said</a> Thursday that he had spoken with Randy Boyd, the president of the University of Tennessee system, about the student government association’s vote. Zachary urged Turning Point USA to reach out to him if they had any other problems. 
After UTC announced the approval of the club, Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican, praised the school. 
“Glad to see [TPUSA] approved at [UTC]. Looks like some of these young conservatives need to run against the liberal SGA who didn&#8217;t even want their voices heard on campus,” he <a href="https://x.com/WilliamLamberth/status/1976297054151315518">said</a>. “Appreciate the Dean standing for free speech.”
Following the assassination of Kirk last month in Utah, Turning Point USA has reported a massive surge in requests to form new chapters on both high school and college campuses. The organization said last week that it has launched 1,500 new high school chapters nationwide, up from roughly 1,200 total before Kirk’s death.

Former President Trump Addresses The Turning Points Action Conference In West Palm Beach, California

After Student Government Clash, Tennessee Turning Point USA Chapter Gets Green Light

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A sweeping law implemented across Europe will severely curtail freedom of expression across the West, a group of over 100 free speech experts told the European Union on Thursday. 
Led by the Alliance Defending Freedom International, a diverse coalition of politicians, academics, and journalists <a href="https://adfinternational.org/campaign/open-letter-dsa">warned</a> European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the Digital Services Act (DSA) encourages and enables restrictions on political speech. The DSA empowers the European Commission to impose significant financial penalties on tech companies, which it says are not doing enough to combat so-called disinformation. It is set to be reviewed in November. 
“Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democratic societies. It is through the exchange of ideas — including controversial ones — that societies evolve, and public officials remain accountable,” the coalition wrote in a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/DSA-Free-Speech-Letter-to-EC_ADFI.pdf">letter</a> exclusively obtained by The Daily Wire. “Yet across the European Union and beyond, we are witnessing a shrinking of civic space. Each week brings new reports of individuals facing censorship or punitive measures for speech that challenges prevailing orthodoxy.”
The letter cited the case of Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen, who has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/finnish-court-dismisses-hate-crime-charges-against-politician-on-trial-over-christian-beliefs">prosecuted</a> for sharing her Christian views of marriage and sexuality on social media. It also pointed to Adam Smith-Connor, a veteran who has been prosecuted for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-army-vet-faces-charges-after-thoughtcrime-of-praying-near-u-k-abortion-clinic">silently praying</a> outside of an abortion facility. 
<div id="attachment_981733" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-981733" class="size-full wp-image-981733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360.jpg" alt="Chairwoman Päivi Räsänen of the Christian Democrats campaigns in Helsinki, Finland on April 18, 2015 ahead of the parliamentary elections to take place on Sunday, April 19, 2015. Finns go to the polls on Sunday in legislative elections widely expected to oust the country's left-right coalition amid growing discontent over a floundering economy undergoing a painful restructuring. AFP PHOTO / LEHTIKUVA / RONI REKOMAA *** FINLAND OUT *** (Photo credit should read " width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-470183360-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Päivi Räsänen/ Credit: Roni Rekomaa,Roni Rekomaa/AFP via Getty Images.</div>
“The DSA introduces sweeping mechanisms that empower both institutions and private actors to flag content they believe to be ‘illegal’ — a term broadly defined as any content not compliant with EU or national laws,” the coalition wrote. 
The DSA relies on cooperation from non-governmental organizations that advise lawmakers whether someone’s online writings would be considered illegal. There would also be a high burden for reporting violations on tech companies. In certain circumstances, American tech companies may be fined up to 6% of their global revenue if they violate specific conditions. 
Signers of the letter included prominent thinkers like Hoover Institution research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former Kansas governor and ambassador for religious freedom Sam Brownback, Alliance Defending Freedom President Kristen Waggoner, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, journalist Michael Shellenberger, politicians from Brazil and Chile, and several members of the European Parliament. In total, 113 free speech advocates signed on. 
The signatories warned that the DSA not only helps governments crack down on child exploitation and terrorism incitement, but also allows one country to spread its strident restrictions on speech across the entire European Union. 
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The law imposes “a pan-European censorship infrastructure with loosely defined boundaries and the potential to suppress legitimate democratic discourse,” the authors wrote. 
“The wide definition of illegal content allows the most speech-restrictive provisions of one single EU country to be imposed as a standard across the entire Union, and potentially worldwide, effectively importing the lowest common denominator of expression,” they added. 
They demanded that the European Union initiate a formal review of the DSA, examining its impact on free speech, disclosing the involvement of non-governmental organizations in reviewing speech and how they were selected, and ensuring that the law complies with the current European Union charter. 
In January, the House Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/31/document-2025_1_42.pdf">sent</a> a letter to the European Commission stating that the DSA may conflict with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-faces-pressure-as-europes-censorship-regime-threatens-american-free-speech">hearing</a> on censorship last month, the committee heard from free speech advocates warning about the potential dangers of the DSA.
“Why should this matter for Americans? Why should you be concerned? Because of the worldwide reach of European law,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nigel-farage-spars-with-dems-as-he-warns-about-authoritarian-crackdown-on-free-speech">said</a> Alliance Defending Freedom International lawyer Lorcán Price. “The so-called Brussels effect changes regulation in every area that the European Union chooses to regulate, and now they’ve entered the business of regulating speech.”

Italian Tech Week 2025

EXCLUSIVE: Free Speech Advocates Challenge EU Over ‘Pan-European Censorship’ Regime

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case centered on a counselor in Colorado who could be punished under state law for helping gender-confused children become comfortable with their own body instead of pursuing irreversible transgender medical procedures.
The case pits the State of Colorado against counselor Kaley Chiles, who is challenging a Colorado law that <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2019a_1129_signed.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prohibits</a> counseling that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” Chiles said that the law violates her First Amendment rights and has prevented her from taking several clients.
“When my young clients come to me for counsel, they often want to discuss issues of gender and sexuality. Yet my home state only allows my clients to pursue state-approved goals like gender transition,” she said. “Colorado’s law harms kids and censors speech. I’m hopeful the Supreme Court will do the right thing — for me, other counselors, and most importantly, kids everywhere.”
Chiles is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which argues that Colorado’s law, passed in 2019, is a direct attack on professional speech.
“This case is about censorship. The state of Colorado is censoring counselor speech on the issue of gender ideology,” Alliance Defending Freedom lawyer Kate Anderson said on a press call attended by The Daily Wire. “Colorado is saying that if a counselor is going to speak with a minor, have a private, voluntary counseling session with a minor, and that minor is dealing with any kind of gender ideology, confusion, then that counselor has to encourage transition.”
“They can&#8217;t have conversations with that minor to help them become comfortable in their own body and align their feelings with their biology, even if that&#8217;s what that minor wants,” Anderson added.
She pointed to the 2018 Supreme Court ruling where the court sided with the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, which had challenged a California law that mandated that crisis pregnancy centers provide information on how to obtain abortions.
Anderson said she expected this past ruling to come up during oral arguments, as well as the science demonstrating the lack of scientific support for transgender procedures.
Colorado’s law was previously upheld by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, while the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down similar laws implemented by cities in Florida. The Supreme Court has been skeptical of transgender ideology in recent years and has allowed states to ban transgender procedures on minors.

MixCollage-06-Oct-2025-02-23-PM-3955

Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge To Colorado Law That Pushes Kids Into Transgender Procedures

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Comedian Dave Chappelle is getting ripped for telling an audience in Saudi Arabia, where mocking the royal family, Islam, or the government can land you in prison, “It’s easier to talk here than in America.”
“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” Chappelle, a practicing Muslim,  <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/world/middleeast/saudi-comedy-festival-riyadh-free-speech.html">declared</a> at the Riyadh Comedy Festival before a crowd of 6,000 people. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.”
Chappelle has been viciously critical of Israel, <a href="applewebdata://A52DFCE2-01FF-40DE-85E7-E5F7A517E32C/v">saying</a> in May 2024 in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, “If you are in America, the best thing you can do is to make American Jews feel safe, feel loved and supported so they can know they don’t have to support a country that is committing genocide just to feel safe.” He continued his anti-Israel rhetoric in Riyadh, saying he feared returning to America, because, “They’re going to do something to me so that I can’t say what I want to say,” then adding he would alert his fans by using a code phrase: “It’s got to be something I would never say in practice, so if I actually say it, you’ll know never to listen to anything else I say after that. Here’s the phrase: I stand with Israel.”
Critics didn’t hold back. Author Dumisani Washington slammed Chappelle for his apparent hypocrisy: “A Black, multimillionaire comedian goes to Saudi Arabia, where there are African slaves, and complains about his lack of civil rights in America. Only a Westerner could be so privileged yet so deluded.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
So, Dave Chappelle, a Black, multimillionaire comedian goes to Saudi Arabia where there are African slaves and complains about his lack of civil rights (freedom of speech) in America. 
Only a Westerner could be so privileged yet so deluded to think that an Islamic regime is…
&mdash; Dumisani Washington (@DumisaniTemsgen) <a href="https://twitter.com/DumisaniTemsgen/status/1974629061059019116?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Comedian Tim Young was equally scathing: “If Chappelle believes there’s freer speech in Saudi Arabia than in the U.S., he should do an entire set mocking Muhammad there and see how it goes.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
If Dave Chappelle believes there’s freer speech in Saudi Arabia than the US… 
he should do an entire set mocking Muhammad there and see how it goes.
&mdash; Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimRunsHisMouth/status/1974668040265470305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Others, like commentator Jesús Enrique Rosas, pointed to the life-or-death stakes of dissent in the Kingdom: “Does Chappelle know you can get literally EXECUTED in Saudi Arabia for saying the ‘wrong things’? That oil money must have been SWEET.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Does Chapelle know you can get literally EXECUTED in Saudi Arabia for saying the &#39;wrong things&#39;?
That oil money must have been SWEET 🤌 <a href="https://t.co/nrb9NduFsr">https://t.co/nrb9NduFsr</a>
&mdash; Jesús Enrique Rosas &#8211; The Body Language Guy (@Knesix) <a href="https://twitter.com/Knesix/status/1974579681207959676?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
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And conservative journalist Carmine Sabia nailed the heart of the matter: “I find it interesting that Chappelle, who was paid a fortune to perform in Saudi Arabia… would say there is more free speech there than in the U.S. — a nation that actually gave him a list of things he was not allowed to joke about.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I find it interesting that Dave Chappelle, who was paid a fortune to perform in Saudi Arabia, and good for him, would say that there is more free speech there than in the United States.
A nation that actually gave him a list of things he was not allowed to make quips about. <a href="https://t.co/rZT5pd096V">pic.twitter.com/rZT5pd096V</a>
&mdash; Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarmineSabia/status/1974833298078667155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Even Bill Maher, not exactly a bastion of right-wing thinking, ridiculed Chappelle on HBO’s “Real Time,” saying,
“It’s not true. Do your hunk on Muhammad, Dave.”
This isn’t Chappelle “punching up.” This is Chappelle indulging in moral relativism at its worst — throwing stones at a country that made him rich, while cozying up to a regime that jails dissidents and executes critics.
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In February 2020, two professors participated in a <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/experts-debate-the-regulation-of-hateful-speech-on-campus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/experts-debate-the-regulation-of-hateful-speech-on-campus/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0_Nus6xBc7ezkBvs9uTOra">debate</a> hosted by Harvard on the subject of hate speech and whether it constitutes “violence.”
Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychology professor at Northeastern University, argued that, yes, hate speech can be violence based on the stress responses in the brain when confronted with speech one finds offensive. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, called Barrett’s argument a “huge disservice to what we are trying to do at universities” and warned that opening up this concept to a room full of students will lead to them equating speech and ideas they don’t like to violence. And when violence is the perception, the only recourse is more violence.
Little did these professors know that they were sitting on a powder keg with a short fuse. Who can forget the chaos that ensued in 2020 and beyond? And since then, with just a few exceptions, numerous violent outbreaks in the public square have been initiated by those rallying around left-wing causes.
Given that the vast majority of college professors <a href="https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-faculty-survey-political-leanings-liberal-conservative-moderate-centrist-harvard-yale-variation-across-school-tenure-status-demographics-20241022" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-faculty-survey-political-leanings-liberal-conservative-moderate-centrist-harvard-yale-variation-across-school-tenure-status-demographics-20241022&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0suXDDFCeetl9-FSmRkqFb">identify</a> as “liberal” or “very liberal,” we now have a sizable petri dish in which young people learn that violence is an available tool at their disposal — a tool used to dispose of speech they want eliminated from the public square.
We saw the culmination of this earlier this month with the cruel assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk. According to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5506576-charlie-kirk-suspect-hatred-texts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5506576-charlie-kirk-suspect-hatred-texts/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0cG3uMfqu-15s9JBLWWPSQ">text messages</a> sent by the young man in custody for shooting Kirk, he “had enough of his hatred,” saying that “some hate can’t be negotiated out.” And what “hate” deserved silencing in this twisted mind of the killer? Allegedly, he was romantically involved with his roommate, a male who identified as a female, and Kirk was an outspoken critic of gender identity ideology, as are many others around the world.
Equating the widely held, scientific truth of biological sex to “hate” is absurd. But, regardless, “hate” speech should never be the subject of violence or censorship — especially not on college campuses. Once the bastion of the marketplace of ideas, universities are quickly becoming breeding grounds for uncritical thinking where uniformity of thought is encouraged and dissenters are silenced. Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Academic Freedom, where I serve as director, has intervened in numerous situations where conservative students and student groups — <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/turning-point-usa-suny-cortland-v-cortland-college-student-association/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://adflegal.org/case/turning-point-usa-suny-cortland-v-cortland-college-student-association/?utm_source%3Ddailywire%26utm_medium%3Doped&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3OgGQQHlGz-ZmvEMI4Y6gk">including TPUSA chapters</a> — have been attacked simply for espousing ideas that go against the grain.
Young people didn’t learn the idea of violence as a solution to discomfort in a vacuum. As previously mentioned, the left-wing bias that permeates academic faculty is eye-opening. <a href="https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/are-colleges-and-universities-too-liberal-what-the-research-says-about-the-political-composition-of-campuses-and-campus-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://heterodoxacademy.org/blog/are-colleges-and-universities-too-liberal-what-the-research-says-about-the-political-composition-of-campuses-and-campus-climate/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3eLAotLPKJODCTDdKgtwqX">Studies</a> show that, in 1989, the liberal-to-conservative faculty ratio was 2:1; by 2017, it was 5:1. A 2022 <a href="https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NFH-VOICE-GRANT-REPORT-Politics-of-the-Professoriate-2.7.22-1-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NFH-VOICE-GRANT-REPORT-Politics-of-the-Professoriate-2.7.22-1-1.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0F0adF8_CdxMyEku0U7Vcx">report</a> from the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement found 69.5% of professors identified as “solidly liberal,” while only 13.2% were “conservative.” A 2023 Harvard <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/22/faculty-survey-2023-politics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/5/22/faculty-survey-2023-politics/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3J3uwPJgWsq3OveEVAmblP">study</a> showed that its own faculty displayed a 26:1 liberal-to-conservative ratio. This lack of viewpoint diversity has played a significant role in fostering hostility toward free speech.
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The simple solution is for the adults in the room to acknowledge the consequences of faulty ideas and take steps to foster diversity of thought. This means hiring faculty who share different opinions. This means hosting respectful debates where students can witness civil discourse. This means that, if students disrupt respectful debate, campus leadership will take measures to hold unruly protestors accountable. And this means, most importantly, that we should move past the idea that speech protected by the Constitution is equivalent to “violence.”
There are only two ways to enact change in society: speech or violence. In our current political and cultural environment, we’ve seen where both ends of the spectrum draw their lines. But a democratic society cannot long exist when one party believes that it is acceptable to kill those with whom it disagrees. Virtually every civilization throughout history has chosen violence; our founders, on the other hand, chose a better path.
Now is the time to preserve that path.
* * *
Tyson Langhofer is senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom with <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source%3Ddailywire%26utm_medium%3Doped&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1sroCl7-wqa7zVSXPqasqY">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ADFLegal" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/ADFLegal&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1759330618947000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0rr8NLbEmHuac-ozsbbWhA">@ADFLegal</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Kirk Debate

Free Speech Is Essential. Universities Must Do Everything They Can To Preserve It.

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We Just Got Proof Of A Huge Attack On Free Speech, And It Has Nothing To Do With Jimmy Kimmel

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Congressman Jim Jordan on Tuesday celebrated Google&#8217;s decision to reinstate YouTube creators censored under President Joe Biden, calling the decision &#8220;a win for free expression.&#8221;
Jordan, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Wire that Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unacceptable-and-wrong-google-admits-caving-to-censorship-pressure-from-biden-admin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> in a Tuesday letter to the committee that the company and its subsidiaries bowed to pressure from the Biden administration to censor conservative creators speaking out about election integrity and COVID-19.
&#8220;They had kicked some people off the YouTube platform altogether — you, your channel, you&#8217;re gone. They&#8217;ve agreed to reinstate those individuals, which I think is good. They&#8217;ve said they will not use the fact-checkers, like other platforms have done — which was a big problem because fact-checkers are typically really biased against conservatives. I thought it was, again, a win for the First Amendment, a win for free expression.”
Alphabet <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/google-reinstate-banned-youtube-accounts-censored-political-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pledged</a> in the letter its &#8220;commitment to free expression,&#8221; and said it &#8220;will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.&#8221;
Creators banned under this regime include Dan Bongino and Sebastian Gorka, both of whom now serve in the Trump administration.
Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, recalled just how extreme the Biden administration&#8217;s censorship efforts were.
&#8220;Never forget the Biden administration established the disinformation governance board,&#8221; Jordan said on Wednesday&#8217;s edition of Morning Wire. &#8220;I mean, the most Orwellian-sounding thing you could think of — as if a bunch of bureaucrats can tell you what you can say, what you can read, what you can tweet, what you can post! That was frightening stuff.&#8221;
Fortunately, Jordan notes, &#8220;we had an election last November and, thank goodness, things changed.&#8221;
Still, Jordan isn&#8217;t ready to give up the fight, warning that the United States could soon fall victim to European speech restrictions — something congressional Republicans are fighting to stop.
European speech laws are creating complications for the American social platforms, Jordan said. In particular, the European Union’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act could <a href="https://fedsoc.org/events/the-digital-services-act-and-global-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">force</a> restrictive European speech codes on Americans.
Jordan takes that risk seriously.
Earlier this month, British authorities arrested Irish comedian Graham Linehan upon his landing at London’s Heathrow Airport after a flight from the United States. At issue were a series of X posts he wrote in April, which included jokes about transgender-identifying people.
“If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls,” one of Linehan’s posts in question <a href="https://x.com/judebrew/status/1965556461612007541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a>.
Americans are generally not in danger of arrest in the United States for mocking leftist ideologies, such as transgenderism. But they are still under threat of suppression and retaliation from companies like YouTube or other influential entities, Jordan says.
“I think it&#8217;s just a matter of time before that happens to an American,” the lawmaker told The Daily Wire. “We&#8217;re particularly concerned about that relative to YouTube.”

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan Celebrates YouTube Ending Conservative Censorship: ‘A Win For Free Expression’

Jim Jordan Celebrates YouTube Ending Conservative Censorship: 'A Win For Free Expression'

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