Reason’s guiding principle over 47 years has been to expand the legal and cultural space for free expression, as the bedrock value behind human flourishing. As libertarians who believe in “Free Minds and Free Markets,” Reason takes seriously an obligation to our audience and to our critics not simply to hold on to what we’ve got but to increase the rights of everyone to speak openly and without figurative or literal prior restraint.
To live in a world where every stray, overheated Internet comment—however trollish and stupid it may be—can be interpreted as an actionable threat to be investigated by a federal grand jury is to live in a world where the government is telling the public and media to just shut up already. As we gather and publish more information on just how often this sort of thing happens, we pledge to always be on the side of more speech rather than less.
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