Summit Overview

About the Summit

Oct. 17-18, 2024  |  Nashville, TN

On October 17-18, 2024, The Future of Free Speech and Vanderbilt University will host the first annual Global Free Speech Summit. Experts from academia, industry and civil society organizations will gather on Vanderbilt’s campus to discuss the most pressing challenges threatening freedom of expression worldwide and identify impactful solutions to reinvigorate this fundamental freedom.

From 2012-2022, 6.3 billion people across 81 countries experienced declining freedom of expression. This global free speech recession has dire consequences for democratic governance, but The Future of Free Speech, located at Vanderbilt University, is focused on finding solutions to create a resilient global culture of free speech. 

We are thrilled to announce that four of the world's leading advocates for freedom of expression will be giving keynote addresses on a wide variety of topics: 

• Salman Rushdie, One of The Most Celebrated Authors of Our Time
• Masih Alinejad, Iranian Journalist and Women’s Rights Activist
• Audrey Tang, Taiwan's First Digital Minister 
• Nathan Law, Hong Kong Democracy Activist 

It will also include panels and discussions featuring prominent public figures like New York Times columnist David French, The Economist senior editor James Bennet, Executive Director of Internet Sans Frontières Julie Owono, Senior Vice President of Virtu Mishi Choudhary, and Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub. Panelists will discuss free speech in three discrete yet overlapping areas:

• The challenges to free expression from governments.  
• The impact of the private tech sector on freedom of expression and access to information.
• The challenges to freedom of inquiry and expression in cultural institutions that create and disseminate knowledge and art.

This multi-day summit will offer speakers, panelists and attendees a unique opportunity to engage with and exchange ideas, research, and solutions to turn back the tide of global threats to free speech stemming from these three sectors.

The event is FREE, but registration is required to attend.