by Michael Fox | Jul 16, 2026 | big tech, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, The Battle for Free Speech
Disinformation is impacting our lives. Much of it is being pushed by unregulated Silicon Valley tech companies and their billionaire owners. But people in Europe are pushing back.
In this episode, Michael Fox goes to Spain, to look at how members of the Spanish far right have been inspired by Charlie Kirk. Then we look at grassroots organizing against Big Tech in Ireland, media education initiatives in Finland, and European measures regulating Big Tech.
“This has now been a topic of discussion very much in Europe,” says Finnish educator Saara Salomaa. “Should we actually trust any US tech companies, or should we try to get rid of US tech companies as soon as possible?”
Michael is joined in the episode by Laura Flanders. She is the host of Laura Flanders and Friends on public television — formerly known as the Laura Flanders show.
The Battle for Free Speech Podcast is a production of The Real News Network.
Hosted by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner. Theme music by Michael Fox, Jordan Klein and Daniel Nuñez. Other music from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Production and Sound Design by Michael Fox and Stephen Frank. Editorial support by Kayla Rivara. Research by Ben Schweiger.
Guests
Sergio Villanueva
Jude Farrell
Saara Salomaa
Iva Nenadic
Many thanks, also, to Ilona Taimela for taking the time to speak with me about media education in Finland.
Resources
Here is a link to TikTok about the Puchaina Avocado videos.
Follow The Battle For Free Speech on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.Support Michael Fox’s reporting at patreon.com/mfox. Never miss an episode — sign up for The Real News newsletter at therealnews.com.
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Michael Fox: Hi folks. Just a quick heads up before we get started. There are a few
by Michael Fox | Jul 9, 2026 | brazil, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech
This is really a tale of two countries: the United States and Brazil. In both countries, far-right presidents come to power — Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro. In both those countries, the presidents spent several years unraveling democratic institutions and public policy. Both presidents then ran for reelection. Both presidents lied about their country’s voting systems in order to undermine the elections and whip up their base.
Both those presidents lost their reelections — Trump in 2020. Bolsonaro in 2022. They both claimed fraud and tried to carry out a coup to stay in power.
But that is where these two paths diverged. In the United States, President Donald Trump continued to peddle his lies about the elections. He created his own social media platform and he used it to push his agenda. He was reelected in 2024 and returned to power. In Brazil, however, the country’s Supreme Electoral Court blocked former President Jair Bolsonaro from running for office for eight years, because of the lies he told about the country’s electoral system.
It wasn’t censorship. it was a different interpretation of free speech. One that said the right to free expression must be balanced with the other rights in the country and the country’s democratic system. The United States doesn’t agree. And the Trump administration has been pushing to bend Brazil toward its definition of “free speech.”
In this episode, Michael Fox journeys to Brazil to understand the lengths that the country has gone to fight disinformation.
Michael is joined in the episode by Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief and co-executive director of The Real News Network and the host of the Working People Podcast.
The Battle for Free Speech
by Jay Waagmeester | Jul 8, 2026 | academic freedom, bans on critical race theory, censorship, critical race theory, education, First Amendment, Florida, free speech, Higher Education, News, Racial Justice, Ron DeSantis, Stop WOKE Act
Instead of the state determining what will be taught in university classrooms, students must be free to hear and consider even officially disfavored ideas presented to them by professors, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. More than two years after oral arguments in a case challenging the 2022 law dubbed the Stop WOKE Act, two out of three judges on a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th…
Source
by Michael Fox | Jul 2, 2026 | free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Michael Fox: It’s good to see you, Mansa.
Mansa Musa: It’s good to be seen.
Michael Fox: I want to start us in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial.
Michael Fox: I’m standing inside the mausoleum of the Lincoln Memorial. President Abraham Lincoln sitting on his chair, staring out, looking down across Washington over the reflecting pool at the Washington Monument in the Capitol.
Michael Fox: So early last fall, I went down to the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall and I wanted to go because this is, for me, it’s kind of one of the most iconic places I can think of for free speech in the United States.
Speaker 4: As the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Michael Fox: Clearly, like the images of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s, I have a dream speech and hundreds of thousands of people covering the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, running all the way back along the reflecting pool. And I went there to ask people what free speech meant to them. Excuse me, sir.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Michael Fox: My name’s Mike Fox. Yes, sir. I’m a freelance reporter and I’m working on a podcast about free speech. And so I spoke with one guy named Ric. He’s retired. He’s from Arizona. He came there with his wife. They were in town for the day. He actually works as a pit line firefighter for NASCAR. And he told me –
Speaker 6: The freedom to say what you feel, to express what you
by Ibrahim Hirsi | Jul 1, 2026 | antifa, Criminalization, criminalization of dissent, criminalizing dissent, Dissent, Fascism, First Amendment, free speech, ICE, intimidation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, News, Prairieland, Protests, Repression, solidarity, Texas, Trump Administration
Minnesota activists and scholars are decrying the recent federal indictment of 15 people who took part in demonstrations against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities metro region earlier this year. The indictment accuses the protesters of surveilling federal agents, disrupting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations…
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by Gabriela Soto | Jun 30, 2026 | Asylum, Delaney Hall ICE Jail, free speech, GEO Group, Hunger Strike, ICE, immigration, immigration jails, Op-Ed, Protests, retaliation
My husband, Martin Soto, was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this February when he left our home at night to buy diapers for our 11-month-old son. Martin — who is a loving father, husband, son, church member, worker, and neighbor in the town of Kearny, New Jersey, where we live — was then jailed for four months at Delaney Hall, the ICE jail in Newark, New Jersey.
Source
