The Battle for Free Speech | Truth Over Tyranny

Big Tech’s assault on free speech: Mergers, social media, AI, and censorship

by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner | Jun 18, 2026 | big tech, censorship, free speech, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, Trump

Transcript
The following rushed transcript may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.

On the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration—January 20, 2025—the heads of many of Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech firms sat in the rows just behind Trump. It was a sign of Trump’s deep ties to the industry and to these powerful individuals who are transforming how we communicate, and not for the better.

In this episode, Michael Fox visits Silicon Valley to try to understand the stranglehold that tech has over our media and our airwaves. Hosts Michael Fox and Marc Steiner dig into the ways media consolidation, social media, and AI are strangling our free speech, even as they claim to be liberating it—and us—with incredible insight from professors Todd Wolfson, Mary Anne Franks, Fara Dabhoiwala, Ramesh Srinivasan, and Jeff Cohen, the founder of the organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, FAIR.

The Battle for Free Speech 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 and Heather Gies. Research by Ben Schweiger.

Guests

Todd Wolfson

Mary Anne Franks

Fara Dabhoiwala

Jeff Cohen

Ramesh Srinivasan

Resources

Mary Anne Franks’ book, Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment

Fara Dabhoiwala’s book, What Is Free Speech?: The History of a Dangerous Idea

Todd Wolfson’s Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left

Marc Steiner’s Interview with Jeff Cohen, “How Democrats set the stage for Trump’s assault on free speech”

You can hear Ramesh Srinivasan’s Utopias Podcast here, or wherever you get your

Original

A history of free speech, from abolitionists to Berkeley

by Michael Fox and Marc Steiner | Jun 11, 2026 | First Amendment, free speech, history, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, The Battle for Free Speech, The Cultural Front

Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated as soon as possible.

Michael Fox: Hi Mark.

Marc Steiner: Hey Mike, how you doing? Good to see you.

Michael Fox: Good to see you.

Marc Steiner: What do you got for us today?

Michael Fox: All right. So late last fall I visited this place that I think you’ll appreciate for this episode. Sprout Plaza at the University of California campus.

Marc Steiner: I know exactly where you were.

Michael Fox: So it’s a beautiful blue sky out. Leaves are changing colors. It’s a crisp autumn afternoon and in front of me is this big long stoic building marble, four big long Roman columns at the top of a row of stairs. This is the administration building here at the University of California Berkeley and this is called Sproul Hall. And that is important because this was literally ground zero for the free speech movement of 1964 here at the University of California Berkeley. Like the Plaza where I’m at right now, which is Sprout Plaza, was where you just had daily marches, protests, speeches just constantly happening.

I think it is really poignant that on the ground in front of Sprout Hall, someone has written in chalk, Trump must go now, refuse fascism. And it’s chalked up in two different locations here. People still staking out their territory, demanding their right to speak their voice. I was there to get a sense of the feeling being there and kind of the legacy today. And of course this was ground zero for the free speech movement. And Mark, that’s something you know

Original