2024 was the worst year ever for campus free speech. Can we make 2025 better?

Well, it happened. This year is now officially the worst year on record for free speech on our nation’s campuses.

Throughout 2024, I have been referring to research from my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which showed that 2023 was the worst recorded year for attempts at our colleges and universities to disinvite speakers from campus, cancel performances, take down art exhibits and prevent the screening of films. This is based on FIRE’s Campus Deplatforming Database, which has been logging these kinds of incidents since 1998.