Your speech is more vulnerable than you think.
Your speech is more vulnerable than you think.
FREE SPEECH IN THE WEST
“Are you praying? …Okay, then you’re under arrest.”
This exchange occurred on a public street in England. A praying woman was arrested for her silent thoughts. And she’s not the only one.
Free speech is more vulnerable than you think. Alliance Defending Freedom is fighting to protect this core right—for her, and for you.
Because censorship is spreading across the West … even to a street corner near you.
OUR MISSION
Alliance Defending Freedom is taking this threat head-on.
Why? Because free speech is a right given to us by God, not government. It’s the freedom on which all others stand. Without it, they all start to crumble.
When officials and activists try to silence your voice, Alliance Defending Freedom is there. We’ve stood beside everyday Americans—cake artists, photographers, website designers—to protect their right to speak freely.
And long after their victories, we’re still there—fighting censorship and protecting your right to speak until it’s secure everywhere. We’ve been fighting and winning these battles since 1994, with a proven track record of success.
Here’s how we’re advancing free speech…
- We represent our clients at no cost to them. Not one has ever paid us a dollar for their defense.
- We’ve scored hundreds of free-speech victories for people all over the globe, including five landmark speech wins at the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Our team is working in over 100 countries to protect fundamental freedoms, because the laws written in Brussels and Helsinki don’t stay on that side of the Atlantic.
Free speech isn’t a crime. Alliance Defending Freedom steps in when the government says otherwise.
A GLOBAL THREAT
Where it’s happened around the world
United Kingdom
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce stood peacefully on a public street in Birmingham. She prayed a silent prayer in view of the local abortion facility … just as she’d been doing for years.
Police approached and demanded to know what she was doing. She said she might be praying in her head—and they arrested her.
Isabel was acquitted, but that didn’t stop authorities from targeting her again. They again arrested, then cleared her. Then it happened a third time.
This kind of censorship won’t stop with Isabel. If the government can police her prayers, what’s stopping them from going after yours?
Finland
Päivi Räsänen posted a Bible verse on social media. It resulted in a criminal investigation, a conviction, and years of legal battles.
The Finnish Supreme Court acquitted Päivi for the Bible verse post. But then prosecutors dug up a booklet she wrote more than 20 years ago about her biblical views on sexuality, and the Court convicted her of “hate speech.”
The judges ordered that the booklet be removed from public access and destroyed.
And her fight still isn’t over.
ADF is standing by Päivi as she turns to the European Court of Human Rights to defend her free speech.
Georgia
Chike Uzuegbunam loves to share his faith with others. In 2016, as a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, he stood in an outdoor plaza on campus and sought to tell his peers about “the greatest news in the world.”
Officials stopped him. They said he needed to reserve time in the campus “speech zone” in order to talk about his faith.
The two zones comprise less than 0.0015% of the campus. Students must get a permit to use one—and even then, they’re only available at certain times of the week.
Chike followed every procedure. But administrators silenced him again.
When Chike filed a lawsuit, the school reversed course and tried to say it should face no consequences. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, 8-1.
If free speech is confined to a zone, it isn’t free.
Virginia
Peter Vlaming was a French teacher at a public high school in Virginia. His students loved him and fellow staffers respected him. Then school officials demanded he abandon his beliefs—about language and basic biology.
They instructed him to use inaccurate pronouns for a student in his class, even knowing it would violate his faith and what he knew to be true. Peter went above and beyond to accommodate the student, but he would not lie by using the wrong pronouns.
Still, school officials pressured him to bend the knee to gender ideology. He didn’t. So they fired him.
ADF represented Peter and scored a landmark victory at the Virginia Supreme Court.
“America isn’t Europe. We have the First Amendment.”
We do, and it’s the strongest free-speech protection ever adopted by a nation. But it’s only worth as much as our willingness to enforce it.
When officials in Virginia and Georgia violated the freedom of speech, it took a teacher and a student, teams of lawyers, and years of litigation to restore it.
But the First Amendment can’t stop European authorities from finding other ways to silence American speech.
They’ve already started. Enter the Digital Services Act.
THE DIGITAL SERVICES ACT
You might not be watching Europe. But Europe is watching you.
The European Union’s “Digital Services Act” polices content online—no matter where it’s posted from. That means unelected people in Brussels can censor the social media post you write from your couch in Texas if they don’t like what you have to say.
The DSA is an end-run around the First Amendment. It gives foreign bureaucrats the power to silence speech that the Constitution was designed to protect.
Unfortunately, yes. The EU says it’s trying to protect against disinformation. But in reality, the DSA is the biggest power grab in internet regulation history.
By enforcing serious penalties on the platforms. Social media companies and AI search platforms can be fined billions of dollars if they don’t shut down speech the EU doesn’t like.
In February 2026, Päivi Räsänen testified before Congress about Europe’s reach into American speech. The same DSA that silenced her could now be used against you.
Freedom of speech is lost one “good reason” at a time.
Censorship starts as a “safety measure.” A protection against “disinformation.” A buffer zone, a speech zone, a pronoun policy.
But we cannot cave to what officials deem a “good” reason to silence anyone … because once it starts, where does it stop?
Someone has to be there when the teacher is fired. When the student is silenced. When the prayer warrior is arrested. When the grandmother is convicted.
And because of people like you, somebody is.
TAKE ACTION
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