ABSTRACT
Professor Balkin argues that digital technologies alter the social conditions of speech and therefore should change the focus of free speech theory, from a Meiklejohnian or republican concern with protecting democratic process and democratic deliberation, to a larger concern with protecting and promoting a democratic culture. A democratic culture is a culture in which individuals have a fair opportunity to participate in the forms of meaning-making that constitute them as individuals. The system of free expression is produced through the synergy of government policies that promote popular participation in technologies of communication, technological designs that facilitate decentralized control and popular participation rather than hinder them, and the traditional recognition and enforcement of judicially created rights against government censorship. Protecting freedom of speech in the digital age means promoting a core set of values in legislation, administrative regulation, and the design of technology.
