College Students Want Balance On Free Speech And Hate Speech

In a new survey made by Knight Foundation and Newseum Institute in collaboration with Gallup released on Monday, college students want to balance free speech and hate speech in every campus. College students understand that schools allow them to share their own points of view and tell everything they like, but they also want restrictions on things they are not allowed to say.

According to Huffington Post, the survey is conducted among 3,000 students ages 18 to 24 in a four-year college program in the U.S. The result revealed that 78 of the students want their colleges to let "all types of speech and viewpoints" be heard in every university.

On the other hand, 22 percent want academies to rule out "biased" and hate speech to foster a "positive learning environment." Additionally, the survey also found out that about 54 percent of students unveiled that there are some campuses trying to stop some pupils to say what they want as it might be offensive to others.

However, students are wise enough to know what they are not bound to say in free speech policies, particularly discriminatory and offensive language. "Students do appear to distinguish controversial views from what they see as hate speech," the organizers said.

College students want to enact the rules constraining language and behavior that might offend other groups about the things they are not allowed to say. The Washington Post reported the demonstrations happened at University of Missouri, Yale University and other schools open the minds of the many regarding free and hate speech.

Some wonders if the schools still have the ability to restraint hate speech while still defending free speech and the open learning in the "academic environment." The survey helps to tackle the issue of the difficulties students have regarding the free speech and the First Amendment issues that cause confusion in every college nationally.