Knight First Amendment Institute

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University (Knight Institute) defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through research, strategic litigation, policy advocacy, and public education. The aim of all of its work is to promote a system of free expression that serves democracy: one that is open and inclusive, that broadens and elevates public discourse, and that fosters creativity, accountability, and effective self-government. The Knight Institute has three areas of strategic focus: free speech and new technology, transparency and accountability, and expressive and associational privacy. The award provides general operating support to the organization.

The Knight First Amendment Institute (KFAI) defends freedom of speech and the press in the digital age. Its work aims to strengthen the values the First Amendment was meant to serve, including truth-seeking, tolerance, accountability, inclusivity and self-government. The organization pursues its mission through three programmatic tools: strategic litigation, research and public education. KFIA’s research program explores challenging questions at the intersection of freedom of expression, new technologies, and First Amendment law, both to inform its litigation work on cutting-edge First Amendment challenges and help define and guide public policy discussions. Its public education program aims to broaden engagement with the challenges confronted in its litigation and research programs, and fosters important public policy discussions. The award provides general operating support to the organization.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University (the Institute) works to defend and strengthen the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education. It aims to be a vibrant community, a generator of new ideas, a distinctive voice for these fundamental freedoms in public discourse, and an effective defender of these freedoms in the courts in the digital age. The award provides general support to the Institute as it works across four substantive areas: 1) reviving the First Amendment as a meaningful constraint on government surveillance; 2) protecting free speech on social media; 3) strengthening legal frameworks related to government transparency; and, 4) protecting the rights of protest and dissent.