Tech companies and free speech

Tech companies now find themselves in the firing line of free speech debate. To what extent can they duck the issue given their global coverage? Is it up to them to police what people say from the dangerous privacy of their own keyboards? And with truth and fake news being trumpeted by the highest powers in many lands can they be held responsible for drawing the lines in debates about what should or shouldn’t be said, posted or tweeted? And at the heart of the series is a desire to test the absolute conviction of those who would espouse free speech and see it as a basic human right? (Photo: Social media apps on a phone. Credit: Getty Images)