If there is one area where Americans still agree, it’s that free speech matters. Amid recent political protests, ongoing concerns about speech suppression, and the latest campus controversies, the First Amendment is (still) immensely popular.

In our latest national survey, 81 percent of Americans claimed freedom of speech should be protected “at all costs.” This is about as close to unanimity as you get in modern polling.

But dig a little deeper, and that consensus starts to fracture fast. Most Americans say certain speech is harmful enough that limits on the First Amendment are necessary. Almost two-thirds agree that free speech doesn’t mean protection from consequences. In other words, Americans overwhelmingly believe in free speech, just not necessarily for people who say things they don’t like.

This is the paradox at the heart of our national conversation. We love the idea of free speech, but we often hate the practice of it.

The tension isn’t just philosophical; it is emotional. A staggering 79% of Americans believe people are now too quick to “cancel” others for their opinions. Half of America sees political correctness as a danger to free speech, although the other half isn’t as concerned.

What that tells me, as a longtime pollster, is that Americans are exhausted. They’re tired of self-censoring. They’re tired of watching their friends and colleagues walk verbal tightropes. And they certainly don’t want the government—federal, state, or local—clamping down on speech en masse.

But there is nuance here. America isn’t a country of free-speech absolutists or thought police. Although there are elements of both, ours is really a country of pragmatists. Most Americans believe speech has consequences because they live in a world where words do affect careers, relationships, and reputations. Americans aren’t rejecting the First Amendment; they’re wrestling with the realities of a digital public square where everyone has a megaphone and nobody has a filter, knowing that what we say is tracked by our peers and the powers that be.

Here is the real crisis: Trust. Americans simply don’t trust anyone in power to handle free speech issues fairly and with the least amount of unintended consequences.

We asked them, and the answers were brutal. Only 21% of U.S. adults trust news organizations. Just 16% trust social media companies even somewhat.

Congress? Barely 15%.

The only institutions that fare decently are civil rights organizations and independent watchdogs like the ACLU—trusted by 36% and distrusted by just 19%. This is hardly a mandate, but it is something. When every major institution has lost credibility on speech in the eyes of the general public, the most trusted arbiters turn out to be those with no direct power at all.

Washington, D.C., should be on high alert. When ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show last month, 86% of Americans were aware of it, and 58% opposed the suspension. This includes many Republicans who don’t agree with Kimmel on much. The late-night host isn’t a politician, and yet his punishment became a referendum on speech and power.

What our respondents implicitly told us is that America’s patience for corporate gatekeeping is wearing thin. People are fed up with institutions acting as moral referees in debates that should belong to the public square.

The general public increasingly errs on the side of more expression, not less. Earlier this year, the Sydney Sweeney “scandal” showed that the anti-speech scolds can only get so far in 2025. The Charlie Kirk tragedy led even some liberals to endorse his style of open debate in remembrance. As the Supreme Court weighs multiple free speech cases this term, Americans seem especially receptive to First Amendment arguments in today’s political climate.

Based on the polling data, I see a country searching for a new equilibrium in its speech. People don’t want government censors or social media mobs. They want accountability without authoritarianism, space to speak freely, and room to disagree without fear of exile from the public forum.

Free speech in America isn’t dying; it is being renegotiated. The real question isn’t whether we’ll protect it at all costs, but whether we can agree on the price.

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Kendall Young is a senior strategist at Outward Intelligence, the world’s first AI-native quantitative research platform. She is based in Los Angeles.

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