NYU professor and self-proclaimed First Amendment supporter Gabrielle Gambrell called for "hate speech" to be censored on social media.
Gambrell was a guest on Dr. Phil on Tuesday debating whether destroying a person’s career is actually a good way to change their political views.
Dr. Phil introduced the NYU professor as a guest who "says hate speech and inappropriate behavior should be censored on social media, right?"
"I do, I do," she agreed. "I am extremely in favor of the First Amendment, to be clear, I [have a] broadcast background, media background, I believe in the First Amendment, but we have seen things that happen when social media is not censored."
After citing the shooting in Buffalo, she suggested, "In certain instances where it’s harmful, in certain instances where it can hurt people, where there’s negative intent, there should be censorship."
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She added that she takes joy in seeing people’s lives overturned after making controversial statements.
"In some instances where I see viral videos where someone is clearly racist or homophobic or anything nasty and then the video goes viral, they lose their job, I’m like ‘score’ because that person does not deserve to have this title which can impact certain communities, they need to work on themselves."
She continued, "What I do truly believe in is redemption. There’s opportunity to learn, to be better, to not harm people."
Attorney Robert Shibley, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), pushed back on Gambrell's comments.
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"Wouldn’t losing your job-I mean how does that help somebody be redeemed as opposed to just teach them?" he asked.
He observed that with the current framing, the consequences for statements can be "something that is very destructive to them rather than something that’s educational to them," and by doing so, "we’re not convincing them, we are convincing them that they need to keep things underground."
Later in the episode, the discussion of the First Amendment as a protection from government censorship was compared with the actual state of free expression in public life.
"You’re right to be concerned about the erosion of freedom of speech, and even though we continue to have very strong legal rights to freedom of speech, those don’t really mean anything if people don’t feel free to actually engage in it," Shibley said.
