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I agree people are often confused by what the 1st Amendment guarantees, however government isn't the only threat to free speech, especially on the internet wher
by tlrobinson 8y ago
I agree people are often confused by what the 1st Amendment guarantees, however government isn't the only threat to free speech, especially on the internet where large platforms yield more power than many smaller countries.
I'm not saying private entities should be subject to the 1st Amendment, but we shouldn't give them a free pass to censor just because we happen to agree with their decision this time.
- chias 8y agoFree speech does not guarantee a platform for your speech, nor does it guarantee that you are able to say the things you want to. Even setting aside "private vs government", it doesn't even guarantee that the government won't censor you. It guarantees that you will not be arrested (by the government providing you with this right) for things that you do say. Even this has a few exceptions, e.g. incitements to violence etc. Perhaps you feel that it should guarantee more than it does, and perhaps you may be right, but as it stands it does not.
- tlrobinson 8y agoDid you miss the part where I said "I'm not saying private entities should be subject to the 1st Amendment"? My point was "free speech" is not synonymous with "The 1st Amendment". The former is a general concept and the latter is one way we protect it in the United States.
- chias 8y agoI didn't. I was merely pointing out that "free speech" (as we know it) has nothing to do with what you are able to say, while you seem to be operating off of a different definition.
- gamblor956 8y agoWe're not giving Facebook a free pass. We're discussing it, in detail, and 99% of people are okay with it after examining the particular context of the situation, namely, that a private company is exercising its own free speech rights to exclude hate speech from its platform. Jones is free to create his own Facebook clone or jump to Twitter.