4 ms·
In the end I think this isn't going to just apply to speech but many facets of modern life that are increasingly controlled by companies instead of governments.
by rjf72 7y ago
In the end I think this isn't going to just apply to speech but many facets of modern life that are increasingly controlled by companies instead of governments.
For example within 10 days of Wikileaks publishing 'cablegate' back in 2010, Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, and Western Union all blocked donations to the site. [1] This effectively destroyed nearly all of their funding. As we've reached an era where a variety of absolutely critical industries are completely or near completely monopolized, it means that things like the first amendment are much less meaningful. If the government wanted to ban some form of speech, all they need to do is to make a call to a handful of companies and, like that, they've banned > 90% of discussion of it. And from the company's perspectives, they can agree to cooperate and expect rich rewards and favorable treatment from the government in the future, or they can refuse to no real gain and end up facing the full fury of an incredibly far-reaching government.
Perhaps one of the many reasons that the founding fathers were so obsessed with keeping governments small and relatively weak. This power of coercion is in some ways even more dangerous than any law that might be passed since it can often effect the exact same end while keeping most of the public generally uninformed.
[1] - https://wikileaks.org/Banking-Blockade.html https://wikileaks.org/Banking-Blockade.html