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> Nobody has any free speech rights related to Google-hosted content. If Google pulled the plug on YouTube tomorrow and vended 0% of the videos it hosts, there'
by darawk 7y ago
> Nobody has any free speech rights related to Google-hosted content. If Google pulled the plug on YouTube tomorrow and vended 0% of the videos it hosts, there'd be no recourse for content creators. Nothing about the US interpretation of free speech implies an obligation for YouTube to host any content or no content.
People always say this when this topic is brought up. But nobody is talking about the constitutional right to free speech. We all understand that Google is allowed to do whatever it wants on its own platforms.
Free speech, however, is not only a right. It is an ideal. It is something some people value independent of the constitution and law.
- shadowgovt 7y agoFree speech is valuable for its utility; it helps hold power accountable and can open up avenues for seeking truth of the world. But it can also hinder those efforts, and speech in that direction is no ideal to be upheld.
- darawk 7y agoSo, you're for free speech as long as it's the kind of speech you like?
- shadowgovt 7y agoAs long as it's the kind of speech that isn't harmful to people. Whether I like it is immaterial. the right to free speech doesn't protect the right to yell fire in a crowded theater. Even the nations with the most liberal interpretations of the meaning of free speech have put constraints on it.