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In my view, what is fundamentally an antitrust issue is getting improperly framed as a first amendment / free speech issue. 1) Any private company (or person)
by danhak 6y ago
In my view, what is fundamentally an antitrust issue is getting improperly framed as a first amendment / free speech issue.
1) Any private company (or person) has the right to determine what speech they tolerate, amplify or disseminate
2) No company should be so big that their assertion of that right dramatically changes the national conversation
- CyberRabbi 6y agoIt’s also a civil rights issue. Private companies should not be allowed to violate human rights. This is why we fought for civil rights in the 60s.
- danhak 6y agoHaving a platform to express whatever you want is not a "human right." And political affiliation is not a protected class under the Civil Rights Act. If you go on a political tirade, I have every right to kick you out of my home. Or office. Or restaurant. Or app.
- CyberRabbi 6y agoPeople once had the right to kick people out of their private business because they didn’t like how someone looked. Your right to kick me out of your private business because you don’t like my opinions will be looked at the same way. Fundamentally illiberal. I have a human right to hold and express any political opinion I want. Eventually we’ll have to campaign to make free speech a civil right and a protected class, just like they did in the 60s for race, and later for sexual orientation. We iterate our laws as we acquire new knowledge through moral science.
- odessacubbage 6y agoyou are not wrong, but this philosophy becomes deeply flawed once it starts being applied by chokepoint monopolies who control the flow of all potential avenues for speech and commerce online. when twitter plays favorites it is inconvenient, when mastercard & cloudflare do it is fundamentally destabilizing.
- throwawaybchr 6y agoThis is absolutely correct, and it would benefit society immensely if #2 is solved quickly. A free marketplace of ideas, no matter how blasphemous, must always exist. President Obama said it best at his speech to the UN when he discussed the infamous YouTube video released prior to Benghazi. The answer is always more speech.