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Whatever you think about Trump, he has First Amendment rights under the U.S. constitution. If violating the law, he should be punished, but it is not up to priv

Whatever you think about Trump, he has First Amendment rights under the U.S. constitution. If violating the law, he should be punished, but it is not up to private companies to revoke constitutional rights. Trump still has the right to speak publicly. No one should wish that he be silenced by private companies. Trump should just tell his supporters to go to his own web site and communicate with them that way. There's no reason he has to use Twitter. He can use email. It might even be more effective for him.

whylo 6y ago
The first amendment prevents the government from making laws which prevent free speech. Private companies aren't obliged to host that speech if they don't want to
- staunch 6y ago
  Yes, of course, safe to say everyone on HN knows this. Twitter banning Trump isn't such a big deal. He can get a web site and email service from AWS or other cloud providers. But what if the cloud providers ban his web site and email? What if backbone internet providers and data centers banned his IT team from running their own web/email servers? There is no government run internet. It is all run by private companies. Which means that if private companies wanted to, they could restrict access to anyone they want. This is clearly wrong. We either need to create a government run internet backbone + data centers, or to draw some line at how much power private internet companies have. The Supreme Court could decide that the internet is so vital to the First Amendment in the modern world that the top N social media or internet infrastructure companies have to behave as if they were government run with respect to the First Amendment.
FireBeyond 6y ago
You have the right to speak. You have no right to an audience, nor to compel a third party to spend time, effort and money providing you either audience or amplification. He has the White House web site. He wouldn't even use the @potus Twitter account because he'd rather have people follow his personal account.
chillwaves 6y ago
Are you saying he has a First Amendment right on Twitter? That's not the case. Bill of Rights does not apply to Twitter.
- staunch 6y ago
  No

whylo 6y ago

The first amendment prevents the government from making laws which prevent free speech. Private companies aren't obliged to host that speech if they don't want to

staunch 6y ago
Yes, of course, safe to say everyone on HN knows this. Twitter banning Trump isn't such a big deal. He can get a web site and email service from AWS or other cloud providers. But what if the cloud providers ban his web site and email? What if backbone internet providers and data centers banned his IT team from running their own web/email servers? There is no government run internet. It is all run by private companies. Which means that if private companies wanted to, they could restrict access to anyone they want. This is clearly wrong. We either need to create a government run internet backbone + data centers, or to draw some line at how much power private internet companies have. The Supreme Court could decide that the internet is so vital to the First Amendment in the modern world that the top N social media or internet infrastructure companies have to behave as if they were government run with respect to the First Amendment.

FireBeyond 6y ago

You have the right to speak. You have no right to an audience, nor to compel a third party to spend time, effort and money providing you either audience or amplification. He has the White House web site. He wouldn't even use the @potus Twitter account because he'd rather have people follow his personal account.

chillwaves 6y ago

Are you saying he has a First Amendment right on Twitter? That's not the case. Bill of Rights does not apply to Twitter.

staunch 6y ago
No