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Free speech isn’t a privilege we give companies, it’s a right they have as collections of persons. Nor is section 230. Section 230 clarifies their behavior to t
by akerl_ 4y ago
Free speech isn’t a privilege we give companies, it’s a right they have as collections of persons. Nor is section 230. Section 230 clarifies their behavior to the benefit of society: without confirmation in section 230 about the governments handling of responsibility for user generated content, the internet wouldn’t be able to exist (because companies would be at risk of liability for the speech of their users).
The test for first amendment restrictions also isn’t “will the harm caused be significant”.
Phone companies handle point to point conversations; they don’t have or need this kind of conversation because I can’t pick up my phone and publish a message under my phone companies’s banner.
- anon291 4y agoOkay got it. So WhatsApp can censor my phone calls but not the telephone company because Whatsapp has a WhatsApp icon on the screen. And apple of course can censor my calls on my iphone because it reflects poorly on apple for my iphone to be associated. Got it. Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the clarity.
- akerl_ 4y agoWhatsApp can block or delete your WhatsApp messages. And Apple could decide to not let you call numbers that start with even digits. Neither is a violation of the 1st amendment. You can disagree about whether or not that should be the case, or whether other laws (like antitrust or discrimination) should apply, but the first amendment views the government compelling speech the same way it views the government censoring speech, and the Supreme Court has consistently found that forcing an entity to display a message is compelling speech.