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When I was young, I thought "freedom of speech" meant that the government should not stop you from saying things that were true or that you believed to be true
by uberman 3y ago
When I was young, I thought "freedom of speech" meant that the government should not stop you from saying things that were true or that you believed to be true that they did not like. The kind of free speech we talk about when we say the Iran or China lacks free speech.
Recently, I have grown to learn that free speech might also include flat out lies that further your own addenda and be about companies not just governments.
All that is to say, that YouTube ads for bogus Amazon strategies and miracle weightloss and hearing plans and now deep fake sponsorships are here because giant companies no longer vet anything and if they did, certain segments of our society will complain that they are being censored.
- cherrycherry98 3y agoIt's not freedom of speech if someone is claiming to be someone they aren't (false representation) or claiming benefits that don't exist (false advertising) for financial gain. This is fraud and is illegal. There's not much of a freedom of speech argument around it and even pro speech people wouldn't come to the defense of someone lying about their product.
- hotpotamus 3y agoI've never really accepted the whole "fraud isn't free speech" thing. Fundamentally free speech would allow you to threaten or lie to anyone about anything, but that's why there are limits to freedoms.