Sorry, but you’re wrong. Government pressure makes it into a first amendment issue. The government recently settled a lawsuit about this (Murthy v. Missouri, or

Sorry, but you’re wrong. Government pressure makes it into a first amendment issue. The government recently settled a lawsuit about this (Murthy v. Missouri, originally filed as Missouri v. Biden) that includes a consent decree preventing the agencies involved from engaging in any future pressure campaigns as they did during COVID. Absent government pressure, of course it’s not a free speech issue, but a violation of rights happened here. The government can’t just evade the first amendment by cleverly outsourcing censorship, especially if they have people sitting in Slack channels and the like passing on names! And even more so if they are simultaneously applying pressure and vague threats through Congressional hearings. It’s unfortunate that the government has not yet learned its lesson on this, because this kind of pressure is still ongoing with speech related to ICE and Israel/Palestine. Hopefully someone wins a big lawsuit soon. In the US we are citizens with rights, not subjects.