Private vs Public Free Speech

There’s a lot of talk lately by the people and their supporters who had been urging violence against members of Congress and members of the press that that is their First-Amendment protected right of free speech. It is not. The First Amendment initially only applied to laws enacted by Congress, and after 1925 to laws enacted by the states. It applies directly to “state actors”. A state actor is a person who is acting on behalf of a governmental body and is subject to regulation under the United States Bill of Rights, including the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, which prohibit the federal and state governments from violating certain rights and freedoms. It does not apply to Twitter, Facebook, Parler, or any other private organization. Those organizations must follow laws like the rest of us, but they can control the content of their websites, including marking posts as false or misleading, removing posts, or suspending or removing accounts of those that violate their rules of participation. Just as we cannot cause panic leading to injuries and damage, by falsely shouting that there is a fire in a crowded space, neither can we publicly spread falsehoods to spread hate, or incite violence against others who we don’t like. The Free-Speech part of the First Amendment cannot be used to justify actions that go beyond protest, such as threats of violence, overt violence to people or property, or attempts to kidnap or harm elected officials. Rumors and lies spread quickly in a digital world, and we do ourselves harm if we act impulsively or at the illegal behest of others to right a supposed harm that did not actually take place. In the past, mobs have hung innocent people based on nothing more than rumor and speculation. We have seen too much of these hateful lies spread by private citizens and “state actors” of which violence is the intended result. There are consequences to such speech. – January 13, 2021

Oddly, I’m hearing calls from Republicans now to regulate “big tech”. So, because “big tech” is allowed to control what type of information is broadcast from their business sites, specifically, hate speech, lies used as incitement to riot, and false information used to divide our nation for political gain, and even though the Republican mantra is businesses should have fewer or no regulation, they want “big tech” regulated. Interesting. – Jan. 16, 2021