As much as I am anti-censorship and hate all of this, there is no “Freedom of Speech” on social media platforms. They are private companies and are allowed to use any restrictions that do not fall into violations of the very few laws which restrict how companies can treat customers. In the USA, “Freedom of Speech” only guarantees that government agents and laws will not restrict it, and even that is not absolute.
Now the laws and policies about it need stripped along with all non-symmetric indecent exposure laws.
And in the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators would listen in on conversations and cut off anyone they didn’t like. Then in civilized countries, they required phone companies to be common carriers and required police to get warrants if there was anything illegal suspected, to listen in on someone.
Yup, as I mentioned in my other response to Mr. Strawman that is the difference between a private corporation and a utility. Utilities ARE subject to the first and fourth amendment protections because they are a strange hybrid between public and private.
Yes, but Meta/Facebook is essentially positioning itself as a monopolistic utility by buying out all its smaller competitors and leveraging itself as one of the few players in the market. There are a lot of people, who if you want to talk to them or see what they have to say, you have to get a Facebook account. This includes politicians and small businesses.
Eh, its more of an oligopolistic cohort, but yeah. There is a strong argument to be made to classify all communication technology broadly as a utility under the telecom umbrella. That way it can cover all past and future technologies.
As much as I am anti-censorship and hate all of this, there is no “Freedom of Speech” on social media platforms. They are private companies and are allowed to use any restrictions that do not fall into violations of the very few laws which restrict how companies can treat customers. In the USA, “Freedom of Speech” only guarantees that government agents and laws will not restrict it, and even that is not absolute.
Now the laws and policies about it need stripped along with all non-symmetric indecent exposure laws.
The phones are run by private companies. Should they be allowed to restrict what you say over the phone (or sms)?
Already happens. Facebook and other message systems have content filters built in to their chat systems.
And in the early days of the telephone, switchboard operators would listen in on conversations and cut off anyone they didn’t like. Then in civilized countries, they required phone companies to be common carriers and required police to get warrants if there was anything illegal suspected, to listen in on someone.
Similar thing with the postal service.
Yup, as I mentioned in my other response to Mr. Strawman that is the difference between a private corporation and a utility. Utilities ARE subject to the first and fourth amendment protections because they are a strange hybrid between public and private.
Yes, but Meta/Facebook is essentially positioning itself as a monopolistic utility by buying out all its smaller competitors and leveraging itself as one of the few players in the market. There are a lot of people, who if you want to talk to them or see what they have to say, you have to get a Facebook account. This includes politicians and small businesses.
Eh, its more of an oligopolistic cohort, but yeah. There is a strong argument to be made to classify all communication technology broadly as a utility under the telecom umbrella. That way it can cover all past and future technologies.