Free Speech and Social Media
There is a strong political and legal movement to prevent content moderation on social media platforms. The argument is that silencing any voices is an infringement on free speech, which cannot be allowed. Let’s examine the implications of this movement.
Social media platforms are privately owned businesses. If Facebook, say, can’t enforce content guidelines and must have an anything goes policy that means more that just hate speech and violent rhetoric intruding into your feed. It means that a Satanist may not be prevented from going into a private Christian chat room and spouting anti-Christian beliefs. It means that when I meet with friends in a coffee house and a deranged person comes in and shouts racist slurs at us, the coffee house owner has no right to remove the disruptive patron. It means that if somebody tapes a flyer with a swastika on my front door, I am obligated to leave it the because … free speech.
The moderator of an online knitting class would be barred from blocking someone from posting a video of animals being slaughtered in the class feed, again because … free speech.
And adult content must be allowed on all media platforms, because a person exposing their genitals is a form of free speech.
What free speech absolutists don’t seem to get is that the First Amendment to the Constitution only…
