Should free speech rights be expanded in America into the private sector?

[Juxtapose]

Essentially it is not okay for the government to censor you but it is currently okay for a company the size of a small government to censor you.

Do you know who competes with google? Fucking nobody. Why are we letting a giant monopoly control the virtual public square? Why do we treat youtube like a platform when it is really a publisher because it editorializes via censorship?

Yes.

No.

[RealMarek]

All that needs to be done is what was done with utilities in the old days. Phone companies, electricity providers, etc., were specifically forbidden from suspending service due to customer speech. Illegal activity on the phone is to be policed by the government.

Currently, the government is using social media, internet platforms, banks, and payment processors, many of which are heavily funded by the government and allowed to collude to destroy competitors and the lives of individuals, to do an end-run around the first amendment.

[Juxtapose]

Yeah, people who think it is only the government who is not supposed to censor you don't know what they're talking about. That is not how this country is supposed to be, we are not supposed to have big tech overlords determining what we can say in the virtual public square.

[BeenThereLovedIt]

A big part of the problem here is that companies have been allowed to grow to the size of small governments.

The progressive tax code of the GA (great again) in the 50's and 60's taxed as high as 90% to ensure companies didn't become too powerful and that the wealth of the country stayed in the hands of the general population. That's the whole point of taxation in a democracy.

[jshm2]

There is no legal way to enforce such. You're also not the brightest if you think democratic government can enforce undemocratic rules.

Also, Google has competition in every country. Baidu is actually just as big, but concentrates on China. Likewise Yandex is big in Eastern regions. No one "controls" the virtual space -they control their platform only. You're just too thick to understand that your right to be stupid, is not something companies need to protect.

[Juxtapose]

Oh you poor sweet summer child.

[WindAtMyBack]

I don't think it should extend into the private sector, with one exception. That's when they are considered a common carrier.

Companies like Google should be broken up, but for different reasons. Actually Google and others of their ilk should be closed down completely. Trump was going after those big conglomerates, but he got booted. I don't know what happened to cases already in the pipeline.

[disgustingweebtrash]

It's a private corporation they can do whatever they want, I wonder how long that argument will play with big tech.

Objectively, a conglomerate such as meta controlling public opinion for profit is a much bigger issue than your local baker not baking a cock cake.

[Lliam]

Absolutely. Social media platforms should be treated like public utilities where speech is concerned. The phone company can't cut off your service if it disagrees with your opinions.

[hahahmm]

No, because then small companies wouldn't be able to pick & choose their workers based on beliefs/lifestyle. The issue of government letting huge corporations buy up most of their competition is another issue.

[Juxtapose]

You should only hire people based on their ability to do the job and show up and do the job.

[hahahmm]

Your ideology says that's best for EVERY company. Some people have companies where they absolutely don't want someone who doesn't believe in their core mission goals... like a fat camp doesn't want to hire a fat azz, for example. A company teaching people how to be self-sufficient probably doesn't want a welfare state cheerleader.

[hahahmm]

And do you think the big companies you named don't exclude certain potential workers? They try to weed out anyone who doesn't agree 100% with their social ideology. Some of these companies even interrogate potential workers for 1 hour to try and see if you have the "right" beliefs.

[Juxtapose]

Well that is fucked up and anybody who is for liberty should be against censorship in all of its forms and should be in favor of empowering people instead of empowering corporations.

[Juxtapose]

It should be illegal for companies to pry into your private life like that. This would still make it fair for companies since they would be on equal footing with such a law in place.

We all know this public facing nonsense is all to appease Karen's with too much time on their hands anyway.

[exitseven]

Internet companies cannot be common carriers and at the same time censor content. If they want to edit content then they are no longer common carriers and should be considered news sources.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

So... conservatives want big government and more oversight? Wow, this world really has flipped.

[Juxtapose]

Who said anything about conservatives? I am a classical liberal lol.

Sometimes I swear you people don't make sense.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Mmm.. doubtful especially since I see the same message being broadcast by conservative mouthpieces anytime one of their own get banned on social media..

[Juxtapose]

Okay, then I will arbitrarily label you as a fascist if we are just going to fairytale land over here.

I'm allowed to have beliefs that don't fall in lockstep with the lockdown, authoritarian left. Presidents like FDR are good, Presidents like Biden are not.

[Juxtapose]

You should watch Jimmy Dore and Glenn Greenwald if you want to understand the effects of silicon valley more on the REAL left.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Is it fascist to allow companies the freedom to run their companies how they want?

[Juxtapose]

So you don't understand why it is a bad idea to let monopolies run amok with more power than small countries?

Do you understand how much money Google has and how much it can affect political policy throughout the world?

These companies are restricting the public's ability to communicate with each other in the new public square which is in the virtual world.

I have no sympathy for monopolies.

[Juxtapose]

Google needs to be broken up along with other big tech companies and free speech rights for the people need to be expanded.

I don't care if you are a nazi or a communist, your voice deserves to be heard in the public square of the modern day.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

There are plenty of other platforms in which to do it. A company who wishes to maintain profitably does not have to entertain sh*tty thoughts and have their brand tied to a bad idea if they don't want to.

You are not being denied free speech. Social media just doesn't have to give you their platform in which to do it. This would be no different than me saying you can protest all you want on the street but keep it off my lawn.

[Juxtapose]

Then pray do tell why phone companies cannot deny me service for saying things they do not like and do not want to be associated with?

[Juxtapose]

These are not platforms anyway, to be a platform you cannot editorialize. Censoring opinions is editorializing.

[Juxtapose]

Also, I think anyone for liberty should be against censorship from ANYWHERE. Regardless if it is a government, a corporation or an individual person.

Jimmy Dore breaks it down in the first few minutes of this video.

https://youtu.be/lr23KbeMCig

[Juxtapose]

Google censoring you is no more right than a phone or electric company turning off their service because they don't like what you say.

[Juxtapose]

Make the entirety of big tech into a utility.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Phone companies are not typically named when in scandals involving phone calls.

You don't hear news stories going "President Trump tried to enlist foreign assistance in his reelection efforts using his AT&T serviced phone line."

You do however hear social media names being attached all the time.

If you are trying to regulate the companies and who they can and can't ban from their services then you yourself are limiting the rights of someone in this country

[Juxtapose]

Corporations and companies are not people, I don't give a fuck what Mitt Romney says. They do not have the same rights as ordinary citizens nor should they, they are predatory organizations by nature.

And I don't care how the press reports scandals, not my problem.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Corporations have already been granted several rights granted to individual people by the Supreme Court. If you want to take it up with them, by all means, go for it.

And just as you don't care how the press handles scandals, I dont care if social media bans someone they don't agree with. It's their right to do so as long as it isn't for the typical things that can't be targeted for in the workplace.

[Juxtapose]

"they could not interfere with or even monitor traffic they carry in exchange for being exempted from being held legally responsible for the content of that traffic."

I want the entire internet under that rule. Censorship is anti-American and does not belong in a freedom loving.

But I don't think we are going to come to an agreement so I'm going to have to agree to disagree I guess.

[Juxtapose]

*loving society

[Ez-Bri-Z]

So, under your idea, there should be nothing stopping me from walking in my company branded t-shirt, going up to the roof of their building and scream misandrist remarks and suffer no penalties by my company otherwise they are limiting my freedoms?

[Juxtapose]

Subtract standing on the roof and potentially causing property damage but otherwise yeah, why not?

It is physical private property so they could trespass you for any reason they want.

It is like this, going to an electric company and causing a ruckus there is going to give them anxiety and want to make them trespass you.

Using their electricity to make possible your hate speech rallies or whatever? They should absolutely have no say in that.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Except social media is not a utility. Someone banned from Twitter still can absolutely create an account somewhere else and continue hate speech. They can create their own site and do the same.

[Juxtapose]

Oh yeah? Then why did they all band together to excommunicate Alex Jones?

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Because they can? He can still go online and get his insane messages out to his cult and they can buy up his snake oil products en masse.

[Juxtapose]

Yeah, that is too much power to have in a free society. Nobody should be blacklisted like that, especially in such a coordinated manner.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

And it only gets brought up when it involves a conservative mouthpiece. Nobody cared before it.

[Juxtapose]

You must have a short memory because a lot of liberals were pissed that they were being censored for expressing skepticism concerning the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

Which ended up being a lie, but even then, nothing happened to the companies that stopped them from banning who they wanted. Nothing should happen now. Let the market determine it. If people disagree, they can use something else.

[Juxtapose]

I don't believe in the free market fully. If you don't regulate these assholes they just end up buying out your government.. which has already happened in the USA. The US government has been captured by corporations.

[Ez-Bri-Z]

And we have broken up monopolies in the past like the Bell companies but it still didn't stop them from making contributions.

If you want to limit corporations from lobbying then I'm all for that.

[OddBeMe]

Yes, but not quite as you say. We need to start prosecuting monopolies again. But private companies should have the right to what goes on in their domains. It’s their properties. It’s like stores and vaccines.

[Juxtapose]

People don't go to town halls to debate anymore, people debate mostly online. If you control the virtual public square then you control American policy.

That is too much power to have so at the very least Google should be broken up as you said so there is competition.

Just look at how Alex Jones got excommunicated in unison by multiple different social media "platforms". That is creepy and should never happen.

[Juxtapose]

And yes, I am well aware Alex Jones is batshit crazy.

[OddBeMe]

True, but I don’t think adding some commie law against corporations is key. Keeping them in completion with each other will.

[OddBeMe]

*competition

[anylolone]

No, just don't give protection against liability for those who act like publishers.

[msc545]

No. And if that happened, you would be screaming "Communism".

[Juxtapose]

Hey man, you will never catch me missing out on a chance to stomp on the balls of corporations to benefit the people.

It's not communism to reign in monopolies that are subverting people's freedom of expression.

Big tech, all of it, should be a public utility just like telecommunication companies and electric companies.

[Juxtapose]

It's time we recognize these big corporations as the predators they are and regulate accordingly. They have bought off our politicians for long enough

[msc545]

Would that include defense contractors?

[Juxtapose]

Oh fuck those war criminals. Bring down the hammer on them!

[Juxtapose]

I despise war and making a profit off of war is unbelievably evil.

[jahaims]

No, if you don't like a business don't give them your money.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

Yes, they should