As an American you are free to say whatever you desire publicly in public spaces as long you aren't trying to incite violence or get someone seriously hurt or killed, but no matter how you try to explain the 1st amendment doesn't extend to private internet websites code of ethics, conservatives just don't understand.
Once the platform begins publishing content, especially endorsing a particular political party, and once it has become a public utility, using it to enforce the FBI and Congress' blatantly unconstitutional mandates that our every thought and word be policed; is tantamount to them demanding that the phone company allow them to snoop on your every phone call, whether mobile or via wiretapping of a landline!
And don't think for one nanosecond that if you tolerate tyranny when social media giants become an arm of lawless mandates, that they won't expand this to include spying on you in other ways!
Next, it'll be the phone. When that's no longer safe, you'll switch to snail mail. Your right to privacy of the mail will be the next thing to go out the window. The second Biden mumbles something incoherent about "threats to democracy," thousands of drooling fools will lie down and happily allow the powers that are tolerated to act like the law against tampering with the mail doesn't exist. They did that in Michigan already in 2020, to influence elections, so it's not just a theory that it'll happen again!
When even that isn't enough, expect them to plant bugs in the very trees, to monitor your speech. And while you're out, to break into your home and plant bugs in your house!
So meeting in the woods to privately express your opinion on anything with anyone in what should be a confidential matter will literally be as risky as telling it to Tumnus the Fawn, since even the trees will betray you to the Black-Armored Thugs, who may as well be the wolves of the White Witch.
And you can forget about the privacy of your bedroom. The only time that's respected, is if you're engaged in sexual perversion. That, they hail as sacred. Nothing else though!
Who is government supposed to be, according to the constitution? All of us. Not some unelected, unaccountable, faceless bureaucracy. Nor some communism-idealizing woke cult taking over a social media utility, acting as an arm of that bureau!
So the entire assault on freedom of speech here is lawless from top to bottom, no matter how you slice it.
When feminists can gloat over criminal conspiracies in public done to ruin men, claim some "patriarchy" boogeyman as their excuse, and get off scott free for admission to a crime, but you get 30 days in a virtual gulag for telling her that her patriarchy boogeyman is a myth, and that her behavior is trash, because gasp, her being the ultimate bully is fine, but me calling her out on it is "bullying," because woke double standards?
That's inexcusable. Period. Death to Black Rock!
But American Conservatives do understand that. MAGAheads don't. American Conservatives have always maintained that private businesses need to be free of government interference. Elon Musk owns Twitter, he can make it into anything he wants. And MAGAheads are applauding him.
But he is pissed off that advertising is leaving his platform. When the market speaks. Private businesses win. Elon can run his platform whatever way he wish. Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple, if he dislikes the climate that Twitter has for gay and lesbians, he can to go another platform and advertise there.
Why MAGA heads think that they can use the government to force people to pay them for their troll dens is beyond me. But that is not going to happen. They can create any troll den they want. People can throw around racial slurs, spout homophobia, anti-semitism, threats of violence, and disinformation.
The rest of us don't have to deal with such nonsense.
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/29/1041493544/youtube-vaccine-misinformation-ban
YouTube Is Banning All Content That Spreads Vaccine Misinformation
Social media is where they circulate their conspiracy theories and misinformation. They want to expand the first amendment through judicial activism so they can continue to do so with impunity. It really boils down to that. However, the first amendment has never applied to private companies, nor did the founders ever intend it to. That would be a new court created right. It would also prevent sites from regulating cyber bullying, hate speech, pornography, propaganda etc. Social media would become the Wild West and advertising dollars would become scarce. You’d kill the platforms without the ability to regulate. It’s a terrible idea.
There are a lot of Americans who swear they are patriotic and true Americans and yet they have no clue or understanding how American laws or constitution works and are the least American act people.
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While you're correct in principle, you're missing the more nuanced point that conservatives are making.
If 2-3 social media companies control 90%+ of the internet traffic, is it correct for them to collude to hide information that's damaging to Democrats? Is it correct for them to silence a political candidate and sitting president? Is that still a "prIvAtE CoMpaNy"?
If these social media companies are coerced by the FBI and the Biden administration to take certain people off their sites... isn't that the government interfering in the freedom of speech?
Now the simple phrase "men will never be women" is now considered 'inciting violence" by the left.
Have you noticed it's only conservative voices having their Twitter accounts reinstated? Wonder why.
The trouble is the fact that they claim to be a public platform while acting like a private forum in exercising control of what is said (AKA censorship).
This is a problem because a public platform is only not responsible for what is published/stolen via their platform on the presumption they don't exercise control of what the users say/do in a public form.
When they do exercise such control they have proven their platform is NOT a public form and thus they ARE responsible for every criminal act they CHOOSE to involve themself in.
YouTube, Facebook, twitter, Apple etc.. for example are responsible for trillions of dollars worth of Intellectual property thief that they apparently CHOOSE to facilitate and publish via their platforms.
Google, Apple, Facebook, twitter still has not paid for what they have stolen. They are still claiming they were a public form (with free speech) and thus placing the user alone as responsible.
Some do, some don’t. The fact is most progressives don’t understand that either.
Here’s the prevailing difference as far as i can tell: Big tech is literally altering information through political bias. This effects popular opinion which in turn effects elections at every conceivable level. Who is really hurt when a closed-minded baker won’t make a dildo cake for your gay wedding? Ell oh ell! Contrarily, how many criminals now have seats of power and influence because everyone believes everything they read on FB and twits united? Let that sink in.
I think it is a human thing not a political party thing. Both sides are made of people and people have biases that they can't always see. What you mentioned is just an obvious bias that exists on the right more so. Their are plenty of people on the left that support the idea of social media platforms suppressing speech as they see fit but in the same breathe don't support someone ignorant enough to spout hate speech. I believe good ideas are the counter to bad ideas and the only way that happens is if you let ignorant people say ignorant things.
What @monorprise said. Also, at least in Facebook's case, they active earn money off known false and scam advertisers while claiming the platform "lack of control" malarkey, yet are able in under a minute to label a post "False info" for misattribution of an obscure quote or saying something like "$35,000,000" when it was really "$34,400,000."
So, yes, they should be able to do what they want, but in exercising publisher controls they should forfeit the legal protections intended for actual free platforms.
It's funny how liberals have reversed their opinion on the matter with Elon Musk buying twitter.
What Conservatives realise is that if you don't like social media censoring free speech you don't use it or fund it.
I'm more concerned about the media's reaction. It's clearer than ever that they have absolutely no regard for the truth or an opposing view. They applaud fellow journalists being censored and blast an open forum that might actually force them to defend their thoughts and narrative. They have become a fucking disgrace!
privately owned? you do realize you can publicly buy stock in them, don't you? Stock = ownership which means it's public. Also, re-read everything @ ObscuredBeyond wrote and you have the truth of the differences between publishers and platforms. A platform allows unobstructed viewpoints from all sides, and welcomes the discussion/debate, while a "publisher" supports one side, and there's ample evidence of ALL the big media platforms simping for Democrats and they even admit it in live interviews. Check out the Zuck, admitting they covered up Hunter's laptop story and more for election purposes.
Also, go read about how Amazon shut down Parler, which was considered to be a conservative platform, while Amazon was sucking liberal cock.
Because those "privately owned social media" companies benefit from tax breaks that are for utilities, which means they don't fall under the same rules as other private companies. They need to forfeit those tax incentives to legally be able to censor people the way they do.
The reason is that many American conservatives understand that monopolies or companies that in aggregate have the potential to exert control over what is said via major platforms for speech have, in the past, been regulated against doing so. One example is the old telephone system, which was exempted for liability for what was said during phone calls but was also forbidden from regulating what was said during phone calls.
Take your meds. You're the biggest conservative on this site.
On the other hand, when there is a privateLy owned social media platform that doesn't censor along with all the others (co-operating with the deep government, obviously, since they all, always, act in unison), it's the 1st amendment haters, and freedom of speech and mind haters, that bay at that company.
We DO understand. We're saying that it shouldn't be like this. Also, if free speech is supposed to be protected in all public/government institutions, why I did I get send to the office for saying that the root "homo" means "gay"?
True, except that it was already proven that they were being coerced by government entities to censor what the government deemed at “misinformation” and “disinformation”, which was really just opposing political opinions.
Social media platforms want to be treated as common carriers but also want to be able to censor communication that disagrees with democrats. They cannot have it both ways. Either they are common carriers or they are news outlets.
Have you ever tried reporting a scammer on Facebook? They allow that. Because it doesn't "Violate community guidelines." Must be nice having deep pockets and a constitution to hide behind.
Why limit it to conservatives? Liberals don't understand what the First Amendment applies to, and doesn't apply to, as well.
Technically companies like Twitter and Apple are NOT "private". Once a company is registered on the NYSE or the NASDAQ stock, then it is no longer "private". TWTR and AAPL are public.
Yes it does. The first amendment is in the constitution which is the law of the land. Just because you’re a private company doing business in America doesn’t mean you can skirt the law
Most Democrats don't know any of the amendments, let along the 1st and especially the 2nd amendment. Democrats try to shut down freedom of speech, then anyone else.
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