Obama made a speech this week, where he called for media companies to censor even more people in order to combat “disinformation.” He claims that disinformation is a “threat to our Democracy” and wants tech giants to have even more power to combat it.

The First Amendment is a check on the power of the state. It doesn’t apply to private companies like Facebook or Twitter, any more than it applies to editorial decisions made by the New York Times or Fox News. Never has. Social media companies already make choices about what is or is not allowed on their platforms and how that content appears. Both explicitly through content moderation and implicitly through algorithms. The problem is we often don’t know what principles govern those decisions.

Barak Obama

Pretty ironic coming from the guy who told us “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

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2 Comments

Don Curton · April 24, 2022 at 9:00 am

“Social media companies already make choices about what is or is not allowed on their platforms and how that content appears.”

They want to have their cake and eat it too, apparently. I remember when they compared themselves to the telephone company, where they were not responsible for the content but only provided a means for others to communicate. Because if they did edit content, then they could be held responsible for content and prosecuted for hate speech, sued for libel, etc.

As for the 1st not applying, if I wanted to start a private club that only white men could join, the full power of the state would be directed against me for, uh, reasons unknown. Something about right to peaceable assembly or something. But if I want to start a social media platform where only one opinion can be expressed (as long as it’s the right opinion), then I guess that’s ok because the 1st don’t apply. Or something.

90% of our elected and appointed officials have less than a grade school understanding of our constitution and laws.

Steve S · April 24, 2022 at 8:37 pm

By that logic only the State has to make wedding cakes for gay weddings.

And he taught Constitutional law. Riiight.

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