Is Speech Truly Free When It Is Censored?

             The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the censoring taking place on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Apple, and Google. Conservative content is always the victim of the censor.

            The Trump Administration is currently contemplating some type of regulation for these platforms. The position taken by the administration is that the platforms will be regulated if they continue censoring. Even tweets from the President are being censored by so-called fact checks, and videos from Prager University and information from The Heritage Foundation are being blocked.

            Trump signed an executive order in April that eliminated some of the protections given to social media platforms under the Communications Decency Act. However, legislation would have more power over the platforms. There is a difference between the regulations on social media platforms than on broadcast media, and the former medium are not considered to be publishers and cannot be held liable for information on their platforms. Even though they face less accountability than broadcast media, social media platforms should not pick and choose content. If they want this ability, then they should be regulated by Congress.

            Mark Meadows, chief of staff for the President, explained: “We’re talking about freedom of the press, freedom of expression. And yet what we have are a number of companies that have decided on what should be communicated and what should not be communicated. And it is very troubling.” He continued, “We’ve seen video taken down. We’ve seen posts taken down. Ultimately, if you’re allowing the social media companies to be the determiner of free speech, you’re in a very dangerous place.” https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/08/09/white-house-weighs-bill-in-response-to-big-tech-on-free-speech/

            It is appropriate for owners, CEOs, and employees of such platforms to have political opinions and to express them. It is not appropriate for them to censor the speech of other Americans using those platforms.