http://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmlr
Censorship and Freedom of Expression in the Age of
Facebook
New Mexico Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2014
47 Pages Posted: 12 May 2014
Benjamin F. Jackson
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Date Written: February 17, 2014
Abstract
Social network websites such as Facebook and Twitter have assumed a place of great importance
in contemporary social life and politics, transforming how individuals interact with each other
and how social and political movements organize and communicate with the broader public.
While thus far social network websites have served as open and free forums for speech and
debate, they face a number of internal and external pressures to engage in censorship. This
Article argues that federal courts can and should extend First Amendment protections to
communications on social network websites. Communications on social network websites are
especially deserving of protection under the First Amendment because they invoke the freedoms
of speech, press, and association, and because social network websites strongly resemble the
spaces that the Supreme Court has protected under the public forum doctrine. However, because
social network websites are privately owned, actions by social network websites to censor
content would ordinarily fall outside the ambit of the Constitution’s protections. Nevertheless,
courts can and should treat social network websites as state actors under the public function
exception to the state action doctrine and, when appropriate, the entwinement exception to the
state action doctrine.
Keywords: First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, state action, freedom of speech, freedom
of the press, freedom of association, freedom of expression, social network, social networking,
Facebook, Twitter
Suggested Citation:
Jackson, Benjamin F., Censorship and Freedom of Expression in the Age of Facebook (February
17, 2014). New Mexico Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2014, Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2435568
Censorship and Freedom of Expression in the Age of Facebook by Benjamin F. Jackson :: SSRN
Censorship and Freedom of Expression in the Age of Facebook by Benjamin F. Jackson :: SSRN
I have learned that you really have to watch what you say now. A ‘wrong’ opinion could get
you fired, silenced, ostracized, cancelled. I have worked in a corporate environment for
many years, and this dynamic has developed, and accelerated now with the Democrats in
power. I’m right of center, with a few stray Left-wing ideas, but I don’t dare talk politics at
work. Left wing people are allowed to talk politics with impunity. Your silence is judged. It’s
a creepy shift in our society, I believe similar to what it must have been like with the onset of
Naziism. Slowly some people felt they had a right to express their views, and felt protected
in holding or adopting those views, while others didn’t feel free to express their views. When
some people speak the party line to fit in, and other’s remain silent for fear of paying a price
for their free expression, bad things happened
I have learned that the average American claimimg censorship has no idea what the word
means. Censorship is not being told to stop when you publicly air lies that result in injury or
death to others. Those claiming otherwise have quite obviously never traveled to other
countries where censorship actually exist. In America you can publish any idea you please no
matter how incorrect or misguided. Being pulled off the air or let go from a job because you
enjoy behaving in a racist or demeaning way is called living by the consequences of your
behavior. Instead of whining about not having a big enough platform to spread hate you
should try educating yourself a tiny bit or making the world better if you possibly can
Related
Is internet censorship a violation of freedom of speech?
A lot of people don't actually understand what "freedom of speech" is.
Freedom of speech is the guarantee that you can speak your mind without the government
arresting you for it. It does not mean that other people have to let you use their resources
or their property to speak.
If a TV station does not broadcast you, that is not censorship. If a publishing company
doesn't print your words, that is not censorship. And if I own a Web forum and I don't let
you say something on my Web server, that is not censorship.
A lot of folks who talk about "internet censorship" have no clue what it is. The Chinese
government arresting bloggers and blocking access to sites--that is censorship. If Reddit or
Facebook doesn't let you say something, that is not censorship.
Internet censorship violates freedom of speech only if it's the government doing the
censoring
Related
How does censorship violate the freedom of speech?
If you are using someone else’s platform for free, you don’t have freedom of speech
because you have to follow their rules.
That means, when I use Quora, I have to follow their rules with what I say. If I disagree with
their rules, then I am free to take what I say elsewhere.
The fact is that most of my followers are on Quora, so it makes more sense to adjust to
Quora’s rules than to take my followers (68k) somewhere else.
The thing is, you see, freedom of speech does not operate in a vacuum. I have no trouble
tailoring my message to Quora’s guidelines without feeling that there has been any loss to
my message.
I have also lived in China for a long time, and have posted messages in the Chinese Internet.
I am familiar with how the Chinese government regulates the Internet, and I know where all
the red lines are. I never felt the need to violate those red lines, and I lived happily in China
without feeling that my freedom of speech would be violated.
In the US, I know that it is not a good idea to visit Islamic fundamentalist websites and
videos to watch videos of beheadings, etc. because I know that they are closely monitored
by US security services, and if I did, my IP address would show up on their list. For this
reason, I have never visited those websites, yet I do not feel that my freedom has been
violated. I have no interest in watching people getting beheaded; it does not add anything
to my understanding of the world.
So, when people talk about freedom of speech and how they are being denied freedom of
speech, then I ask “What are you trying to say? Maybe I can help you find a better way to
say it without your having to be censored, because if you are censored, you have failed.”