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0 pointspjlegato9y ago0 comments

You are proposing the creation of a new right entirely, not merely stronger enforcement of existing rights.

Note that I am not taking any position on whether such a new right would be a good or bad idea. I am merely pointing out that what you envision is in no way within the scope of the existing First Amendement.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

zakk9y ago· 2 in thread

Correct, I suppose that an active enforcement of free speech could be defined as a new right, maybe that wasn't clear.

pjlegatoOP9y ago

Existing free speech rights restrict only the government itself from preventing free speech. They do not apply to private parties. For example, you have no obligation to permit religious or political proselytizing within your home or business.

You are proposing not merely the active enforcement of free speech as such, but removing the existing longstanding right of private entities to determine what forms of speech they permit within privately owned venues, simply because some such venues happen to be large and popular.

This same argument was made 200 years ago when newspapers were the dominant mode of mass information exchange. The country decided then that the government ought not to regulate what newspapers must and must not print, and enshrined this in a constitutional amendment.

How is your proposal to regulate what private sector social media companies are required to publish any different in substance than a (clearly unconstitutional) proposal to regulate what private sector newspapers can and cannot publish?

zakk9y ago

> How is your proposal to regulate what private sector social media companies are required to publish any different in substance than a (clearly unconstitutional) proposal to regulate what private sector newspapers can and cannot publish?

I am talking about service providers, not users.

Suppose there's only one printing house in town and within a 1000 km radius. This de facto monopoly means that if you are denied their services you cannot publish a book.

My proposal is: we should mandate that the service provider (i.e. the printing house) provides the same services for the same price to all customers.

Of course that would require a definition of who will be considered a service provider, but I think that the FetLife controversy clearly shows that some freedoms are being endangered: outside the Internet no monopoly/oligopoly is so strong that can send virtually anyone out of business in a matter of a week.

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