Donald Trump's Accounts Banned/ Suspended on Many Social Media Platforms
In retaliation to being banned on various social media platforms, former President Donald Trump has filed class-action lawsuits against tech giants Facebook, Twitter, and Google on the basis that they are denying his free speech rights. The former president was banned on these cites due to concerns that his posts incited the Capitol riots in January and that they may continue to evoke more violence.
Picture taken of the January 6th Capital riots
Wait, he's being denied his freedom to speak freely. This is definitely unconstitutional...right?
Well for starters, the First Amendment consists of six clauses which include freedom from religion, of religion, of the press, of assembly, to petition, and of speech. So, yes the First Amendment does protect freedom of speech but in this case, the former President will most likely not win his lawsuit. So why is this? It all has to do with this little thing called the state action doctrine. The state action doctrine states that without government involvement no constitutional claim can be made because only the government can violate your constitutional rights. In other words, the First Amendment doesn't reach private businesses which is what Facebook, Twitter, and Google fall under.
However, it does raise the question if social media businesses are getting too powerful since they have the power to censor whatever and whoever they choose to.
"We're demanding an end to the shadow banning, a stop to the silencing, a stop to the blacklisting, vanishing and canceling," Former President Donald Trump
"The Founding Fathers inscribed this right in the very first amendment to our Constitution because they knew that free speech is essential to the prevention of, look ... the prevention of horror," Former President Donald Trump
This can become a big problem because what is to stop these social media businesses from entering the territory of banning only certain beliefs and view points over others. The issue with if social media platforms can censor whatever whenever they want, goes against certain elements of The Eight Values of Free Expression. The first element being Stable Change which suggests that allowing citizens to speak their mind will not only make them more stable but also enables the government to better monitor potentially dangerous groups or people. So, if former President Trump's words are really that dangerous than why ban him and not just allow him to be monitored by government agencies to aid in potential future situations. The other element is Promote Tolerance which is all about protecting hateful or personally upsetting speech because it teaches us to become more tolerant. The pro to this would be that society learns why certain speech is hateful and wrong and worthy of condemnation. So, how is banning Trump just because you don't like his message any more right than allowing the Taliban's spoke person a Twitter account? So all this begs the question, should social media platforms be able to enact limits on its users?
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