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by pmoriarty
2863 days ago
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People are really confusing a free speech issue with a first amendment issue. It's not a first amendment issue because the first amendment only forbids the government from censoring speech, and private companies are not the government. However, it's still a free speech issue, and it's still a censorship issue. Just not a first amendment issue. Private companies can still censor and can stifle/forbid free speech. |
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No, people disagree on the meaning, scope, nature, and purpose of “free speech”, despite agreeing that “free speech” is a good thing.
It's true that the First Amendment (especially when combined with incorporation under the 14th) directly embodies a reasonably close approximation of one of the viewpoints of what free speech is all about, while simultaneously looking like a narrow special case of one of the other viewpoints.
But the nature of the disagreement here is not confusion between a principle and a legal embodiment of that principle, but a fundamental clash of beliefs about the nature of the named principle.