[criley2]

I think you made a similar mistake in your thought process with "public forums" which almost always took place in private places, like churches, clubs, etc. It's not a given that public forums were on government property, and most local governments couldn't afford large meeting spaces.

The idea that every government and "public" forum in American history was government land is crazy to me. People weren't going into the courthouse to have friendly debates. They were in inns, bars, churches, etc. I would wager the vast majority of all "public forums" you refer to happened in a private location.

Thus this isn't some unprecedented scenario, as the church has controlled public speech in all but the biggest of towns in this manner for our entire history.

I'm reminded of the Red Scare where socialists and communist sympathizers could not meet because all the meeting spaces were private and they were banned from meeting there. So much for historical public forums! What few private forums were available were targeted by the government and its sympathizers for shutdown, violence or worse.

Imagine putting the government that ran the red scare IN CHARGE OF what constitutes free speech and who can publish what.

>We will need to invent a new concept of how such communication should be regulated and moderated.

No thanks, I like Free Speech and Liberty and we never need to invent a new way for the government of the day to control speech.