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by sammorrowdrums 794 days ago
Making publication easy on social media has certainly had an impact on public speech, but private platforms do not offer free speech by design.

Naomi Klein went into this in No Logo with shopping malls replacing public spaces where you also don’t have a right to free speech and can be evicted arbitrarily at the owners discretion.

You’ll find virtually all of social media platforms have moderation, usage policies and user banning practices that go well beyond allowing the fully legally protected free speech you are afforded in a public space (in many countries).

2 comments

If all spaces that attract the majority of people are private and have homogenous terms of use, then free speech ends in all ways except on this technicality.

Edit: removed unnecessarily inflammatory phrasing.

It (practically) doesn't matter what the moderation policies are, a legal ban on social networks will still be a restriction on free speech