NAL, but my understanding is that unilaterally banning social media wouldn’t be a violation of free speech, because it’s targeted at a single issue for a specific purpose and applies to everyone equally, government included
Also NAL, but my understanding is that this would be struck down as government restriction on speech. And it wouldn’t be the equivalent of removing a public square. It would be the equivalent of removing all the public squares. Removing a single public square doesn’t stifle free speech as the person can just find another public square to speak at. Removing all of them means he has no place to speak at, which effectively violates his freedom of speech.
Look at it this way. Take a city like NYC. You can have laws that specifically don’t allow protests at this location and that location for safety concerns, for example, without violating citizen’s rights to speech and protest. But if NYC suddenly said that you can’t protest anywhere in the city, and we’ve jumped head first into violation of constitutional rights.
I can see that argument. My idea would certainly be a nightmare of a legal headache, so I don’t think it would ever come to pass on those grounds alone. My main point was that I’m not sure if humans are responsible enough to be able to safely share so many ideas without first having a skeptical grounding.
Maybe having critical thinking and skepticism classes from grade school through college should be mandatory…? I dunno.
Oh, make no mistake: We, as a society, are absolutely nowhere near responsible enough to be able to handle using social media responsibly. But the solution to that problem isn’t what would amount to a blanket ban on free speech. It’s actually holding the people who lie and spread misinformation accountable for spreading lies and misinformation, but unfortunately I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Probably going to require a multifaceted approach, honestly. Education, further limiting what Free Speech protects, materially punishing the transgressors, etc.
Also NAL, but my understanding is that this would be struck down as government restriction on speech. And it wouldn’t be the equivalent of removing a public square. It would be the equivalent of removing all the public squares. Removing a single public square doesn’t stifle free speech as the person can just find another public square to speak at. Removing all of them means he has no place to speak at, which effectively violates his freedom of speech.
Look at it this way. Take a city like NYC. You can have laws that specifically don’t allow protests at this location and that location for safety concerns, for example, without violating citizen’s rights to speech and protest. But if NYC suddenly said that you can’t protest anywhere in the city, and we’ve jumped head first into violation of constitutional rights.
I can see that argument. My idea would certainly be a nightmare of a legal headache, so I don’t think it would ever come to pass on those grounds alone. My main point was that I’m not sure if humans are responsible enough to be able to safely share so many ideas without first having a skeptical grounding.
Maybe having critical thinking and skepticism classes from grade school through college should be mandatory…? I dunno.
Oh, make no mistake: We, as a society, are absolutely nowhere near responsible enough to be able to handle using social media responsibly. But the solution to that problem isn’t what would amount to a blanket ban on free speech. It’s actually holding the people who lie and spread misinformation accountable for spreading lies and misinformation, but unfortunately I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Probably going to require a multifaceted approach, honestly. Education, further limiting what Free Speech protects, materially punishing the transgressors, etc.