Brazilian professor and researcher in the interdisciplinary areas of Law, Political Science, and Economics. Member of the Libertarian Party and the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Libertarian Activist. Founder of the Facebook page “O Libertário” (The Libertarian). Freedom lover.

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  • Mar 26, 2021
    Random Forest

    You are creating a false equivalency between the first amendment and de-platforming. Because it isn’t the state doing the censoring doesn’t make it not censorship. Removal of a voice from the forum IS censorship, regardless of who is doing the silencing. There is no line between de-platforming and censorship as one is a form of the other.

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    • Mar 26, 2021
      Helio

      This argument is fundamentally misguided, because the First Amendment applies to the government, but not to private companies. To the contrary, private companies have the First Amendment as a right to exclude users, which is also justified by property rights.

      Your argument also seems to promote the opposite of freedom and it is rather unconstitutional, mainly because it calls for government intervention in private companies as it blatantly disrespects private property rights.

      In Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, the SCOTUS issued a decision that private companies are not bounded by the 1st Amendment; rather they have the right to exercise the First Amendment in their favor, which is a very strong precedent to support the main argument on this article.

      Furthermore, recently the former president Donald Trump just announced he is launching his own social media platform. If censorship existed in the US, he would not be able to start his own social media platform.

      Notwithstanding Parler was taken down, the platform is back up and running again, which proves that if the internet remains free from government intervention, people and companies will always find a way to not be censored.

      In case you’d like to hear it from an American Law entity:

      https://pacificlegal.org/a-first-amendment-win-supreme-court-rules-the-government-cant-control-private-speech/

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