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Friday, July 17, 2020
Trump, Twitter, Facebook, and the Future of Online Speech
The New Yorker, it turns out, reads law review articles. This article, worth a read, covers a lot of ground and draws on the scholarship of Jeff Koseff, Danielle Citron, Eric Goldman, Kate Klonick, Daphne Keller, and also my own work on The Law of the Platform.
Posted by Orly Lobel on July 17, 2020 at 04:36 PM | Permalink
Comments
Just to Elrod v. Burns mentioned:
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep427/usrep427347/usrep427347.pdf
Posted by: El roam | Jul 17, 2020 7:17:39 PM
Good article. It would be really unbelievable to unfold here so many complicated issues. Just two right now:
First, Orly quoted there, claiming that, I quote:
" Regulating these never-before-seen businesses effectively, she writes, may require going “back to first principles,” thinking in fresh ways about what online platforms are and how we want them to behave."
End of quotation:
I would suggest one fresh principle, totally ignored there in that article:
And it is, the connection, between these new online platforms, and anonymity. Such platforms, have enhanced the huge benefit from free speech right, and that, by allowing, individuals, to express freely opinions, otherwise, for too many reasons, wouldn't be expressed. Once you remove the so called immunity of online platforms, you must also affect anonymity, and free speech as such.
Also, not to forget. We don't understand the law. What is the law. We can't even understand the standard of reasonableness mentioned there. Only courts understand, only courts can deal with it, and fairly so. As such, once you grant censorship and editorial power to online platforms, you appoint, an ignorant arbitrator or judge effectively, to wrongly decide, right from wrong. Meanwhile, individuals, shall be censored unjustifiably, and just to remind, the immortal assertion of the Supreme court, I quote:
“The loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.” Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347,"
End of quotation:
Means, that we can't afford, no one besides the courts, to hang around with our freedom of speech. It would be too late then.
Thanks
Posted by: El roam | Jul 17, 2020 7:13:35 PM
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