Wait, is that what I think it is? No! So we need
to talk a little bit about what it is to have
protected speech, specifically free speech in
the social media space. And this is not anything
new. It's been something that has been discussed
quite a bit just in the public sphere. But I
thought that I would at least create some sort
of context for understanding the idea of free
speech, because the wrong idea seems to be getting
out there. When I'm engaging with my students
in my ethics classes. A lot of them come in with
certain notions of what free speech means, and
they just seem to be completely off base with
regards to what free speech is, at least in the
United States. So let me give you a little bit
of background of where these thoughts kind of
came from. It's been discussed quite a bit by
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and some of these
other figures. These tech bros in the online
space, on social media spaces, keep claiming
that they are protectors of free speech, that
they care about free speech, that people have
the right to say what they want on their platform,
regardless of how out of pocket, batshit, crazy,
false. ever it is that, you know, however you
might feel about what other people say, that
they should be allowed to say it on their platform,
right? Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
X, you know, TikTok, you know, any sort of online
space, there should be a platform for people
to say however they feel. And that is that. And
that is not the social media's job's responsibility.
to try to police the speech that is coming out
in these platforms. And furthermore, they keep
on claiming that they're doing it on behalf of
free speech, the right to free speech, the First
Amendment, right? That this is something that's
protected under the First Amendment and people
should have a right to say whatever they want,
okay? All right. Complete bullshit in so many
ways. Just complete bullshit in so many ways.
And I think it's partly because I think there's
not a... a deeper understanding in the general
public about exactly what free speech is, at
least what's protected under the First Amendment,
and how that actually applies to private companies
like these social media companies, right? Okay,
so look, free speech does not mean that you get
to say whatever you want, okay? Free speech as
a right is like any other rights, right? All
rights are competing with one another. What I
mean by that is that, you know, just because
you have a right does not mean that you have
kind of like, you know, you get to go ahead and
impose that right regardless of, you know, context,
okay? All rights are competing with each other
in that sometimes these rights come into conflict
with one another and you have to kind of pick
which right is more important to protect in a
given situation, right? What we found historically
is that free speech runs up against limitations
as well. So first off, free speech does not mean
that you get to say whatever you want. It means
that you get protection into saying some things,
most things, but there are certain limits. For
instance, you can't threaten bodily injury or
death. You can't threaten that you're going to
kill somebody. That's not protected under free
speech. Okay. You can't, you know, conspiracy
to commit crimes isn't protected under free speech.
Okay. And, you know, one that I think a lot of
people are at least somewhat aware of is that
you can't incite violence or other unlawful acts.
Right. I think the common example that's used
is like yelling fire in a crowded theater, which
would lead to a lot of people ending up based
on that false information, getting hurt, trampling
over one another, trying to escape the theater.
But just generally, like, asking other people
to, you know, raise arms and try to kill other
people is not protected under free speech, okay?
You know, encouraging people to commit murder
is not protected under free speech, okay? So,
first off, free speech has limits, like anything
else, right? All rights are like this. All rights
that we enumerate in the Constitution, in the
Bill of Rights, in, you know, the universal Bill
of Rights, you know, like... that's used across
all these other countries, right? They all have
certain limitations, and it's mainly because
these rights don't necessarily apply when there's
other rights that are at stake, and you have
to kind of pick and choose. And so there's a
meaningful discussion to be had about which should
take priority in a given situation. Okay. Secondly,
free speech does not mean protection from consequences.
And this includes things like boycotts and social
shaming, right? and people getting mad at you
and then yelling at you, right? Okay, so in other
words, yes, you're protected in terms of you
can say what you want to, let's say, okay? And
it might not be something that other people enjoy
hearing, but just because you have the freedom
to say what you want to does not mean that it
prevents other people from saying what they want
to. It doesn't prevent other people from responding
in the way that they would like to. This is so
that we could protect their speech. So if you
say something that's completely out of pocket
and insulting and demeaning to a whole group
of people, and that group of people gets really
mad and decides they're going to boycott and
protest you and then show up to your workplace
and then start yelling at you in a space where
they're allowed to do so. That's perfectly allowed.
If they want to go online and then comment on
your threads and then just say all kinds of like
nasty things, just as you might have said something
nasty to them, they could say likewise, right?
They could do the likewise in return. They could
also encourage people to not support you in any
way. Right. To, you know, I don't know, unsubscribe
from you, to not listen to you, to actively,
you know, petition with higher ups to try to
get you fired. Right. They could they could do
all these things. Now, there's a separate question
of whether or not these behaviors, this response
is moral, but at least free speech allows for
them to do so. Okay? Again, free speech is not
here to, you know, be a morality police. It's
just here to ensure that everyone gets to, you
know, doesn't have their voice taken away from
them. That's primarily the point, right? And
that includes the people who are responding to
you. So if you say something that is completely
wild, batshit crazy on social media and people
get upset at you and yell at you and hate you,
okay, they have every right to do so. Just as
you had the right to say it, other people have
a right to go ahead and respond to it in the
way that they want to. So I want to be clear
about this. Free speech does not mean you're
protected from any consequences. You have to
face consequences for your actions. This is just
how life works, right? You don't live in a vacuum.
Other people live around you, and they could
feel how they want about whatever it is that
you say. Finally, and this is, I think, the biggest
point, and it feels like we've done a disservice
in public education for all the students if they
don't actually understand this. It's like basic.
civil law that every student should be introduced
to as they go through their social science classes
in elementary, junior high, and high school.
Free speech, the First Amendment specifically,
protects speech and it only applies to the government
restricting free speech. It does not apply to
the private sphere. If you take a look at the
First Amendment, the First Amendment is there
to stop the government from being this oppressive
dictatorship by preventing the government from
preventing you from speaking your mind. And especially
when you're speaking your mind against the government,
against government officials, right? no matter
how offensive it might be. Again, as long as
it's within these boundaries of not causing harm
to other people, threatening them, inciting violence,
things like that, right? Now, why is this important?
Well, in considering where free speech lies in
the context of social media, private companies
cannot claim First Amendment rights, okay? First
Amendment does not apply to these social media
companies. They just don't. They just don't.
They don't apply to Facebook, X, TikTok. They
don't apply to any of these things. What I mean
by that is that the free speech protection that
we enjoy as U .S. citizens applies to our relationship
with the government so that the government cannot
be an oppressive force and stop us from saying,
how we feel about the government. We can say,
I hate the government. I want to demolish these
parts of the government. I want change in the
government. I don't agree with such and such
a candidate. I don't agree with such and such
a politician. I hate the politician. You could
insult the politician as much as you want to.
These are all allowed. You might think that that's
not the smartest thing or the most ethical thing
to do, but it's allowed, at least under the First
Amendment. But those protections do not extend
to the private sphere. In other words, if social
media companies... wanted to impose restrictions
on speech. Let's say they want to restrict it
based off of, you know, foul language or whether
it meets like, you know, some places have these
community guidelines about how to, you know,
how to engage with other people, that you're
not overly mean or insulting, that it's productive,
right? Okay. And they want to shut down conversations
on their platform. Okay. Notice that none of
this applies to government. shutting anybody
down from saying what they want to say. It is
only within these social media platforms, okay?
If Zuckerberg wanted to shut down certain types
of speech on Facebook, he has every right to
do so, and it has nothing to do with free speech
protection. Let me repeat, has absolutely nothing
to do with free speech protection, okay? So...
It's been a nightmare when I see fuckers like
Mark Zuckey here and Elon Musk that either, I
don't know, one, they're completely ignorant
of what free speech protection really is, or
honestly, in my view, again, I don't know for
sure, but, you know, given the kind of people
that they are and that they have intelligent
people around them, they're probably misleading
the public. to believe some lies about what free
speech is and to claim that they are somehow
the bastions of free speech, that they're protecting
free speech, okay? Free speech, at least the
way that they're trying to present it, has nothing
to do with their companies, okay? Private companies
have every right to restrict speech on their
platform. And in fact, a lot of these platforms
have that. They impose certain guidelines of
what acceptable speech is. They have guidelines
on how it is that they're going to enforce that,
okay? They're just choosing not to. They're not
championing anything. They're just choosing,
if they're choosing not to go ahead and restrict
this, you know, speech like lies and outright
on their platform, like they're just choosing
not to do anything about it, okay? But they are
not fighting government oppression. They're not
fighting any sort of violations of free speech.
They're just lazy, unethical fucks that don't
want to bother restricting speech in a way that
is conducive to creating meaningful, helpful,
civil dialogue. My guess is it has a lot to do
with the fact that they're probably making lots
of money of people getting really upset by trolls
and stuff going around saying all kinds of batshit
crazy stuff to rile up other people. I want to
be clear about this, okay? It's their choice.
It's their choice. And it's not grounded in any
deeper commitment to free speech. They can choose
to restrict outright false claims, which some
have tried to some degree, but I doubt they will
because it's not profitable. They could restrict
speech that is meant to incite. Now, some of
this, right, the government could come in and
shut down, but they could do so themselves without
the government being involved. OK, but they probably
won't because that also gets a lot of clicks
and gets a lot of engagement. So they're probably
not going to do it for profit's sake. They could
restrict images that misrepresent, right, that
manipulate a lot of these like fake, deep, fake
images and stuff. They could do things to restrict
what can be posted on their platform. But of
course, they won't because, again, probably impacts
profit. They could restrict foul language. They
could restrict, right, you know, offensive language.
They could restrict, right, language that, you
know, they could set these community standards
that say like, hey, we're not going to accept
anything on our platform where people are attacking
other people based off of, you know, factors
like gender or race or, right, all these like
xenophobic rants that people go on, right? Like
you could actually impose restrictions as a private
company. on your platform and say, hey, we're
not going to accept this on our platform. They're
just choosing not to. They're choosing not to,
okay? All right. What they can't do, okay, what
they can't do is they can't discriminate based
off of sex, gender, religion, race, and so on,
right? But notice something here. That's not
a free speech issue. That's a discrimination
issue. That's about fairness. That has nothing
to do with free speech, right? So there are certain
things that they are restricted from doing in
terms of, you know, in terms of policing their
platform. Right. They can't go target specific
groups. Right. And say, like, look, women can't
be on this platform. They can't do things like
that. But that's a discrimination issue. They
can't on their they cannot on their platform
say like certain religions cannot post information
about their religion on our platform. They can't
do that. That's targeting a specific. you know,
group and discriminating based off of that. But
notice in here, that's not a free speech issue.
That's a discrimination issue, okay? Now, why
is this important? Look, I'm going to give you
an example, right? And I want to show you exactly
how this could play out, right, in terms of the
way that these social platforms work, that social
media platforms just choose not to, okay? So
I used to play this game called... What is it?
Settlers of Catan, right? I don't know if you've
ever heard of that board game, okay? Now, I really
enjoyed it, but sometimes, you know, as you get
older, sometimes it's kind of hard to get friends
together to actually play games. And sometimes
I found it to be kind of boring. Once you figure
the game out, it kind of gets a little bit boring
if you play with the same people again and again.
And on top of that, the game goes kind of slow
when you're in person because people want to
negotiate and make deals. And it's like, oh,
it takes forever, okay? So I discovered that
there's an online space where people could play
Settlers of Catan with a bunch of strangers.
Okay. And I'm not going to say what the name
of this place is, but because I think, I don't
know if they, it's like, it wasn't technically
Settlers of Catan. It was kind of like a knockoff
version of it, but essentially all the same rules,
more or less, and same aesthetics and same gameplay.
Okay. In any case, I was on this platform. I
would play this game from time to time, just
when I was bored. And I just wanted to, you know,
this is like years ago. I enjoy just like playing,
you know, when I had some free time. And so I
would play this game on this platform. And, you
know, there's a chat function where you could,
again, you could communicate with the other players
and make deals and things like that. OK, but
they had certain community guidelines. Right.
And they wanted to create a platform where people,
you know, felt. How do you say this? Like they
could enjoy playing the game, right? So what
they didn't want was gameplay where people were
talking trash to one another, insulting one another,
being mean to one another, using obscene language,
okay? But me being the competitive person I am
and being the jerk I, you know, am, am, was,
am, probably still am to some degree, okay? All
right. I was on this site and, you know, on the
chat group, sometimes these players who just
make these decisions that, you know, not only
went against my interests in the game, but also
I just thought it was just terrible reasoning,
right? This is just like... You know, like, you
know, sometimes we play like a game with somebody
and you're like, why did you make that decision?
Because, I mean, you have every reason to make
your like you have every right to make your own
decisions. But that was just such a terrible,
uninformed move. It doesn't even benefit you.
You just lost everyone else the game. Right.
Like, you know, like somebody makes a move like
that. Right. I would get upset and I would start
ranting in these chat groups. Right. And I would
start insulting the other players. Right. Now.
Again, they had these community guidelines that
said that kind of language, that kind of engagement
is not allowed. And so they had a whole system
of allowing players to kind of warn the moderators
about what's going on. And then so I got a warning.
I got a second warning. I got a one -day ban.
And then at some point, I think they just banned
me outright because I just wouldn't stop. And
I couldn't get mad at them. I couldn't get mad
at them. They did exactly what they were allowed
to do. I did not go up to them and say, hey,
this is a matter of free speech. Like, how dare
you, you know, go ahead and oppress me in this
way? Like, how dare you violate my right to say
what I want to, right? I can say whatever the
hell I want to. Like, no, I can't. At least not
on their platform because it's their platform.
They could go ahead and choose, hey, we do not
want this kind of engagement. If you do engage
in this way, then we're going to ban you from
this platform. And they did exactly that. And
they stuck by it. And I salute my... I tipped
my cap off to them, right? Like that was pretty
amazing. They did a great job. And then after
that, I was like, okay, all right, I should probably
take it seriously. Maybe I should not be such
an asshole. And maybe then, you know, I could
actually continue to enjoy using some of these
wonderful platforms because it was honestly fun
until I, you know, until I started going off
on like deep end rants. And then honestly, it
said more about me. More about me having some
issues, right? But look, I couldn't blame them
for banning me. I couldn't. Why? Because I violated
their community standards. I violated their policies.
I violated what they said was going to be the
things that would get me kicked off on their
platform because they chose the rules of engagement
in terms of speech. And they're allowed to do
that because it is their goddamn company. Okay?
It is not the government. It is their company
on their private company platform, okay? Does
this make sense? Which means that fuckers like
Mark Zuckey here could go ahead and do the exact
same thing, okay? The truth is they could do
it, they just don't want to. But they present
it as if they're playing this, like cosplaying
as heroes, claiming that they are the ones, the
last bastions of free speech, saying that they're
protecting people so that they could go ahead
and say whatever they want to. Like, no, that's
not what's happening here. You don't have shit
to say about the First Amendment because you're
not the government. You're not somebody who's
opposing the government, okay? There is no First
Amendment free speech bullshit involved in this
case at all, okay? Elon, Zucky, y 'all a bunch
of dicks, okay? You could, if you want to, fact
-check people, prevent people from posting things
that are obscene, things that, you know, are,
you know, denigrating to particular groups of
people. You can make your platform more inviting.
You just choose not to. You just choose not to.
I wonder why. But you're choosing not to. Don't
try to lie to me, right? Don't piss on my leg
and tell me it's raining, okay? Don't tell me
that you're protecting free speech when in reality
you're making an active choice to not moderate
your platform either because you're too lazy
to go ahead and do so or because you're actively
not wanting to police it so that you can, I don't
know, make more profit, okay? So honestly, here's
what I think, okay? At the end of the day, the
only thing that I think will get through the
company's head will be where it actually counts,
which is in their pockets. You need to actually
hurt the money, okay? I've already done this.
I don't know if other people will follow suit,
but I have deactivated all of my social media
platforms, mostly because I think they're just
bad for me, but also I think it's just not good
for humanity in general. I think a lot of these
people have created something that could be convenient,
could be useful, but when it's not moderated
properly, then it turns into a big shit show,
which is what most of social media is. Honestly,
the last time I was on Instagram, I just thought
it was nothing but advertisement with every once
in a while baby photos from friends. And I'm
like, I'd rather just have friends just send
me one of those Christmas cards with their family
photo on it once a year than to look through
a bunch of ads before I get to a picture of them.
So look, it's up to you. It's up to you. Again,
this is your choice. This is the freedom that
you have as a consumer to engage with these companies
in the way you want to. But the only thing that
at the end of the day, I think will actually
make a difference for how they moderate the platform
is people realize that these platforms are just
toxic and that it's better just to stay off of
it. It'll encourage them to at least change the
way that they, you know, moderate their platform
so that they could, so that they actually get
their act together and then make it a place that.
isn't just full of nothing but ads and trolls,
okay? So if you don't like the environment on
these platforms, the best thing to do is just
simply delete your account and move on from that
platform. Find one that has better community
standards, okay? That don't allow dicks to go
off spouting out there and stirring up shit just
for the sake of stirring up shit, okay? Or a
second best thing is just set as many things
to private as possible and only engage with a
very small circle on these platforms. Okay. I
guarantee you that's going to hurt their bottom
line too. If you take back the control and you
say, hey, I'm not going to be following a bunch
of people but very small circle friends and I'm
just going to use it for my actual small knit
close community instead of trying to use it as
a way to market or to get my name out there.
If you don't try to use it for all the other
things and keep it small, it'll hurt their bottom
line. And enough people doing this, it's going
to make a difference. It's going to impact the
money. And once it impacts the money, then that's
when companies tend to get their act together.
This is why, you know, long term collective action
in terms of like boycotting and things like that
often can be effective if it's sustained. Right.
Until policies and practices actually change.
But, you know, it's up to you. If you want to
be in this toxic environment, that's fine. I
choose not to be, but that's me. But all I want
is for everyone to be on the same page here and
know the truth, which is that all of this shit
that's happening about social media CEOs claiming
that they're trying to protect free speech, just
call them out on their bullshit. That clearly
is, they're clearly preying on people not actually
understanding how the First Amendment works and
then just assuming that you're going to go along
with it because you have a God -given American
right to go ahead and just say whatever the fuck
you want to, okay? This is not how it works,
at least not on a social media platform, okay?
These lazy fucks are deciding not to do what
it is that they have absolute 100 % right to
go ahead and do on their own platform. So call
them out for it. And if you don't like the toxic
environment there, join me and just deactivate
everything. Delete it off your phone. Don't ever
go to their website again. Let's be honest, most
of it is shit anyways, right? All right. I hope
that, I hope somebody can start a movement here
because, oh, I just can't. I just can't. I just
can't with these social media companies.