Avoid the Slippery Slope, by Robert Gore, Straight Line Logic

Posted by straightlinelogic 6 years, 8 months ago to Government
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Social media companies, search engines, and payments platforms are excising conservative, libertarian, and assorted anti-government voices. SLL argued in “The Friendly Faces of Fascism” that the largest and best known of these companies were essentially arms of the government. They are mechanisms for conveying information, opinions, and commerce between billions of people. Given their reach, importance, and ties to the government, should these ostensibly private companies be subject to the First Amendment’s prohibition of government restriction of free speech and the free press?

This is an excerpt. For the complete article, please click the above link.


All Comments

  • Posted by CircuitGuy 6 years, 8 months ago
    it makes me think of 20 years ago when it seemed like Microsoft could use its position as provider of the most popular OS to compete unfairly in the application market and forever control all computer devices. People will find ways to communicate. It would be hard to undo that even if we wanted it.
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  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 8 months ago
    “Logically they can’t have it both it ways. Their current exemption was a product of legislation. They should be forced to make a choice: they are either open platforms and retain their legislative exemption for publisher’s content responsibility, or they choose what they publish but bear the civil and criminal consequences of defamatory or criminal content.“
    Well said Robert.
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  • Posted by 6 years, 8 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thank you. I just try to go where logic takes me. The proposed "cure" for social media and search engine "censorship" is worse than the disease.
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  • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 8 months ago
    Thanks, Robert. Very good analysis. As usual you see the issue with 20-20 vision.
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