Ep. 184 - The First Amendment & Government Intrusion in Social Media

Free speech in the First Amendment protects us from government censorship but not private censorship.  This means the government cannot censor your speech but a private entity such as a newspaper does not have an obligation to publish your speech. Continuing this analogy, are social media companies more like a newspaper where they can pick and choose which speech to publish or more like a telephone company where they allow all speech regardless of content to use their infrastructure?  What happens when the government wants to stifle otherwise free speech, but doesn’t have the grounds to do so?  We’ve seen a troubling trend of the government pressuring social companies to censor speech.  Joining our all-star student panel to discuss this trend, we are excited to welcome Brad Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University, former FCC Chairman and founder and Chairman of the Institute for Free Speech for this informative discussion.