Does (and should) the First Amendment Extend to Social Media Platforms?

Well Texas certainly seems to think it does. 

In a partisan vote last week, the Texas State Senate passed House Bill 20 in response to social media sites banning or censoring political speech and posts. This has come after former President Trump's well known Twitter and Facebook ban that followed his continued posting regarding election fraud. Proponents of this bill argued that social media sites have a clear partisan bias when it comes to censoring accounts. However this claim can be difficult to prove due to these tech companies keeping their policies close to their chests. Nevertheless, the fact that this bill will eventually make it to the governor's desk just goes to show how far social media has come in pervading the political sphere. It is likely that this bill will share the same fate as a similar one passed by Florida that was struck down by the courts claiming First Amendment infringement, which is truly ironic considering proponents of these bills are also arguing using the same Constitutional principle. While these bills are unlikely to ever see the light of day, they do pose interesting questions on the intersection of media and politics. 

So, are your tweets constitutionally protected?

https://archive.org/details/GadoImages184525



Comments

  1. Emily MaitlandSeptember 7, 2021 at 11:03 AM

    Hey Kiara, this blog post grabbed my attention because I haven't heard about this a lot recently and I think everyone has their own thoughts on this topic. It's hard to determine whether or not posts on social media should be protected by the First Amendment based on the content of the posts. I don't think all posts should be protected without hesitation, they should be monitored to make sure there isn't any concerning or problematic information. For the most part, social media should be included in First Amendment rights, but not completely. Great post, I enjoyed reading your thoughts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoshSeptember 12, 2021 at 9:32 PM

    Hey Kiara, title of this blogpost was something that I have never seen before and is one reason why I chose your post. To answer your question I think first amendment right should extend to social media, as long as it doesn't impedes on someone else's freedom. The hard question is what is something that can be constituted as impeding on a person freedom. This topic is something that is important to define or it could be just by a case by case basis. But in all, social media should be a place where people can use their first amendment rights.

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