Thread by @USConst_Amend_I

The federal government should not be working with anyone to censor speech. I protect Facebook’s right to control the speech on its site.

https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1415727354463281159

But does the government flagging posts on Facebook violate me? A few points:

First, I protect you from the government, not from Facebook. Facebook removing posts on its own does not violate me. There needs to be government action to implicate me.

Second, the government is allowed to engage in its own speech. It can express a certain viewpoint and doing so does not violate me. So the government “getting factual information out there” etc. does not violate me.

mtsu.edu/first-amendmen…

Third, it can violate me when the government coerces a business into taking actions that censor speech—think threat of prosecution or of other governmental action. For example, this case:

eff.org/files/2015/11/…

The outcome will depend on the facts of any particular case, but there is a line between the government simply using its own speech to say it thinks certain posts are factually incorrect and the government threatening/coercing Facebook into removing certain posts.

Here’s a better example of how the government could handle this issue:

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1416132396034846720?s=20

But I reiterate: the federal government should not be in the business of censoring speech or controlling how private companies moderate content on their sites.