I’m not being semantic or trying to ignore an issue. I think corporations should have the ability to determine what content or ideas they want to promote or host on their platforms. And it has nothing to do with morality of majority, as much as I personally despise Fox News and specifically Rupert Murdock, they’ve created an identity that caters to people with a certain viewpoint. They’ve gone further and actually shaped it, but anything less than creative control over what appears on their platform is effectively forcing corporations to share viewpoints they might not agree with. And legal speech clauses, etc have nothing to do with corporations. The notion of legal/free speech only comes from the federal government, as free and legal speech is only applicable to interactions between citizens and the government, not citizens and corporations, or citizens and citizens. And I’m not familiar with the town square concept as it relates to laws. If I set up a social media company with the ideals that black people have a safe space, an actual black twitter for example, I should be able to remove people who want to share views that are antithetical to a safe space for black people. I shouldn’t be forced to platform anti black ideas simply because my platform has a large user base. Ideas as simple as “black people don’t know science or math” are legal ideas to hold, but that doesn’t mean they should be welcome if I deem them harmful. Town square or not.
I’m not being semantic or trying to ignore an issue. I think corporations should have the ability to determine what content or ideas they want to promote or host on their platforms. And it has nothing to do with morality of majority, as much as I personally despise Fox News and specifically Rupert Murdock, they’ve created an identity that caters to people with a certain viewpoint. They’ve gone further and actually shaped it, but anything less than creative control over what appears on their platform is effectively forcing corporations to share viewpoints they might not agree with. And legal speech clauses, etc have nothing to do with corporations. The notion of legal/free speech only comes from the federal government, as free and legal speech is only applicable to interactions between citizens and the government, not citizens and corporations, or citizens and citizens. And I’m not familiar with the town square concept as it relates to laws. If I set up a social media company with the ideals that black people have a safe space, an actual black twitter for example, I should be able to remove people who want to share views that are antithetical to a safe space for black people. I shouldn’t be forced to platform anti black ideas simply because my platform has a large user base. Ideas as simple as “black people don’t know science or math” are legal ideas to hold, but that doesn’t mean they should be welcome if I deem them harmful. Town square or not.