Free Speech and the Social Media Contract

According to the First Amendment of the US Constitution, I can say whatever I want on my blog. I can use profanity, I can disparage political parties, I can denounce religious ideologies, I can lie, and I can insult the President or the Pope. I can praise Jesus, or Allah, or Zeus, or Jupiter. I can include a swastika, or a burning cross, or a burning flag. I am entitled to be as offensive as I want under my rights as an American citizen.  There’s a reason this was included in the very first amendment…the Founding Fathers believed it to be that important. 

These kinds of speech are immune to censorship by the federal government as well as any state or municipal government. However, no speech is protected from censorship by a private citizen or corporation. This is the reason Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook can censor anything you post on their platform.

Likewise, anyone you work for can censor you. Or more accurately, your employer can fire you if they don’t like something you say/post/publish.  If you happen to be independently wealthy, no problem. For those of us who must work for a living, we have to take care how we speak.  Even celebrities who are paid to voice their opinions must be careful or risk their livelihoods. Liberal Whoopie Goldberg was suspended for her comments about the holocaust when she said it wasn’t racially motivated.  She even apologized and was still suspended so she could “take some time to reflect.”  Joe Rogan got in trouble for including misinformation about the covid vaccine on his Spotify podcast…nevermind he also included counter points of view. Several musicians threatened to pull their music from the platform if Rogan was not removed…he wasn’t, and they did…so he was only partially canceled.  Really, aren’t these minor offenses?  I say again, these people are paid to voice their opinions. Should they be canceled if those opinions are offensive or unpopular…or even untrue?

I however am not paid for any opinions I might have about covid, or genocide, or any other controversial issue. Plus, I’m only famous to my friends and family (mostly for my natural gas).  My influence is nonexistent compared to Goldberg and Rogan so there is very little reason to cancel me.  The company I work for has policies restricting my speech in the workplace as well as on social media, but those are only related to things like sexual harassment, bigotry, confidentiality, and just making sure I don’t besmirch (love that word!) the company’s image.  And I don’t think we have too many fact-checkers on the payroll scanning employee’s social media accounts, but you never know.

Facebook (aka Meta) has been frustrating folks for several years and especially the past 14 months with their fact-checks on anything concerning covid or election 2020. Is this censorship? They’re still letting you post your bullshit (I just assume its bullshit if its reposted on Facebook), but they’re adding their own opinion along with it.  Yes, their “fact-check” is just another opinion, but it’s presented as fact because it’s been reviewed by professionals…professionals hired by Facebook.  These professionals have their own agenda as Facebook does. If they’re “fact-checking” your post, it’s because their opinion is the opposite of yours.  This is not censorship because they are not altering your message in any way, just adding their own message along with it. The audience has the choice to accept either message (or neither) as fact.

Facebook also tends to suspend an account for violating their TOS once or on multiple occasions. The offender is typically suspended for a length of time, but repeat offenders are sometimes suspended indefinitely. President Trump was suspended indefinitely on both Facebook and Twitter platforms for his posts about election fraud in 2020…while he was still president! Whether his messages were opinion or fact, doesn’t matter in this discussion…it was total censorship.  Any time a person’s message is restricted, altered, or deleted, it’s censorship. 

Here’s why its legal:

1. Both Facebook and Twitter are private companies. It’s just like the signs you see in a store or restaurant… “We reserve the right to deny service…” so on and so forth.  If I owned a business, and President Trump was shopping there and decided to say something I didn’t like, I’d have the right to have President Trump removed from my premises.
2. Also, Facebook and Twitter are both free to use at any time by anyone. They have no obligation to let us say whatever we want because none of us pay for that privilege. You’re using their service for no charge having agreed to their terms of service (which no one reads, I know). 

What if Mark Zuckerberg had never been a computer science nerd? What if he’d been a nightclub owner instead?  What if he’d taken his Harvard money and invested it in a bar and called it Zucky’s Dance Hall ®?  He has both kinds of music here, country and western! And he has a karaoke night every Thursday. People come from all over to sing at Zucky’s. But every once in a while, some joker comes in and starts singing ABBA.  Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Waterloo, Fernando. Zucky has to go cut ‘em off because he hates disco, especially ABBA, and he won’t allow anyone to sing it in his country/western club.  And he’s got a sign at the door…”NO FUCKIN’ DISCO IN MY CLUB!”  He’ll even call the bouncer to kick ‘em out if they start makin’ a fuss…hootin’ and hollerin’ about disco and ABBA bein’ the bomb-dot-com or some silly nonsense.  Now considering he doesn’t charge a cover on karaoke night, doesn’t Zucky have every right to shut those ABBA-lovers down and kick ‘em out of his club?

I’ve seen people comparing social media to the phone company.  You’re paying AT&T, or Verizon, or whomever to use their service and you are afforded a certain privacy from the public (although not necessarily from the NSA, right, Mr. Snowden?).  You can say whatever you want on the phone because you’re paying to do so and there’s not any possibility of millions of people listening in and taking something you say as truth or as an offense.  To whomever posted this particular nugget of bullshit:  apples and oranges, my friend.

If I had a social media platform, what might I restrict with my unlimited power of censorship? Child porn, right? I mean, sure we all want freedom of speech but there must be a moral line we do not cross or allow anyone else to cross. Where do we draw that line? I’d draw it at the point where people are being physically harmed.  Beyond that, spew whatever craziness you want, idiot. My moral compass doesn’t turn on your stupidity or lunacy.  I just feel like free expression of ideas is more important than peoples’ gullibility or ill-intent.  But maybe Zuckerberg’s compass is much more sensitive to those things.  Maybe he is so upset about people dying from covid that he’s willing to silence people who claim it’s a hoax or a conspiracy.  Maybe he just hates Donald Trump and considers his election fraud claim as treasonous and likely to get someone hurt…which it did. Maybe Jack Dorsey feels the same way (or the new guy, Parag Agrawal).  Maybe someday I’ll hit the lotto and buy Twitter and make my own rules.  But by then, maybe I’ll change my mind and feel the same way as Zuckerberg and Dorsey.  The point is, they have the freedom to do what they want with their platforms. So do I and so do you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

For those that care, here’s Zucky’s sign on the door:  https://transparency.fb.com/policies/community-standards/?source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcommunitystandards%2Fintroduction%2F

Does anyone wonder why I paid for this domain and pay a host to run it? (Probably not).  I mean, I could just type all this on some social media platform for free, right? Except it might take a shitload of Tweets (at 280 characters a pop). It’s because I want it to be mine and no one else’s.  My domain is my asset just like my house and truck and all the stuff in it (other than Comcast’s equipment). Sure I use Facebook and Twitter, and others to spread the gospel of Big Steve, but that’s not where the words live. And if Facebook decides they don’t want to help me spread my words, they can restrict me. By the way, no one owns their Facebook or Twitter accounts. You’re renting these things from a landlord, and he can kick you out whenever for whatever.

Facebook now has a long list of suits against them for censorship, many of which have merit in my opinion. But maybe all these folks suing Facebook could put their lawyer fees together and start their own social media platforms instead. I’d chip in a couple bucks.

It’s my understanding Trump has started his own social media platform called Truth Social where anyone can say anything.  What a wonderful thing this must be…a place where speech is absolutely unrestricted.  Free speech like no one’s ever seen before.  Ask anyone…it’s terrific!  But apparently not…https://mashable.com/article/trump-truth-social-free-speech-bans. No one can or will offer you completely unrestricted expression…except God, on your own property, far away from anyone else, without broadcast. That’s probably for the best.

I recall creating a Facebook group soon after joining in 2009, maybe 2010. It was named “Facebook Will Destroy Society” or something like that. It mysteriously disappeared without notice. I was actually kind of upset about it even though I’d never promoted the group and it had no members.  It was just the fact that I’d been censored.  But I can’t begrudge them for that really.  I might’ve done the same if I had CEO shoes on.  It was really just a cheap lesson in (so-called) free speech on social media.  

But I still believe it. Somehow, someway, Facebook will be the ruin of mankind. Human beings in great numbers are stupid and therefor, dangerous…the greater the numbers, the greater the stupidity.  It’s just a simple fact of human nature.  Mark my words! Or don’t…come back and read them later.  These words are staying here indefinitely in any case…or at least until my credit card expires (see? still not free!).

-Big Steve