NightFox
Wildling
- Jul 20, 2013
- 11,549
- 3,219
IMHO social media platforms don’t rise to the level of water and electricity with respect to importance to the “public welfare”, or anywhere near it.It is true that the platform belongs to the company only and as the law is now, they can say no one can say anything on it except what they want them to say.Silly Law, don’t break the social media platforms TOS and you won’t get kicked, that applies to everyone. The platform belongs to the company not the public, thus there’s no right to unregulated speech on them.
Don’t like it, don’t use their services.
However, the whole point of the concept of "public utilities" is that things like water and electricity distribution or phone service can quickly get so huge and important to the public welfare that they need to be taken out of private industry and run for the benefit of the public. I believe this is a clear case of that, and that in this country, that means Free Speech.
Putting all the issues aside with what essentially would be nationalizing yet more vast swaths of private property, using the line of reasoning that you’re currently pursuing one could make the argument that all the telecommunications companies and broadcast media (Television, Radio, etc..) would need to follow suit.
Personally I don’t like the path where any of that leads since I’m a big proponent of private property rights and completely AGAINST anything that places complete power over it in government hands.