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Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by eviks on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @03:18AM (#39987873)
It restricts free speech in the most direct, literal sense - by... restricting your ability to freely speak.

The historical existence is simply irrelevant. Just like existence of pre-TV/newspaper speech is not a relevant factor in determining whether banning all TV/newspapers in 1950 restricts free speech

Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by sammorrowdrums on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @03:42AM (#39988046)
Making publication easy on social media has certainly had an impact on public speech, but private platforms do not offer free speech by design.

Naomi Klein went into this in No Logo with shopping malls replacing public spaces where you also don’t have a right to free speech and can be evicted arbitrarily at the owners discretion.

You’ll find virtually all of social media platforms have moderation, usage policies and user banning practices that go well beyond allowing the fully legally protected free speech you are afforded in a public space (in many countries).

Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by cnity on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @04:12AM (#39988227)
If all spaces that attract the majority of people are private and have homogenous terms of use, then free speech ends in all ways except on this technicality.

Edit: removed unnecessarily inflammatory phrasing.

Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by eviks on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @12:42PM (#39992751)
It (practically) doesn't matter what the moderation policies are, a legal ban on social networks will still be a restriction on free speech
Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by RandomLensman on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @03:35AM (#39987972)
What access to tools or avenues for speech should fall under the first amendment then?
Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by forgetfreeman on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @05:23AM (#39988666)
This is a telling argument. Newspapers and television broadcasts, while geared towards broad public consumption, were never wholly democratized platforms and that didn't run afoul of the first amendment. It stands to reason that management of content on social media platforms or outright banning the same wouldn't either.
Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by kristiandupont on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @07:06AM (#39989339)
The restriction that this freedom is supposed to save you from is that of prosecution. Nobody is promising everyone a megaphone.
Re:Yes, Social Media Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage M... by eviks on Wednesday April 10, 2024 @12:45PM (#39992790)
And this whole conversation is about laws mandating something and the resulting prosecution with comparisons to safety standards in saws, not your made up megaphone