Do I Have First Amendment Rights on Social Media Sites?
Recently there has been some controversy in the news surrounding social media networking sites blocking people from the cite due to their use of hate speech, racism, propaganda, and conspiracy theories. Florida state senator, Joe Gruters has filed a bill called “Stop Social Media Censorship”. If this bill is passed then these online platforms cannot do anything about online racists (who are Florida residents), or they could be sued for $75,000. The bill would still allow sites to block people for many other reasons including threats of violence, falsely impersonating others, harassing minors, enticing criminal conduct or posting pornographic material. However, they would not be allowed to block people for racism or bigotry.
Many people who believe that they have been wrongly banned from these sites claim their first amendment rights of free speech have been violated. This is simply not true. Social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter are privately owned which means that people technically have no first amendment rights when on these sites. People that claim this do not understand that by being privately owned, social media sites have the right to ban anyone they want for any reason they want. This bill should clearly not be passed because privately owned businesses cannot be subjected to operate under the first amendment. They are in no way a part of the state and, therefore, should not be forced to act like there are by the United States government.
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