Thou shalt not (censor) – by Alex Berenson
Yesterday, Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction that – in essence – tells the White House and much of the executive branch to stop bothering social media companies over opinions and reporting and other content they carry.
Judge Doughty s ruling doesn t violate the federal government s own First Amendemnt rights to speak.
It doesn t say the White House can t use Facebook or Twitter. it doesn t say the White House can t express its own views on vaccines or Russia or other issues as forcefully as it likes. It doesn t say that law enforcement agencies can t go after child pornography or terrorist threats on social media.
What it says is government must end its aggressive and growing censorship and quasi-censorship complex – and whose reach and power Judge Doughty details in the 155-page memorandum supporting the injunction.
What is says is that if speech is legal and protected by the First Amendment, social media platforms have the right to carry it, and the federal government must stop telling them not to do so. (Whether social media platforms – especially the biggest ones – must carry that speech is a separate and much more complicated question, but that is NOT the issue here.)
Hooray and hooray again. What I wonder is how the Judge will enforce his injunction effectively. Facebook, Google, Microsoft etc. are a law unto themselves.