(06-24-2020 06:21 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: [quote='Purple' pid='16876648' dateline='1593039517']
The First Amendment has been stretched much further than simply the government restricting one's right to use words in speech or print. It is a much larger umbrella of guaranteed protection than many realize.
Do you recall the devout Christian baker in Colorado who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding, and the state of Colorado tried to force him to bake the cake? Congress had nothing to do with the restriction of his civil rights. It was the state of Colorado. However, the federal government did have a responsibility and duty to see that the baker's First Amendment rights were not violated. That is the point I am trying to make. And, the federal government did ultimately see it that way, the Supreme Court rejecting the Colorado law (7-2) that had denied the baker his due rights. The Supreme Court's decision had nothing to do with Congress abridging free speech. Congress was in no way involved. That is the literal language in the First Amendment. Yet, the federal government did recognize its duty to protect the baker's First Amendment rights even though Congress had made no law prohibiting those rights.
We are going to see a lot more come of this in the next few years in response to the brazen censorship happening in social media. Mark my word, Facebook, Twitter, and Google, in particular, are going to be challenged on this and they are going to lose.
Quote:In the case of the baker that is the federal government overruling a state government when it comes to enforcing compliance with the Constitution.
Yep. My point was in response to mturn's belief that the First Amendment ends at Congress making no laws to abridge free speech. If the Supreme Court had believed that, they would not even hear cases like the baker's. They clearly recognize the federal government's role in guaranteeing free speech. And, it wasn't because it was a state government denying a First Amendment right. The same ruling would have been made against a corporation trying to shove its political correctness down the throat of a small businessman like the baker.
Quote:Those who bring challenges against those social media / tech companies will likely lose.
I disagree with that, mostly because I have always been a glass half full optimist, and what big tech is getting away with is an egregious wrong that must be corrected. If those who challenge big tech lose, it will only be because of the huge piles of money Silicon Valley floods all over K Street. That possibility certainly exists.
However, there have been challenges already. A few have been settled, like Steven Crowder's, probably because such suits are just a nuisance and distraction to big tech, so they would rather settle a $10 million lawsuit rather than spend the energy and resources to defend it. $10 million is lunch money to the likes of Herr Suckitberg and Jackoff Dorsey.
Quote:That is not to say that those social media / tech companies cannot be forced to pay a political price for their actions. The US government trust busted Microsoft over far more tenuous reasons than could be made for splitting up Facebook and Google in particular. Being in the tech sector and knowing intimately what Google is up to in several areas I can say without much hesitation that I view the company's moral and ethical direction as steeply down and it has been in that direction for a solid 4-6 years now. They are manipulating content and how or even whether it is shown with a bias. They are wringing the AdSense publisher network like a financial sponge and low balling their rates. They are starting to wring even APIs and public good services like Maps like a financial sponge. Increasingly within Google I see short term financial decisions being made with little regard to the end user or long term ethics. Just my opinion, I could be wrong, but evidence to the contrary from where I'm sitting is nowhere to be found.
I agree with all of that! I am a publisher, a "patriot publisher," as I refer to myself. I am an ex-Army officer and I have a deep love for this country of ours. Some here consider me little more than a dangerous jingoist, but I'm not.
I am all too familiar with the shenanigans of Google. Adsense was once my biggest advertiser. My site was once generating five figures a month in ad revenue from a dozen or so advertisers, one of which was Adsense. And, the growth trajectory was due north. That was 2016. I supported Candidate Trump from the now-famous escalator ride. He and his staff were readers of my blog, and still are, even though I publish only an article a week now, compared to the seven or eight articles I published daily back then. Trump tweeted one of my articles to the world in February, 2016, which drew the derision of MSM talking heads like George Stephanopoulos. We were rocking until the election and Donald Trump shocked the world.
The left and their Silicon Valley soldiers had been asleep at the wheel and underestimated the power of the right-wing blogosphere and the seismic paradigm shift that saw news and commentary market share bleed from the mainstream media to the blogoshphere and sites like mine.
After the 2016 presidential election, Silicon Valley vowed they were going to shut down the right-wing blogosphere. They have largely succeeded. My once five-figure monthly income is now a few hundred dollars. Luckily, I have investments that are helping us survive. Many patriot publishers were not so fortunate. Undercapitalized to weather the storm, they have gone out of business. I am shadow-banned on Twitter, Facebook has deleted all six of my pages, including my main page which had over 300,000 followers, and Google deleted my Adsense account and ensures that my site does not appear anywhere near the first page of searches.
I am not the only "patriot publisher" this has happened to. It has happened to almost all of us. There is clearly an ideological struggle underway in America. Who knows where it will end, but in the meantime I get up every day and fight as hard as I can for what I believe in.
Go, Dukes!