I was a latecomer to Twitter. While I created a Twitter “handle” nine years ago (in fact, two; @martydahlman and @demintrumpworld) I really didn’t “participate” in Twitter. I posted essays to @martydahlman, and I occasionally cruised through an evening’s newsfeed. It was only in the last couple of years that I started seriously looking through my Twitter feed, especially since the January 6th Insurrection.
So I didn’t pay a lot of attention when Elon Musk, the Tesla owning, space exploring, richest man in the world, took over. I heard all of the “bad news”; that Musk would wreck Twitter. But up until yesterday, it didn’t really change what I saw. But now one of the authors on my Twitter feed, Aaron Ruper, is banned. After all of this time, Musk finally impacted me.
I’m a little sad. I feel like I missed the heyday of Twitter, and came in at the end when things are getting bitter. And I don’t know what to do – open a “Mastodon” account, or go to “Post.News”; or what. Twitter was addicting. You could watch the experts on TV, folks like Neil Katyal, former acting Solicitor General of the United States, or Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law Professor. And then you could get what they really thought on Twitter, the story behind the more formal MSNBC or CNN presentation. You got the “inside scoop” – and now it looks like that’s gone.
Left and Right United
I’ve heard a lot of whining about Twitter, first from the right and now from the left. One of the most annoying “whines” is that somehow Twitter did, or is, or would, violate users First Amendment rights. It’s annoying because it’s wrong. Twitter can do anything, muzzle members, suspend accounts, or allow some folks to say a thing and others not. But none of that has a damn thing to do with the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
“AHHHH – but what about Freedom of Speech!! That’s guaranteed to every American, in the Constitution, in the First Amendment. You can’t take that away!!”
Here’s what the First Amendment actually says:
“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press” – First Amendment to the US Constitution.
It states that Congress, and by extension, the government of the United States, cannot make a law taking away the ability to freely express your views, in speech or in the press. And that “extension” is further stretched to include state and local governments by the 14th Amendment, through the due process and equal protection clause.
So if the US, or Ohio, or Pataskala (my little town’s) government wrote a law that tried to prevent me from expressing my opinion here in “Our America”, that would violate the First Amendment. If the local police came and told me that “Biden for President” signs (or those damn F**k Biden flags down the street) aren’t allowed here in Pataskala, that would be a violation too.
Online Main Street
But Twitter is not the government, and Elon Musk, as rich as he is, isn’t either. Twitter is a private company, a social media platform provided as a money-making “service” that we can choose to use or not. And if we don’t like the rules – then we should take our “business” somewhere else. Because Twitter (and Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and even Truth Social) are just stores on an online Main Street. We can go in, we can buy their product, or we can walk on by. The laws that apply to the government, don’t necessarily apply to them.
What about Tik-Tok? Just yesterday a bill was introduced in the US Congress to actually ban the Tik-Tok app in the United States. Isn’t that violating Tik-Tok’s First Amendment rights? The short answer is yes – but. Yes, if Tik-Tok is a private company then it has First Amendment freedom of speech rights. The Supreme Court ruled those were protected in Citizen’s United, the case about corporations giving campaign donations to politicians.
Take His Ball
But if Tik-Tok is really just an exciting lure, a “stalking horse” to gather information for the Chinese government, it raises a whole different issue. Other governments aren’t guaranteed First Amendment rights. So if Tik Tok is just an extension of Chinese Intelligence, it can be banned, much to the dismay of every social media user under twenty-five.
I don’t like the way Elon Musk is running Twitter. And I’m not so sure that I like the way Zuckerberg runs Facebook. I may have to go onto virtual Main Street and find other platforms to use. Then I can say whatever I want about those two billionaires. But if I say it on their platforms, say it on the Twitter that Musk paid $40 billion for; why should I be surprised that he takes “his ball” and goes home?
He paid for it. Twitter’s his, not mine.
