Posted on 04/06/2021 2:35:03 AM PDT by RandFan
Justice Clarence Thomas suggested on Monday that Congress should consider whether laws should be updated to better regulate social media platforms that, he said, have come to have "unbridled control" over "unprecedented" amounts of speech.
The provocative and controversial opinion comes as Twitter banned former President Donald Trump from its platform for violating its rules on incitement of violence and some conservatives have called on more regulations in the tech world to combat what they view as political bias on social media.
"If part of the problem is private, concentrated control over online content and platforms available to the public, then part of the solution may be found in doctrines that limit the right of a private company to exclude, " Thomas wrote in a 12-page concurring opinion Monday.
Thomas's stance will raise concerns from critics who point out that social media platforms have not historically been subject to such content regulation, but instead have been left to devise their policies on their own.
"Justice Thomas's opinion represents the first time that we've seen a Supreme Court Justice appear to endorse the view increasingly prevalent among conservatives that private social media platforms should potentially be subject to significant government regulation notwithstanding the First Amendment," said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
They are utilities and monopolies. They should be well regulated like your local power company.
let’s just replace them with fairer, better alternatives.
Even a benevolent monopoly like AT&T (”Ma Bell”) was broken up years ago by the Federal government, because of the pervasive nature of their vast control of all telephone services, into seven regional companies (”Baby Bells”). But other than not permitting profanities or angry shouting over the phone at the operator, AT&T never listened in or tried, in any way, to censor phone conversations.
Thomas is the only SC justice I trust.
American Patriots should regulate SCOTUS.
they MUST not be allowed lie,
or to hold Malta above the US Constitution,
or to murder other REAL non-child raping Justices
that Roberts and his BEARD hate,
or to destroy the Constitution for the MASTERS
and countries (Malta, Vatican, Germany MI-6, Spain, CCP)
they serve over their OATHS.
Marsh v. Alabama Should apply.
They are the fairer and better choices.. if you are a lefty and you like being censored for conservative views. So. NO. Dont regulate them. EDUCATE YOUR KIDS. We never took MAD magazine as serious. Teach your kids that Fakebook is just that “ FAKE” and only an immature person gets butt hurt over faKe posts and wild lies.
Regulating them like utilities (ie no discriminatory provision of service to anybody) is a second choice to breaking them up into a million pieces via anti trust actions.
Well that’s not going to happen now that the Domestic enemies are occupying our government
Repeal the 17th Amendment, place the check and balance on the Senate, the uniparty has less influence, the Judiciary less uniparty oriented... republic restored
let’s just replace them with fairer, better alternatives.
——
Ok. Let’s get cracking.
Marketing 101:
Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Google suck donkey balls as companies, but had good, viable products that people actually found easy to use and actually wanted to use. When all your family, friends and acquaintances use these, you pretty much have to use these. Or be isolated. Remember, it’s more than the 80 million conservatives in the US that need convincing to switch.
Gab? Parler? MeWe? Rumble? Outside of a certain core conservative group, no one with use. Crap UI/UX and crap infrastructure for starters. Like any product, It needs a critical mass to succeed. Most people don’t give a rats-ass about politics, and these platforms were all about politics. Sure there was other stuff, but people got turned off of what they initially saw. Deleted the app or whatever.
They want to share pictures and videos of themselves pooping or whatever with their friends on their feed.
They want an easy-to-use instant messenger.
They want free productivity tools.
They want mindless videos of mindless shit.
They want free, easy-to-use email and a browser that just works.
They want connections
They don’t always want to talk about LGBT (liberty, guns, beer and Trump) or stolen elections or BLM or Antifa.
A generic free app/ platform without any political nonsense with all the above features is a place to start. Gab, MeWe, Parler and Rumble will always be niche until this is done, and could be successful if they remove politics from the equation.
These social networks work to become the only speech platforms for people to use for communication and then they believe they have the right to control every word you say…..and to shut you up if they don't like your thoughts! They have an agenda for the future and we have no right to speak up or oppose it?
Can you imagine the day they take over Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T…… your phone services? And suddenly block you from using your phone to speak your mind because they're monitoring your calls and didn't like something you said in a conversation?
That's what they're doing now on their social media pages.
AND IT'S TIME FOR AMERICA TO PUT A STOP TO IT!!
There comes a point when a private enterprise is so engrained into the economy, society and governments that it has become a utility. The official, legal designation by laws must take place or there is the threat of one of two INDIVIDUALS being more powerful and controlling over EVERYTHING than the collective of ALL elected officials.
The men of colonial times and founders of what is now the united States of America, had an inner compass and set of core values that are more aligned to born again Christianity than modern day "wokeness"
There used to be a time .... not that long ago .... when crime was primarily an adult male's activity and prisons were not crammed full.
During WW2 ... just a a little over 70 years ago, boys would lie about their age to join a fight that was reported (how many really knew the workings of the world at that time ?) .. to be a threat to our way of free American life.
Our kids used to be patriots, almost by osmosis.
Since the 60's ... ( though not called so ), being "woke" has been the guiding element in how we teach, train and condition our kids.
Here's the rub, America.
WE do that.
We adults actively do it, or inactively/actively refuse to stop it.
So, every time I see an article in FreeRepublic like this, I can only think/say to myself, "Mea Maxima Culpa", because at the age of 73 ... I am either part of the problem or part of the solution.
I trust Thomas immensely. I do not trust Alito enough to clone him, but do trust him more than anyone in Congress. As for the rest, I am willing to reserve judgment a little longer on Trump’s appointees, but I can’t think of any reason to trust any of them.
I don’t protect companies that illegally ENGINEERED the 2020 election, and I’m disappointed others here do.
Let's sue them into oblivion.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Please protect justices Thomas and Alito until the thieves in charge of the White House are gone.
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