Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Clarence Thomas Hints That Congress Could Strip Social Media Giants Of First Amendment Protections, Comparing Them To ‘Public Accommodations’

 WASHINGTON - MARCH 13: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas testifies before the House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee on Capitol Hill March 13, 2008 in Washington, DC. Thomas and Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke about concerns with the ongoing remodeling of the court building, the reduction of paperwork due to electronic media and the disparity of pay between federal judges and lawyers working in the private sector.

“The Second Circuit feared that then-President Trump cut off speech by using the features that Twitter made available to him. But if the aim is to ensure that speech is not smothered, then the more glaring concern must perforce be the dominant digital platforms themselves. As Twitter made clear, the right to cut off speech lies most powerfully in the hands of private digital platforms. The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions. This petition, unfortunately, affords us no opportunity to confront them,” Thomas concluded.

On Monday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to argue that social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter may not be able to hide behind the First Amendment in their attempts to regulate various forms of speech on their platforms.

Most notably, the legendary Justice compared the Big Tech giants to “common carriers” and “public accommodations.”

More @ The Daily Wire

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