Sitemap
Minds Without Borders

A thoughtful look at how culture, society, politics, media and economics affect us all.

Member-only story

Freedom of Speech

We Tried To Silence Dangerous Sociopaths Online, But What If Dangerous Sociopaths Control The Platforms?

What and where is the modern town square, anyway?

4 min readApr 25, 2022

--

Photo by on

We once believed so deeply in free speech that we wrote the First Amendment.

Do you remember when the government made the rules? Before that, religion made most of the rules humankind lived by.

But today, corporations are the arbiter of rules and rights.

The United States government will not stop you from speaking your mind. Outside a very few exceptions, you can say whatever you want, as long as you understand there may be consequences.

You can stand in the town square declaring your views on anything and everything. There are very few legal limits on this.

But town squares are often deserted. In their empty spaces, nobody can hear you scream about the government.

Where is the “town square” today? It’s virtual. It’s social media, which is not owned or run by the government. If Twitter wants to ban you, you’re banned. If Facebook wants to throw your ass into Facebook jail, it will, and you have no right to appeal…

Minds Without Borders
Minds Without Borders

Published in Minds Without Borders

A thoughtful look at how culture, society, politics, media and economics affect us all.

Michelle Teheux
Michelle Teheux

Written by Michelle Teheux

Lover of literature. Former newspaper editor. Fascinated by everything. Contact: [email protected]. To buy me a coffee:

Responses (3)