> The Bill of Rights — the other name for the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution – like the Constitution itself and all the other amendments, sets limits only on the relationship between the U.S. government and its people.
> If the government is not involved, the First Amendment does not apply.
The interesting point where this intersects Twitter is from before Musk took over. The Twitter Files clearly demonstrated that government agencies, from the FBI to the DHS and more, were in intimate contact with internal Twitter moderators and frequently made demands to Censor (wording!) Americans by banning or deranking their posts. Often despite significant protest by Twitter staff! Hell, there was an internal welcome group and onboarding packet for 'former' FBI agents that were hired on to Twitter, sometimes the same people that used to be on the government side of email chains.
The government can't just hide its Censorship behind supposedly independent actions of a private company.
If it's government action in disguise the First Amendment still applies.
Musk's anomalous takeover suddenly and unexpectedly exposed rampant government-directed Censorship happening inside Twitter. There's no such thing as one cockroach. If you see one, there are a hundred hiding that you can't see. The scary part is that the same thing is almost certainly happening across the tech industry.
> If the government is not involved, the First Amendment does not apply.
The interesting point where this intersects Twitter is from before Musk took over. The Twitter Files clearly demonstrated that government agencies, from the FBI to the DHS and more, were in intimate contact with internal Twitter moderators and frequently made demands to Censor (wording!) Americans by banning or deranking their posts. Often despite significant protest by Twitter staff! Hell, there was an internal welcome group and onboarding packet for 'former' FBI agents that were hired on to Twitter, sometimes the same people that used to be on the government side of email chains.
The government can't just hide its Censorship behind supposedly independent actions of a private company.
If it's government action in disguise the First Amendment still applies.
Musk's anomalous takeover suddenly and unexpectedly exposed rampant government-directed Censorship happening inside Twitter. There's no such thing as one cockroach. If you see one, there are a hundred hiding that you can't see. The scary part is that the same thing is almost certainly happening across the tech industry.