5 Comments
May 27, 2021Liked by Chris J. Karr, David Thornton

The only good thing about Ron DeSantis is that he must make Ted Cruz cry at night.

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May 26, 2021Liked by David Thornton

I think that too many on the right conflate "Big Tech" social media firms with the government. Social media firms aren't the government, and there is also no such thing as a Constitutional right to social media accounts. We obtain them by contractually agreeing to the terms companies like Facebook and Twitter set. And it's not like former President Trump is constrained from exercising his free speech rights after his suspension from FB and Twitter. He is still issuing press releases where he is still smarting about his loss to Biden, and continuing to tell whoppers about the election being stolen being him. He is prominent enough of a person where whatever he says will spread far and wide even without Twitter and FB.

It is disappointing that DeSantis signed this really bad law. I think he's done an able job as governor, yet signing something so blatantly unconstitutional tarnishes his record. He is way too smart of a guy to believe that this law is constitutionally sound. As you were mentioning David, DeSantis is probably pandering to the Trump base, in order to win their support for his Presidential aspirations in 2024. Section 230 of the CDA, Incorporation, along with the Supremacy Clause(Article 6, Clause 2) of the Constitution are why this law will get struck down by the courts. I do get that social media firms are sometimes unfair in their moderation to conservatives and others. But the last thing we need is for government power to expand as to dictate to private firms as to how they should moderate their platforms. Instead, we should let the free market work, and have the dynamics of the free market decide the fate(whether for better or worse) for these "Big Tech" firms, along with every other company in the US. We also have to always remind ourselves that once we expand the power of the government, it is very hard, if not impossible, to reverse it.

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May 26, 2021Liked by David Thornton

Pether is precisely why I won’t travel to the Middle East. The people are wonderful, but one government official having a bad day can destroy your entire life.

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Agreed. Private companies should be free from government interference when acting lawfully. They should also not be granted undeserved protections. If they prescribe the content that is published, they should be required to defend against libel and other torts arising from what they publish.

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