The Twitter meltdown thread got me thinking. I’d like to see what this group comes up with in an effort to create a tidy legal definition of “Free Speech” that would be useful for a society through its court system.
It won’t be tidy, of course, but the discussion is likely to expose some workable boundaries.
SoHy wrote:
Request to posters: please stay on topic and stay polite. If you want to rant about something or delve into a side topic, you are free to start another thread and reference this one as a jumping point, thereby leaving this one as a policy discussion.
It won’t be tidy, of course, but the discussion is likely to expose some workable boundaries.
SoHy wrote:
It sounds as if some people [on Twitter] don't even realize that it's against the law to make death threats towards anyone. A man who lives near my small city was just given a 3 year jail term for making several death threats. He threatened the president, some judges and some law enforcement people. It doesn't matter if they were idle threats. It requires law enforcement to take the time to investigate such threats. There are limits to free speech and I would have no problem if some types of hate speech was banned. It often inspires kooky people to commit acts of violence.
Weren't we all told in elementary school that free speech has limits. The common example was that you can't scream fire in a crowded room. Isn't screaming out hatred against a specific person or group similar to screaming fire, since it sometimes causes chaos or inspires hate crimes? I think it's time to clearly state what the limits of free speech are. We can all criticize our governmental policies and politicians as long as there isn't any violence implied. I don't equate limiting hate speech with authoritarian government. That's a stupid claim, as I see it.
Of course, any private entity can limit speech as much as it wants. That's always been the case, but some people don't seem to understand that either.
Request to posters: please stay on topic and stay polite. If you want to rant about something or delve into a side topic, you are free to start another thread and reference this one as a jumping point, thereby leaving this one as a policy discussion.