The First Amendment and Social Media

The six freedoms of the First Amendment. We all take advantage of these everyday but most of us don’t realize what they are. Most people don’t even know what the six freedoms are protecting and what they don’t. The first amendment condones your right to free speech, the freedom to practice religion without government interference, the freedom from a government established religion, the right to freedom of the press, the right to assemble peacefully and the right to petition the government. The First Amendment, however, is not a shield against laws of general applicability. Obviously, the First Amendment was passed in 1791, so how does the First Amendment relate to today’s world? In some aspects, the First Amendment still applies today just as it did back in 1791. You are still able to practice any religion you please; Christian, Jewish, Islam, Atheist, it doesn’t matter, the government has no control over it. Same goes for the government established religion. The United States is one of several developed countries that does not have a government established religion. But, when it comes to free speech and this age of social media, does the first amendment still protect your right to free speech the same way it did in 1791? Well, Social media is not the government. Social media companies like Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook just to name a few all have these documents that we all see but never pay attention to that we must agree to when we create an account. These documents are a part of the companies “Terms and Conditions” and these Terms and Conditions are basically the companies rules that you agree too and have to abide by in order to keep using their services. NBC Connecticut wrote a story shortly after former president Donald Trump was banned off Twitter and the idea arose that that was in violation of the First Amendment and, in my opinion, summed the argument up perfectly; “It’s not a violation of your constitutional rights to free speech, but you may not be following the guidelines you agreed to in those terms and conditions to use private social media platforms. The First Amendment is meant to keep the government from restricting free speech, not private companies.”

The Supreme Court

 

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The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US government. Surprisingly enough not too many people know how the Supreme Court operates and what goes on inside the Supreme Court. One thing that I learned from watching the Supreme Court video was that all nine Supreme Court Justices sit on the stand and listen to proceedings. I previously thought they only reviewed cases and only one would step foot in the court room if needed. One key part of the Supreme Court is that most of their day is spent reviewing written petitions from anyone from councilmen trying to prove that a lower courts ruling is false or a prisoner writing out that he has been wrongfully accused and is innocent. One surprising thing I learned was that after the nine justices are done deliberating they write an opinion. What really surprised me was that the first draft can take up to four weeks to be finished and that it can take many months while each justice tries to convince the other that their opinion is correct. The video made me realize that the Supreme Court actually does a whole lot more than I originally thought. The justices are working day in and day out constantly and they have a substantial work load. 

Individual Self-Fulfillment

Individual Self-Fulfillment in my opinion is very important for the further continuation and development of the human race and the people who occupy it. Individual Self-Fulfillment, also known as Self-Actualization, primarily revolves around free speech and their ability to create their own identity. C. Edwin Baker has been a massive First Amendment scholar and has done many hours of research on First Amendment topics. Baker argued in his book Human Liberty and Freedom that the primary justification for freedom of expression need the protection of individual human liberty rather than just traditional marketplace ideas rationale to survive. On page five of his book, Baker said “The liberty model holds that the free speech clause protects not a marketplace, but an arena of individual liberty from certain government restrictions”. This statement is important in today’s society because with the evolution of digital communication and social media it really sets the United States apart from every other country in terms of the us as citizens knowing that we have some protection from the government when it comes to what we want to say. 

 

Baker was also a massive believer of the liberty model or liberty theory. The “liberty model is Bakers own idea and he used it to replace or challenge the model of “marketplace of ideas”. “Marketplace of ideas” relates to having ideas that are deemed acceptable by society and that have already been subject to censorship. While keeping on the subject of rejection, Edwin Baker also rejected the idea that the First Amendment was designed to protect political speech. From my research, and the help of John Stick and his commentary on Baker’s book, I’ve discovered that when the marketplace theory was created it was used to assume that truth is objective and that the public searches for truth in data by processing it rationally and using that as their basis for ideas.

 

However, C. Edwin Baker wasn’t the only scholar to pursue findings on the First Amendment. One of Baker’s favorite scholars and professors on the topic was a professor at Yale Law School by the name of Thomas Emerson. Emerson himself also wrote a pivotal book called A system of Freedom of Expression. This book was so influential that it became a one of the main seminal works in First Amendment History. Emerson studied law at Yale Law School from 1928 to 1931 and returned in 1946 as a professor after serving under FDR’s administration. While he was at Yale, he became successful at arguing famous First Amendment cases. Two of the most famous cases being Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 and Sweezy v. New Hampshire in 1957. Griswold v. Connecticut was a landmark case that found that the Constitution allowed for protection against government interference towards couples who wish to use contraceptives. Sweezy v. New Hampshire was another landmark case where a professor, Paul M. Sweezy, was jailed for refusing to answer questions about a lecture he gave at the University of New Hampshire. Some questions that the professor refused to answer that were also asked in court were “What was the subject of your lecture?” “Did you advocate Marxism at that time?” and many more asking the professor if he was also advocating for socialism at the same time. The court obviously ruled in favor of Sweezy however it just goes to show that even though freedom of speech has been a part of the constitution since its creation, it only was respected just over six decades ago. 

 

In conclusion, I feel like freedom of speech is an extremely important part of America’s fundamental structure and the fulfillment of Self-Actualization only solidifies that idea. I think that we still have a long way to go to find out just what the perfect balance between government intervention and people’s freedom but as shown in some of the examples from earlier, we have come a long way from what we started out from and it seems as if we are only going to go up from here with the rapid adoption of social media and the ever expanding reach of the internet. 

Sources:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FICnq-qmSyY0DZyQFal25oCmJHZqoQScNQd9ahEXS1E/edit?usp=sharing

Top 5 News Sources

News Source #1

One of my favorite sources or getting sports news is ESPN. The reason why ESPN is one of my favorite sports news sources is because I am able to get updated by the minute news on what happened in a specific game or who is being traded to where and even news items that are more personal to the athletes. Most of the news that is produced by ESPN is normally unbiased unless it is someones opinion, which is usually stated or marked near the title of the article.  

News Source #2

My second favorite source for news is CNN. CNN is second on this list but the first when it comes to national news. I like CNN because it's usually pretty easy to weed out the nonsense and find the facts. I also feel like their coverage of international events is only matched to that of ABC. They also have some of the cleanest graphics in my opinion and that makes their news casts pleasing to look at. 

News Source #3

Fox 8 is my next favorite choice for news because I enjoy knowing what is going on around campus. I find that they are usually pretty on top of breaking news around the High Point - Greensboro area. They also do a pretty good job staying on top of North Carolina news. I also feel like they're usually pretty unbiased since most of the news they report on is locally sourced news. Fox 8 also reports a lot on the school and works with the school so I enjoy keeping up with school news that way. 

News Source #4

My forth news source is WWAY. I like WWAY because it is the local news station back home. I like it because again just like Fox 8 they are unbiased for the most part. I also like them because they post local ness from back home and it allows me to keep up with what is going on back home. They also focus more on the county my town is in so the news they report on is more local and familiar to me besides them reporting on the the entirety of the southeastern coast of NC. 

News Source #5

My last news source is Twitter. Even though Twitter isn't the best source for news, I don't just look to see what people are tweeting and take that as news. I go to the "moments" section of Twitter which consists of anything from news about the government to just fun news articles to read when you're bored. The thing about moments is it isn't just the news story, Twitter also shows factual accurate tweets and statements from trusted people or people close to the situation as sort of commentary on the news story or sometimes they can also provide extra information that the news story left out.