As a reminder, the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Given that, particularly the “abridging the freedom of speech” part, it stands to reason that government officials shouldn’t be able to pressure companies into cracking down on unpopular opinions. Though that’s not a law, it’s just the modern way of cracking down on dissent, the very thing the Founding Fathers hoped to defend against when they wrote the 1st Amendment.
Jen Psaki, however, is no Constitutionalist. Rather, she’s a lackey of Team Brandon and a cynical Democrat willing to do whatever it takes to keep Brandon in power. Hence why she went after Joe Rogan and tried to pressure Spotify into censoring him, saying “Our hope is that all major tech platforms — and all major news sources for that matter — be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as COVID-19. That certainly includes Spotify.”
Fortunately, there are still a few free-speech advocates in America and they rushed to Rogan’s aid, as Fox News reported in a recent article. Citing recent op-eds in outlets from the Hill to the American Spectator, that article shows how, even in days dark as these, there are a few brave souls out there willing to stand up and make a defense of Rogan and his right to speak freely.
The thing is, they’re obviously right and it shouldn’t be controversial that the government has no right to demand companies censor protected speech, on the partisan basis that Jen Psaki was demanding.
Yes, there are situations where the government has the right to limit some forms of speech and encourage companies to do the same. Take child pornography for example. Only the most insane of the libertarians would tell you that such degenerate “speech” should be left uncensored and legal, with pedophiles and child abusers profiting from such horrific content. Similarly, there are good, Constitutional arguments to be made that pornography of any sort should be kept out of the public square and that treasonous statements and actions aren’t protected speech.
But the sharing of opinions on a major political issue, that’s constitutionally protected speech. Even if Rogan and his claims are wrong, they’re still protected, as only by hearing and debating all viewpoints on such issues can we reach the correct conclusion.
So, the public square must be left open to such conversations. From Twitter to Spotify, Facebook to YouTube, all those modern, digital public squares are areas where protected speech must be protected, not censored under the guise of fighting “misinformation.”
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.