Afer Elon Musk took over Twitter, there has been a lot of talk about how freedom of speech will be restored to the platform and such. The thing is that, those claiming that their freedom of speech was breached by being banned from Twitter forget a couple of things.
To begin with, freedom of speech doesn't mean one is free from the consequences of exercising it. People can answer you back, stop talking to you, or sue you for defamation. There are some other consequences you could face, both positive or negative, but there you can't escape from them.
Secondly, Twitter is private company. As such, it can ban of using its platform to spread speech that goes against the user agreement. When you open an account on any social media platform, everyone agrees to a set of rules to follow. If a user breach the user agreement, the platform can ban the user.
Who can't take away your freedom of speech is the government, and you can't be banned from used public forums. Yet, that doesn't mean other people can't use the same public forums to answer your speech, and you aren't immune from the consequences of your speech.
Yes, there are limits on what can be included on user agreements, or at least it should be clear set of rules on the matter. But, that doesn't mean consequences of using your freedom of speech shouldn't exist.
There are consequences of using your freedom of speech, and everyone should expect them to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment