THE SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR A CASE THAT COULD DECIDE WHETHER FACEBOOK, TWITTER CAN CENSOR USERS
October 24, 2018
We all use social media? But can social media be seen to be as powerful as the government? The recent issues with facebook and the hearings at the US Congress may indicate the power of social media.
The United States Supreme Court (#SCOTUS) agreed to hear a case (the Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, No. 17-702 case) on whether a private operator of a public access television network can be considered a state actor. This is the first case the new US Supreme Court Justice #Kavanaugh was involved to allow this case to proceed. Although this case does not concern social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, the outcome of this case would lead to the review of a prior case that involved a dispute over the power of social media companies to regulate the content on their platforms.
This is based on the 1st #Amendment of the US Constitution. The First Amendment was put in place to ensure Congress does not restrict the right of people to speak freely, can choose any religion of his or her choice, and can assemble peacefully to petition their government. The issue with this amendment is that it restricts state actors, but social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook do not have these restrictions as they are not government actors.
If successful, users would be able to sue these companies on the basis of First Amendment violation, and this would force them to limit the power they have to control content on their platform. Will this be beneficial to the consumers? Do we need this? Another way to litigate?
@BridgehouseLaw will track this case and provide more updates. In the meantime: Protect your account with a great password.
Best regards
und viele Grüße aus Charlotte
Reinhard von Hennigs
www.bridgehouse.law
und viele Grüße aus Charlotte
Reinhard von Hennigs
www.bridgehouse.law
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