Once again, it is time for South by Southwest, also known by the initialism SXSW, the nerdfest / Internet trade show of sorts that goes every March in Austin, Texas. At this year's twenty-something, big-tent nerdism revival and platform to shape public opinion by sway-masters, the organizers held a panel discussion over censorship by executives of social media giants, Facebook and Twitter.George Anders over at Forbes wrote that George Washington University law professor Jeffrey Rosen urged Twitter and Facebook to allow just as much free speech as the U.S. government permits under the First Amendment. It's quite sad to discover that a law professor believes that Congress and the President allow free speech.
As part of the agreement known as the U.S. Constitution that establishes the Congress as well as the Presidency, the Congress has a duty not to create any law, which would abridge (lessen, diminish, curtail) the freedom of free speech. Further, freedom, the Old English word for liberty, means the absence of law in the presence of legislators and their agencies, or that which we call government.
The essence of freedom is no law. Without law, legislators cannot assign duty nor right. Every law requires both a right and a corresponding duty.
In spite of bogus Supreme Court rulings, never should anyone ever get prosecuted for anything said, anytime in a public forum. However, neither Twitter nor Facebook are public forums.
The execs of Facebook and Twitter are right to take down anything, anytime, not because anyone in particular might be offended by what someone else expresses. Rather execs are right to do so because they are the stewards of those who have property, which is the right of ownership and not what is owned) in Facebook or in Twitter.
If you owned a comedy club and Michael Richards took the stage ranting, shouting the word niggers, you would be right to yank Richards from the stage. The same goes for the execs of Facebook and Twitter.
