The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that the government will not censor speech in public arenas. This means that the government can’t kick you out of a public park because of what you say (with some caveats, of course). Private companies are under no such legal obligation; the NFL can ban you for kneeling during the national anthem, YouTube can pull down your channel for talking about gun rights, and Facebook and Twitter can ban you for cursing out your neighbor.
But should they? This is where freedom of speech becomes a principle.
Recently YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple all took action to ‘deplatform’ InfoWars, the far-right media organization helmed by crackpot Alex Jones.
I want to make it abundantly clear that I harbor a strong dislike for Alex Jones. I don’t think anyone should listen to what he says, and I think that his show is harmful to the political landscape of the country. But he shouldn’t be censored.
I do want to mention that Alex Jones has legal action pending against him for defamation, and if he is found guilty my opinion would change; only then should platforms begin removing his content, and only then because his content has been proven harmful in a court of law. But not a second sooner.
Until recently I was on the side of legal, but not principled, free speech — That the government absolutely shouldn’t censor speech, but I didn’t really care what the private companies did. I was initially in favor of removing Alex Jones from YouTube et al., and even though I’d heard the arguments for principled free speech before, according to my previous opinion, Alex Jones would be banned. I do believe the court will rule against him, but until that happens it’s just my opinion, and enforcing it on others just because I think it’s right, well, isn’t right.
There’s an xkcd comic I used to love (xkcd.com/1357), but I’ve realized its error. The comic argues that the right to free speech is about the government, and that when private platforms prevent speech, it’s not harmful — it’s just analogous to showing someone the door when they’re being an asshole. Unfortunately, that strategy is not productive. When someone is making a bad argument, don’t shut them out, call them on their bullshit. When someone is perpetuating a false narrative, don’t kick them off the stage, tell the real story, and back it up. To do otherwise is to open the door for those making good arguments and telling the real stories to be kicked off their platforms because what they say is unpopular.
While this whole Alex Jones brouhaha was happening, something else was happening — A handful of popular atheist activist speakers were also being kicked off Twitter. No one cares because to be an atheist activist is an unpopular position in this age and it didn’t have anything to do with politics, and that’s exactly why principled free speech is important. Without it, we inevitably remove those with reasoned, accurate, and fair messages. This event is what turned me — seeing those I agree with, who I think are in the right, be deplatformed, and seeing no one care. I realized their message couldn’t get out. And it clicked.
I try to be a reasonable and principled person. I think it’s important to evaluate beliefs and change them as you gain experience and hear arguments. I think it’s a requirement to hear the opposition in order to become a better person with better beliefs, no matter how vile you may find that opposition, and on any sufficiently controversial topic, you are that opposition to someone.
I will leave you with a quote by Noam Chomsky: “If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.”
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