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Facebook, Free Speech & First Amendment Fallacies
Dismantling the notion that enabling free speech on social media conflicts with restricting abusive people and their behavior
“This is not about limiting anyone’s free speech. This is about giving people, including some of the most reprehensible people on earth, the biggest platform in history to reach a third of the planet.” — Sacha Baron Cohen, accepting an International Leadership Award from the Anti-Defamation League this week.
I posted that excerpt from Cohen’s speech to Facebook the day it began circulating on social media and it soon prompted an understandable response from a friend, who asked, “Who do you think the fact checkers and gatekeepers should be?”
Though I’m sure she didn’t intended it as such, that’s sometimes a loaded question because those asking it often hope to pounce on you for expressing your personal prejudice when selecting your own favorite gatekeepers. That dynamic shouldn’t keep us from making recommendations, however, and, in fact, we…
