https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fb...ment-twitter-moderation-requests-experts-warn Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Hans von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital that while Twitter is a private company that is free to moderate content, the company could be viewed as an agent for the federal government if it is found to be taking its direction. "The First Amendment applies to the government and prohibits censorship by government agencies and entities, not private actors," Von Spakovsky said. "However, when a private company is censoring information based on direction, coordination and cooperation with the government, then legally it may be considered to be acting as an agent for the government, and it may be found to be violating the First Amendment." RATCLIFFE: NO ‘COINCIDENCE’ JIM BAKER GOT TOP TWITTER JOB AFTER PUSHING RUSSIAN COLLUSION NARRATIVE Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital the Twitter Files controversy is "worse" than cases he’s previously covered regarding government and Big Tech "collusion," because "when the FBI ‘asks’ for something, that’s pretty serious." George Mason University professor David Bernstein told Fox News Digital that "absent a true national security emergency, it's inappropriate for anyone with a political role in the government to be exerting pressure or even lobbying Twitter regarding content." "The FBI is a trickier case," he said. "If there is no political interference, the FBI sharing information with Twitter is not inherently inappropriate. For example, the FBI could share information that a Twitter account is linked to a known terrorist group. However, there is obviously a line between properly sharing information and a government agency unduly pressuring an agency, especially if there is a threat of retaliation attached. Without knowing more about exactly what the FBI was doing, I can't say which side of the line it was on." Elon Musk acquired Twitter Oct. 27, 2022. (Getty Images) Robert J. Delahunty, a senior distinguished fellow at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and a Washington fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life, told Fox News Digital there isn’t enough information yet to determine whether Twitter acted as a government agent and that a congressional investigation is needed. "We now know from the [Twitter Files] that the intelligence community interacted on a regular basis with Twitter and other platforms, seemingly to ‘advise’ them to monitor what the IC considered objectionable content," Delahunty said. "We do not yet know enough about the nature of those interactions to be able to say whether the platforms in effect became agents of the government. They may have. "The next Congress must make it a top priority to investigate the (apparently extensive) contacts between the intelligence community and the platforms to determine whether what amounted to governmental censorship of political speech took place."
And by the way, when the Biden campaign colluded with Twitter to get conservatives censored, that was NOT a 1st amendment issue, because Biden was not in government at the time. The key issue is that when government uses private entities as an agent to curb free speech, then it becomes a 1st amendment issue. Now, whether that was always the case or only sometimes, needs to be interpreted within context. It depends on the level of direction, pressure, organizational intertwinement, etc. From the evidence available so far, it quite clearly seems to be the case here that the government used Twitter as an agent to limit free speech, specifically when it came to Covid.
One of DOGE's first victims....SpaceX's biggest competitor. Why put them out of business when you can simply elect your guy and shut them down. Am I doing this right?
