2022-11-30 11:36:06
Navigating Free Speech In the Age of Guns and Elon Musk
Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media platforms, and begun removing content controls, Apple corporation is considering not offering Twitter through its app store because of standards violations. Mr. Musk responded by asking “does Apple hate free speech?” In doing so he demonstrated a classic misunderstanding of the First Amendment and a common weaponizing of the term “free speech” to obscure attacks on the rights of minorities and others.
In a new book, You Can't Always Say What You Want: The Paradox of Free Speech, author and language expert Dennis Baron says, “Two forces threaten free speech in America: people who assert their free speech rights in order to suppress the speech of others; and people who exercise their right to bear arms to silence whoever they do not like.” Indeed, as the New York Times recently reported, “Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate.”
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