Clearly FB is not a content neutral platform which should be immune to lawsuits about the content that it posts. FB is an adjunct of the Democrat party which people should be able to sue based on its content.
While the NeverTrumpers are right that FB is a private company that does not have to respect the 1st Amendment there is absolutely no reason that FB should enjoy an immunity from lawsuits that other publishers don't have.
If the NYT published an editorial that was clearly false about a non-public figure they can be, and have been, sued and forced to pay out large amounts of money.
Similarly if some Antifa loon publishes blatant lies about a non-public figure on FB FB should be liable for a huge cash settlement for defamation of character.
The key fact is that while the Supreme Court unconstitutionally gutted protection against libel and slander for public figures it did not do so for non-public figures. Which means if a random person is lied about in public that person has a reasonably good chance of winning a lawsuit against the person who lied about them.
This won't stop FB from being a lying source of Democrat propaganda unless of course the shareholders start getting upset about losing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in thousands of lawsuits.
We don't need the government to censor private companies nor do we need to demand that private companies respect the 1st Amendment but we do need to stop providing private companies that aren't content neutral platforms with protection for the lies they intentionally spread.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment