Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) wants
Section 230, Internet legislation which largely protects social media companies from lawsuits, to be repealed.
Graham tweeted, in part “Twitter may ban me for saying this but I willingly accept that fate: Your decision to ban President Trump is a serious mistake.”
Could this be an issue of free speech?
Upstate lawyer Steve Buckingham explained that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from abridging speech.
“It’s the government, at any level cannot a bridge freedom of speech; so when we’re talking about what actions may be abridgments to freedom of speech, fundamental question we have to ask ourselves is: ‘Is this government action?’ And if it’s not government action, question (of free speech) is over.”
Buckingham said,
“The First Amendment begins and ends with what is and is not government action. And so in this case we have Twitter who is not a government actor saying to the president United States you can’t use our platform anymore again, it might be inconvenient; we might not like it; [but] the reality is Twitter thankfully is not the government. There is no First Amendment issue in regards to Twitter or any other social media platform telling anyone else, be they the president or someone like you or me, that we can’t use their platform.”