Free speech — the right to speak one’s mind — is indispensable to our freedom and constitutional government.
This right is absolutely guaranteed to "We the People" by the First Amendment of our nation's constitution.
It is a right protecting freedom of expression (with narrowly limited exceptions) regardless of the message, ideas, subject matter or content.
Shockingly, this fundamental right is under relentless assault by the progressive left: pressing racist diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, a cancel culture focused on mandating the woke ideology and censoring countervailing views, and manipulative censorship by the Biden Administration.
Social media and college campuses have been overwhelmed by this ideological orthodoxy and censorship. Congress must act to address this constitutional crisis.
Social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. — have evolved into an immense, ubiquitous public forum — a digital town square — which should be open to free, vigorous debate and political discourse.
Yet, revelations from Elon Musk show otherwise. It is now clear that these platforms devolved; promoted Biden’s presidential campaign by suppressing adverse information.
Following the election, they have been supporting the Biden White House — seemingly relying on George Orwell’s "1984" not as a warning, but as a playbook — guiding them in the censorship of viewpoints that do not align with the White House’s narratives on issues like COVID-19 vaccines, as well as enforcing the extreme progressive ideology.
Moreover, these platforms are enabled by federal law (Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act) that provides broad protection from any liability for content, including their acts of censorship related to "objectionable" material "whether or not such material is constitutionally protected."
This broad, vague catch-all has enabled these platforms to exercise unchecked power over political debate and diverse viewpoints in the digital town square, including enforcing the censorship agenda of Biden and the Democrats.
This represents an alarming threat to our liberty.
"First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought…” [See: Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002)].
Section 230, therefore, must be amended to align with Congress’s original intent to establish social media as a “forum for a true diversity of political discourse."
This legislation should eliminate the "objectionable" liability shield and designate these social platforms as open public forums subject to the First Amendment.
Further, the law should require platforms to provide full transparency for their content removal decisions, and establish an expedited federal administrative review process and judicial review.
This dangerous onslaught against free speech has similarly overwhelmed college campuses.
Traditionally, as emphasized by the U.S. Supreme Court, our Nation has been "deeply committed" to the "transcendent value" of "safeguarding academic freedom" and the "robust exchange of ideas"; and that the classroom should be a "market place of ideas" and free from the "pall of orthodoxy" [See: Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967)].
Today, universities are mandating the woke, progressive ideology and DEI as dogma; suppressing political debate and academic freedom; establishing speech codes; restricting speech to so-called "free speech zones"; imposing punitive actions against students and professors who deviate from the mandated orthodoxy; discriminating in student admissions and faculty hiring; and banning speakers representing contrary conservative perspectives.
This Cancel Culture is the antithesis of free speech.
It is neither diverse nor inclusive.
And it's all paid for by the federal government through our tax dollars. It is, in effect, government-sponsored censorship and discrimination as billions of federal dollars are funneled to colleges through research grants, Pell grants, recent COVID-19 relief, and other programs.
Congress should condition this federal funding on colleges committing to protect and promote free expression and academic freedom; eliminating restrictive speech codes and speech zones; and ending DEI discriminatory practices in student admissions and faculty hiring.
Further, to ensure compliance, Congress should establish a federal administrative complaint process that will expeditiously review complaints and provide judicial review.
The progressive left’s assault on free speech is relentless, pervasive and a serious threat to our democracy and our rights. Congress must act to protect free speech. This First Amendment right is the bedrock of our constitutional government and vital to our individual liberty.
Michael Clancy is a lawyer, political and legal commentator, and former congressional candidate. He can be followed on Twitter @MikeClancyVA.
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