You Ask, I Answer: Freedom of Speech on Twitter?

Well, here's an interesting one. Savas asks, what is freedom of speech to Twitter as a company? Well, that's a really complicated question because Twitter is a multinational company, which means that it has to adhere to the laws that exist in any jurisdiction where it operates. And that also means that uh it is subject to those differing laws and may have different policies based on where the user is when they're interacting with Twitter, the organization. Now, in the United States of America, freedom of speech laws generally only apply to governmental organizations, right?

So if uh I was uh a senator in uh the United States, um, I could I could there's there's some things that like if I wanted to say that the government could not tell me no, I can't say that, right? As a private citizen, um, the government cannot tell me I cannot say some things with a few exceptions, right? Uh there is there are some exceptions for uh things like uh hate speech. Uh there are some exceptions for things like you know, yelling fire in a crowded theater, which uh present a clear and present danger to the people around. Um, but for the most part, freedom of speech laws constrain the government on what it's allowed to tell citizens it can and cannot do.

Freedom of speech laws generally do not apply to private corporations, right? In the sense that um a private corporation is not required to adhere to any of uh the laws that constrain the government, with the exception of laws like equal opportunity hiring laws. Those are some of the few laws uh that on the books in the United States where uh the government is telling corporations uh here's what you must do or must not do. But for the most part, um, social networks are not uh constrained by law, by the government to uh to guarantee freedom of speech. Now, there are plenty of private consequences that can happen.

Um and uh I will continue to reinforce this. This is for the United States. Laws are different in different uh nationalities. So, for example, in the EU within Germany, uh German national laws prohibit the uh publication or distribution of any kind of Nazi propaganda. There comes it comes with a jail sentence, right?

So in that case, the national law supersedes anything that uh a private company's uh terms of service would say. And so if you're in Germany, guess what? There's a whole bunch of things that you're not allowed to say because it is literally against the law, and that's the law in that nation. Um in the United States, um what tends to be more of a restraint on private corporations is um, well, frankly, the threat of lawsuits, right? So if a private individual is harmed by something that is said or done, there are laws like slander laws, uh, which are laws that uh contain give you the ability to sue somebody in if they say something untrue about you that is defamatory of your character.

Oh, I should also put up a big disclaimer at this point. I am not a lawyer. I I'm a marketer, right? So these are uh my best attempts at at expressing what I think I know about the law. If you have an actual legal question, please ask an actual lawyer.

Don't ask a marketer on the internet. Uh going on, there are libel laws, which are effectively similar to slander laws, but um they are uh they apply to the written word as opposed to the spoken word. So if I talk trash about you on my podcast um and it is defamatory in nature, you can sue me for slander laws. If I put it in my newsletter, then it falls under libel laws. And so if I wanted to bring suit against somebody else on the internet, I could, right?

Now, granted, that's expensive. Lawyers are expensive, trials are expensive. Um, but for the most part, enforcement of uh laws like that are left to private individuals and corporations. Want a really simple example? Go try to resell some Disney stuff without their permission, and you will find out real fast just how deep those laws go.

Because a Disney lawyer will show up to your house and punch you in the face. Uh, metaphorically speaking, they will they will just sue you for everything you've got uh for redistributing their intellectual property without license. Um but freedom of speech as we understand it as a as a uh constitutional right, is really in the United States only applies to what the government can tell citizens that they can and can't do, nothing else. Private companies can pretty much do what they like. Uh private individuals can pretty much do what they like, as evidenced by the fact that you can report people for spamming and stuff like that on these services, and nothing ever happens.

You can report people for abusive speech and stuff, and things don't happen a whole lot of the time. Now, to be fair to uh these companies, they are are have started to get better in the past couple of years, particularly around things like COVID misinformation. Um it still relies on you, the user, to report it. There is no governmental entity overseeing it. Uh really, nor should there be.

Um that's the kind of thing that we do want to encourage users to um to help enforce when you see something that is uh you know to be untrue, report it, report it. Uh there's there's reporting mechanisms, and if enough people do it, uh it triggers the algorithms that power these networks to either make an enforcement measure or to um to set up for human review for a human being to review. Um one of the best services that that does this really well is LinkedIn. Like you can report stuff to LinkedIn and then you get an email, you know, uh an hour later, a day later, maybe saying our you know, our professional safety and trust team has reviewed your your report and either said it was valid and measures have been taken or uh says that what has you reported does not go against the terms of service, and so you just have to deal with it. So, the really messy answer to a very messy question.

But in the United States, private corporations are not required to provide freedom of speech on privately held platforms. The one exception is for any entity, any private entity that receives governmental funding. So this applies specifically to things like colleges and universities. You take federal funding, then you are constrained at least in part by the same laws that the government is required to adhere to. So only if you are a fully private entity that does not take money from the government, uh, can you uh completely ignore most laws about things like freedom of speech as a private entity or private individual?

So thanks for the question. Again, if you've got legal questions, please ask a lawyer. Don't ask a marketer on the internet. Talk to you soon. Bye.