A US Senator is part of the government.
First amendment is for public spaces, a forum owned by a private comment isn’t a public space.
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
So? He doesn’t have to protect free speech on a private platform
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It’s a public space in Europe for sure. No idea why the US would think openly accessible forums are a private little backroom where rules don’t apply.
Blazingtransfem98@discuss.online 4 weeks ago
Privately owned company.
Another thing, the first amendment doesn’t protect against violent or criminal speech, like terrorist threats/advocacy, threats towards individuals (bodily harm, sexual assault, murder, etc.) things which there is no shortage of anyway on Steam and they have every right to force the platform to moderate this, on the count of it being against the law.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
No it’s not a public space.
Public space would be a place like a national park or the sidewalk. These forums are owned and operated by a private company, they’re private spaces and can be moderated however the company sees fit. Same thing for Twitter or Facebook or Lemmy.
A senator has the right to tell them that they need to do a better job at moderating their platform if there’s reasons to believe they’re letting people threaten violence or incite criminal activity.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Alright that’s still a weird ruling to someone outside America though because something like a shopping mall or a parking lot are public spaces here too as well as anything that is openly visible on the internet. Which makes a lot of sense.
spujb@lemmy.cafe 4 weeks ago
@Kecessa@sh.itjust.works misspeaks when saying “public space”—the term they are thinking of is “public forum.” source
The rules around what constitutes a true public forum and what the public forum doctrine even means are fuzzy, but in all cases the term refers to a space owned or created by the government.
Thus, a shopping mall, parking lot, or internet forum, being owned by a private company, is not a public forum and can’t really be defended on the basis of the public forum doctrine.
Finally, as @Blazingtransfem98@discuss.online points out, none of this matters anyway in cases of incitement to imminent lawless action like threats or terrorist speech, which the First Amendment does not protect.
ahal@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Think of it like your house. You can ask people to leave if they say something you find offensive. That is not infringing on their free speech.
If the owner of a shopping mall wants to ban the word banana, they can ask anyone who says it to leave. That is also not infringing on their free speech. That’s because shopping malls are not owned and operated by the government.
emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 4 weeks ago
A shopping mall is absolutely not a public space, and if youre shouting slurs into a megaphone, or even just harassing random shoppers with your crazy beliefs, you are definitely going to be dragged out by security. And or/have the cops come to remobe you. I hope you understand how badly you just disproved your own point.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
I think you’re misunderstanding the user of the term “public” here. A mall is a public space in the sense that people can go, but it’s not a picnic space in the sense that it’s not operated by the government, it’s a private space. I’m using the term public space in the governmental sense, not in the publically accessible sense.
Also, talking about Europe as a whole is wrong since different countries can still have different rules on the subject.