{"id":15770,"date":"2024-02-19T12:46:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/babylon-bee-fights-for-free-speech-all-the-way-to-the-supreme-court\/"},"modified":"2024-02-19T12:46:27","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:46:27","slug":"babylon-bee-fights-for-free-speech-all-the-way-to-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/19\/babylon-bee-fights-for-free-speech-all-the-way-to-the-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Babylon Bee fights for free speech all the way to the Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases involving state laws in Texas and Florida that increase transparency and accountability for Big Tech companies. The laws would require social media giants to publish their user standards and then apply them fairly. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Babylon Bee\u00a0filed a\u00a0friend of the court\u00a0(amicus) brief\u00a0to explain to the court that, when left to their own devices, Big Tech often abuses these vague policies to silence voices that challenge its orthodoxy \u2014 too often at the expense of conservative and religious viewpoints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media titans seem to have unlimited, unilateral authority to censor, deplatform or shadow-ban disfavored users, content and viewpoints. The companies claim to be \u2018content-neutral\u2019 and \u2018open platforms,\u2019 and they reserve the right to censor content that violates their \u2018community guidelines\u2019 and rules against \u2018hate\u2019 and \u2018misinformation.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Examples abound:\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2022, Twitter\u00a0suspended\u00a0The Babylon Bee\u2019s account for \u2018hateful conduct\u2019 after it named Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine the site\u2019s \u2018Man of the Year.\u2019 Twitter refused to reinstate The Bee unless it deleted the tweet, something The Bee refused to do on principle. Had Elon Musk not bought Twitter, The Bee would\u00a0almost certainly\u00a0still be banned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Humorless Facebook employees read The Bee\u2019s\u00a0satire piece\u00a0during Justice Amy Coney Barrett\u2019s confirmation hearing \u2014 titled \u2018Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against a Duck to See If She Is a Witch.\u2019 Facebook quickly decided the article \u2018incited violence\u2019 and refused\u00a0to change its position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few months ago, YouTube\u00a0flagged\u00a0The Bee as a \u2018violent criminal organization\u2019 because it questioned censorship (apparently failing to see the irony). YouTube removed its video \u2018If the LEAKED Nashville Shooter Manifesto is legit, what does it say about censorship in the US?\u2019 Even after appealing this mischaracterization of the video\u2019s content, YouTube held\u00a0firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t just The Bee\u2019s problem. Far from it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Big-Tech-driven censorship also impacts religious Americans whose faith animates traditional views on many topics of intense political debate. Social media has\u00a0repeatedly kicked organizations off their platforms for supporting traditional marriage, opposing abortion and questioning transgenderism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the past few years, faith-based and pro-life organizations were\u00a0deplatformed\u00a0at a nearly weekly rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2018, Facebook temporarily\u00a0suspended\u00a0Pastor Franklin Graham for \u2018hate speech\u2019 and \u2018dehumanizing language\u2019 because of an old comment on North Carolina\u2019s bathroom law, where Graham said we \u2018need to go back! Back to God. Back to respecting and honoring his commands.\u2019 Facebook apologized only after immense backlash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2020, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all\u00a0censored\u00a0praise and worship videos posted by Bethel Music\u2019s Sean Feucht, claiming his videos violated \u2018community guidelines.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same year, YouTube\u00a0temporarily booted\u00a0theologian John Piper\u2019s audiobook,\u00a0\u2018Coronavirus and Christ,\u2019 for \u2018violating community guidelines.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media has also clamped down on pro-life ads from\u00a0Susan B. Anthony List,\u00a0Heartbeat International,\u00a0Live Action,\u00a0Students for Life, and even\u00a0pro-life senatorial candidates, all while allowing Planned Parenthood\u2019s pro-abortion political ads\u00a0without question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This egregious, one-sided censorship is why we\u00a0argued\u00a0in our brief that the Supreme Court should allow states to hold Big Tech to its own rules and provide fair platforms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The corporations respond that these state laws violate their First Amendment rights to exercise editorial judgment over content on their sites. This misses the point.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Americans rely on social media to share their views, increasingly more than they do by any other means. Your telephone company and the post office can\u2019t filter which messages are permissible based on their opinion of what you said. The same rules should apply online.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media is the modern-day public square. Even if they are private companies, Big Tech giants should not have discretion to ideologically decide who can speak online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media has also clamped down on pro-life ads from\u00a0Susan B. Anthony List,\u00a0Heartbeat International,\u00a0Live Action,\u00a0Students for Life, and even\u00a0pro-life senatorial candidates, all while allowing Planned Parenthood\u2019s pro-abortion political ads\u00a0without question.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s more, the Texas and Florida laws do not infringe on these corporations\u2019 free speech rights. The laws allow companies to create their own user standards and policies for allowed content. Instead, the laws merely require social media platforms to be accountable. If their user standards discriminate against certain views, users should know that up front.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Censorship online should concern us all. What\u2019s in vogue today might be banned tomorrow without adequate free-speech protections. That\u2019s why we desire an intellectually diverse social media universe in which all Americans have an equal platform to advocate their views. The Texas and Florida laws advance these values by promoting the free exchange of ideas. They would restore trust and consumer confidence in social media.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

We hope the Supreme Court will agree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jeremy Dys is special counsel for litigation and communications for First Liberty Institute, a non-profit law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom for all Americans. Read more at FirstLiberty.org. Follow him on Twitter @JeremyDys<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases involving state laws in Texas and Florida that increase transparency and accountability for Big Tech companies. The laws would require social media giants to publish their user standards and then apply them fairly. \u00a0 The Babylon Bee\u00a0filed a\u00a0friend of the court\u00a0(amicus) brief\u00a0to explain <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}