Barack Obama: First Amendment ‘Does Not Apply to Facebook and Twitter,’ Calls for More Censorship

Obama’s hatred of our fundamental Constitutional freedoms was was made plain during his crippling presidency. He blamed free speech (in accordance with Islamic law) for a jihadi attack on our consulate in Benghazi resulting in the murder of our Ambassador and three others.

Obama has long been a powerful operative of the global left. Their war on free speech is war on the America.

Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Without it, a tyrant can wreak havoc unopposed, while his opponents are silenced.

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The freedom of speech protects all speech, not just ideas we like. Ayn Rand said, ”the principle of free speech is not concerned with the content of a man’s speech and does not protect only the expression of good ideas, but all ideas. If it were otherwise who would determine which ideas are good and which are forbidden? The government? The Democrats? MSNBC?

Putting up with being offended is essential in a pluralistic society in which people differ on basic truths. If a group will not bear being offended without resorting to violence, that group will rule unopposed while everyone else lives in fear, while other groups curtail their activities to appease the violent group. This results in the violent group being able to tyrannize the others.

If speech that offends a group is outlawed, that group has absolute power, and a free society is destroyed. A group that cannot be criticized cannot be opposed. It can work its will no matter what it is, and no one will be able to say anything to stop it.

Inoffensive speech needs no protection. The First Amendment was developed precisely in order to protect speech that was offensive to some, in order to prevent those who had power from claiming they were offended by speech opposing them and silencing the powerless.

A free society is by its nature one in which people put up with others being uncivil and offensive. The alternative is a quiet authoritarian society in which only one opinion is allowed and the others are silenced, and ultimately sent to the camps.

Barack Obama Calls for More Censorship: First Amendment ‘Does Not Apply to Facebook and Twitter’

Former President Barack Obama in a major speech on Thursday called for more regulation of social media content, in order to diminish “disinformation.”

The former president delivered a speech on the issue at Stanford University after spending months studying the subject.

By: Charlie Spiering, Breitbart, 21 Apr 2022

He described himself as “pretty close to a First Amendment absolutist” but immediately clarified that it did not apply to social media companies.

“The First Amendment is a check on the power of the state. It doesn’t apply to private companies like Facebook and Twitter,” he said, calling for more “value judgements” on content moderation and censorship on social media.

“While content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly dangerous content, it doesn’t go far enough,” Obama added.
Orwell

A young person reads a book next to copies of British writer George Orwell’s 1984 at Hong Kong’s annual book fair on July 15, 2015. (Aaron Tam/AFP via Getty Images)

The former president complained that current content models for social media platforms allowed all content to flow equally.

“[O]ver time we lose our capacity to distinguish between fact, opinion, and wholesale fiction. Or maybe we just stop caring,” he said.

Obama also complained that an overwhelming flood of information made it difficult to discern the truth.

“Our brains aren’t accustomed to taking in this much information this fast, and a lot of us are experiencing overload,” he said.

Obama warned that dangerous people were using social media to distract the public.

“People like Putin and Steve Bannon for that matter understand it’s not necessary for people to believe disinformation in order to weaken democratic institutions, you just have to flood the public square with enough raw sewage,” he complained.

The former president argued for a series of social media reforms and regulation, warning the nature of democracy itself was at stake.

He complained there was no way to distinguish online between “a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Anthony Fauci and a miracle cure pitched by a huckster.”

The wide variety of content on the coronavirus and vaccines, Obama said, was concerning, as some people chose not to get vaccinated.

“People are dying because of misinformation,” he said.

Obama noted that content moderation by tech companies already exists, but argued for more moderation, even though disinformation is difficult to identify.

“That doesn’t mean some things aren’t truer than others. Or that we can’t draw lines between opinions, facts, honest mistakes, intentional deceptions,” he said.

The former president laid out a set of principles of how content should be moderated, either by tech companies themselves or by a government entity:

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