Yes? That's the point. That's why it's protected Free Speech. The entire point of free speech is to take perspectives! And critical to the right to say something is the right to not say something. If I want to support a specific policy or candidate or the like on my private property by putting out a sign in their favor, necessarily I must have the right to prohibit anyone else from putting out any signs on my property supporting whatever else. They may do so on their property, but not mine. If the government requires me to allow everyone to put up a sign supporting everything, it has the same effect as supporting nothing. And it would be no different if I allowed anyone else campaigning for said policy to do so as well. That all of us can take opinionated views and then advocate them in the public sphere is vital for robust debate.
>In Australia as I understand it the editor has a burden of duty-of-care: that which you let through, you are deemed to have published.
Liability is an entire separate thing (covered by Section 230) from this. But thankfully in America when it comes to moderation of platforms there is no such thing since it'd completely destroy the entire user content internet (including Hacker News itself fwiw).
>Maybe in the US the higher barrier to sue for defamation makes this less risky.
There is no liability at all for moderation.
>But I see the risk in eg publication of state secrets, illicit content.
It Government's job to protect their secrets. If private unconnected individuals get ahold of them they may publish them. This predates the internet entirely and was thoroughly dealt with during the Vietnam War with regards to the Pentagon Papers in the SCOTUS case New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971) [0]. And rightly so.
As far as illicit content, there is no issue at all. Platforms must of course respond to legal orders, legal take downs, the user who published something illicit is personally liable, and if they themselves publish it then they of course are liable. This has nothing to do with illegal material which by definition is illegal, this has to do with the government attempting for force people to engage with views they do not want to. If someone doesn't like how somebody else speaks on/with their own private soap box, they are free to go make another one (and indeed that is now easier then at any time in human history).
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0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._United_S...