Comment by j_walter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by j_walter | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> 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.

However the government does allow political signage in public places and has laws preventing others from removing them. However if said signage is considered by the local government to be inappropriate then it is removed. So how is a social media platform different than that public arena?

The problem I've seen is that places like Facebook and Twitter have moderation that is clearly biased. The Hunter Biden laptop story is a perfect example...they restricted the sharing of the NYP story despite no evidence that the article had any misinformation in it (still a factual story). This is no different than if you had political signage on your property and the government built a wall right outside your property to block anyone from seeing it. Are they restricting your 1A rights...technically no, but realistically yes.

> So how is a social media platform different than that public arena?

Facebook is like a shopping mall; they're public spaces, but you're not allowed to put up any unapproved signs in them, and they can kick you out for violating their policies.

Outside of US jurisdictions common carrier defence stops in the telco. Facebook is a publisher, and has publishers risks. Inside the US things may be simpler. Google are in court in Australia right now for leaving YouTube videos up about a New South Wales state politicians defamation case, settled with the video jockey who apologised but google have money.. and remain a target. I suspect from a US perspective they think it's a no brainer case. From Australian eyes, they have a less certain path in this.

The mall operator can be held liable for publishing racist graffiti? If they choose not to paint over it, do they lose a defence they didn't spray paint it? What if they also sold the paint used to do it, inside the mall?

From a US perspective I suspect you'd say "no liability" but outside the US things are more complicated. There's specific law in Germany about hate crime. I don't think it's a given there is no legal risk for Facebook or Google here.

Is the clarification that they're open to the public but privately owned? As distinct from spaces that are both publicly owned and open to the public like the sidewalk downtown. You can't get kicked out of the sidewalk unless you're breaking the law and get kicked out of public altogether by way of being put in the slammer.

It's kind of interesting because you could still walk by the mall if you were kicked out, looking in through the windows longing for the aroma of that giant Cinnabon just one more time. Similarly you could visit Facebook's login screen but would not be allowed to enter any more. I doubt Facebook smells quite the same in the inside, anyway.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com