This blog is part of my 38 before 38 series. I write a blog for every single day for the 38 days leading up to my 38th Birthday.
Stop talking about freedom of speech. You are embarrassing yourself. Every time you talk about it, you end up being more wrong.
Or maybe not, I don’t know you. But given the discourse around free speech online, it is reasonable to believe that you have no idea what it is, what it is not, and how it is enforced. So today I will explain it to you so you can stop making a jackass out of yourself in public.
This will be a shorter, more direct edition of a previous blog post.
Protection against State
All 193 members of member states have signed the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 states:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Emphasis mine. Interference here is referring to state interference. State, in principle, can’t punish you for your opinion. Of course, different states have different ideas of what constitutes an opinion and what constitutes a punishment.
But nowhere in this specific section, and even the whole document, does it mention social media. You can also look at the constitution of your specific state, if you are lucky enough to have one or the relevant statutes covering the the right to free speech. You will find no mention of tiktok or Twitter. So then why are so many people whining about losing their free speech on social media? They are not in jail(or worse) for saying what they want.
Because they are ignoramuses(ignorami?) and/or entitled babies. Instagram is not a state actor, you are not entitled to views and likes and Mark Zuckerberg has no obligation to broadcast whatever you say on his platform.
Property Rights
I would like to tell you about enlightenment era philosophies that inspire modern politics in the west, including ideas of “human rights”. However, I am sure the word philosophy already made you snore. So I will summarize it thus; the western order is based on what would today be called Classical Liberalism. Most of the focus of these values is on individual liberty and property rights.
One individual’s liberty can only extend to their property and their self. It can’t encroach upon somebody else’s property or self. So I can call you a mouth-breathing imbecile in my home, or my friends home, or even in a public park. But you have no obligation to tolerate this in your home. Expelling me from those premises would not be a violation of my right to free speech, however accurate my claims about your lack of wit be. In fact, forcing you to listen to description of your many many flaws would be a violation of your rights.
Same goes for social media. Elon Musk has no obligation to tolerate your insults about his gender affirming hair transplant. Regardless of how truthful they are. He owns twitter or whatever it is called nowadays. He can choose to ban, amplify, and suppress any idea he wants. To force him to feature things he dislikes is a violation of his freedom of expression.
Papa Elon is not violating your rights when he shadow bans you because you keep posting unflattering photos of him on his own website. You are not entitled to social media impressions. No matter how funny your posts are.
Freedom of Speech. Not freedom to be viral in the tiny niche of Musk Dunking.
I hope you get it now. I hope you don’t embarrass yourself any further. But I doubt it.