In an extraordinary move President Trump was banned from Twitter, perhaps forever. The Walkaway Movement, with half a million members on Facebook was deleted. A giant purge has taken place on social media, a mostly conservative purge. Considering that social media has become our town square for thoughts and ideas its not a stretch to say that Twitter and Facebook have banned conservatives from the town square.
One must consider what it means to be banned from the town square? To remove someone from being able to have the freedom to speak in the town square. The freedom of speech protected by the first amendment is sacred and we are reminded that this freedom, among others, are given to us by our Creator, God.
For those that say social media companies are not governmental agencies and are not obligated to abide by the bill of rights; first of all that is not true private companies cannot do whatever they want there are many regulations that mandate what a private company can or cannot do, second of all social media is a place that provides a platform, these companies are not like a newspaper or a magazine. Although, owned privately, this platform is for all to speak on, short of breaking the law.
What were the founders of this country thinking when they set up the first amendment? Did they consider the consequences of what this would mean? The freedom to speak seems simple albeit dangerous. What if the people say things that you or I don’t like? What if? Did this not cross the minds of the founders, did they not have any experience of speech getting out of hand?
The years leading up to the revolutionary war were highly tense and often times maybe even violent. The people of the colonies were extremely on the edge, things could get out of hand quickly and often did.
John Adams, our second president, had a unique perspective. He was in Boston, MA during the Boston Tea Party, and the Boston Massacre. He represented the British soldiers in court during the trial of the Boston Massacre. It was revealed that the mob was out of control and enticed the soldiers to fire. Of course, words can not be responsible for actions, ones actions are theirs and theirs alone. John Adams saw the danger of what a mob could do and, if certain speech would allow people to gather and agitate one another, it could be dangerous. Adams experienced this first hand.
I believe this led Adams to silence newspapers and journalists that said negative things about the government in the Alien and Sedition Act. Congress wrote the bill and supported it as well, they feared what was being said in the newspapers. They feared insurrection, civil war, or worse. Things were getting out of hand and tensions were high the people were upset with the president and our government. Thomas Jefferson, Adams’ vice president, was opposed to the Alien and Sedition Act, he said that it violated the first amendment. I’m sure Adams warned Jefferson that negative things constantly being printed in the newspapers could lead to a mob and his experiences showed that to be true.
Thomas Jefferson strongly disagreed even after speaking with Adams and when Jefferson became president he put an end to the Alien and Sedition Act. I believe that Jefferson saw the danger in free speech but he truly believed these rights were given by God and that the the government could not and should not take them away, he had courage of his convictions. When Jefferson was commenting on the uprising of the mob he said that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time by the blood of patriots and tyrants. This comment is full of controversy and what he meant, no one will truly know.
Thank God for Jefferson whom stood strong on the first amendment and didn’t allow the government to strip away our rights.
As we look around now and are experiencing private companies empowered by the government and stripping away the first amendment what are we to do? We should hold strong to our convictions and look to the Jefferson as an example. We know that the government will not do anything in this moment in history to stop what is happening. Many politicians will say they are fed up, but experience has taught us this is politics and doesn’t mean anything.
What we can do as private citizens is support companies that will not try to silence us. The power of the tech companies is enormous and we may not even know what they are capable of yet. We must support those whom support us and not support those whom do not. We can take advantage of our free speech and speak the truth to one another. There is strength in numbers and we can gather together and start grass roots movements to educate others of our history and warn them of what can happen when our sacred rights our taken away.
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