https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/supreme-court-case-could-decide-fb-twitter-power-to-regulate-speech.htmlQuote
The case, Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, No. 17-702, centers on whether a private operator of a public access television network is considered a state actor which can be sued for First Amendment violations.
Quote
The case could have broader implications for social media and other media outlets. In particular, a broad ruling from the high court could open the country's largest technology companies up to First Amendment lawsuits.
In making the argument to the justices that the case was worthy of review, attorneys for MNN said the court could use the case to resolve a lingering dispute over the power of social media companies to regulate the content on their platforms.
Its about time. Social media, as cancerous as it is, has infected the public life to the point of basically being a public utility.
This all comes in the wake of
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/business/media/trump-twitter-block.htm where the president was forced to unblock people on twitter because they were being "removed from the public square" which implies that we now consider social media, basically a public utility.
I look forward to seeing how this plays out. I'm not sure just how deeply ingrained the major 3 companies (google, twitter, fb) are at this point, and if its beyond the point of anyone else being able to compete. Especially when you have situations like Gab.ai getting shutdown, just as they start picking up steam.
Also I think this is going to be one of the first cases that Kavanaugh interacts with which means it will make big waves in the news.
This post was edited by Mangix on Oct 19 2018 01:45pm