Navigating Private Censorship in America

The First Amendment forbids government censorship. Private institutions, on the other hand, are generally free to restrict speech.

How should we think about private censorship and its role within a liberal society?

On today’s episode, we’re joined by J.P. Messina, an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Purdue University and the author of the new book, “Private Censorship.”

Also on the show is Aaron Terr, FIRE’s director of public advocacy.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

3:10 The origin story of “Private Censorship”

8:29 How does FIRE figure out what to weigh in on? 

12:04 Examples of private censorship 

18:24 Regulating speech at work 

22:21 Regulating speech on social media platforms

30:09 Is social media essentially a public utility?

35:50 Are internet service providers essentially public utilities? 

44:43 Social media vs. ISPs 

51:02 Censorship on search engines 

59:47 Defining illiberalism outside of government censorship

1:16:06 Outro

Show Notes

Episode transcript

Packingham v. North Carolina (2017)

Cloudflare’s announcement regarding the Daily Stormer