Does Free Speech Have Limits on Social Media? (Podcast)

Permanently revoking users’ access to social media platforms— a practice known as “deplatforming “— isn’t a new concept, but the high-profile ban of President Donald Trump has raised new questions about censorship and free speech in the internet age.

For years Twitter famously clung to its identity as “the free speech wing of the free-speech party.” Meanwhile, Facebook employed a policy that mostly excluded politicians from content moderation rules that applied to other users. Yet, within days of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms suspended the accounts of ...