6 Clauses & 8 Freedoms

 The six clauses of the first amendment give people the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to practice religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition. All of these rights have important origins and were essential in creating our Neil government. Our founding fathers wanted to ensure that people would have the right to express their individuality and beliefs more than they had in other countries. This, of course, did not apply to minorities, unfortunately. Next, the eight values of free expression our discovery of truth, participation in self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promote tolerance, promote innovation, and protect dissent. These rules ensure that our government remains in check, and we as people can share our views, values, and opinions. This sharing of use and criticism has come into the news lately with debates surrounding the origin of the coronavirus. WLNS6 news posted an article titled Senate Republicans slam big tech over censorship of COVID-19 origins. Senate Republicans are continuing to accuse social media companies of enabling and facilitating the censorship over the origin of the coronavirus. According to Senator Roger Wicker, “this is a serious, grave threat to freedom and the open exchange of ideas under our constitution… Twitter or moved to censor any coronavirus coverage that they thought in their judgment might cause widespread panic.” Wicker then introduced legislation to try to minimize the censorship that big tech companies could facilitate. This is a fight over the ability of Americans to be able to access free information and be informed.

The situation was tricky because big tech companies did not want to facilitate widespread panic, but the right to information, in my opinion, is more important.

To talk further about the first amendment, the first amendment guarantees certain rights to people, protecting their speech and expression. It does not cover “fighting words“ extreme obscenity, and true threats among other unlawful things. Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, but threats are not. A private company can’t technically decide the guidelines for what can and cannot be posted on their website, but if they advertise their website as a place where people can connect, share information, share news, etc. I see it as a moral violation of the First Amendment. This video goes more into depth about this, Freedom of Speech: Crash Course. Social media sites should seek to facilitate the first amendment and allow for free speech at all times. If people feel censored online then they can seek out other social media sites, they can write to their senator or representative, and they can share their opinion elsewhere.