Free Speech on Social Media

 

This Land Is Your Land

There was a big, high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said "Private Property"
But on the backside, it didn't say nothing
This land was made for you and me

This Land was made not for you and me as individuals, but for us as a group.

Woody Guthrie wrote the song This Land Is Your Land in response to the philosophy in Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.  In it, he stated his philosophy that there was no such thing as Private Property in the seldom sung fourth stanza.  The problem is that not only is there public property, Our Land, but there is also private property. And public property might also have no trespassing signs.

The fact that you are a member of a group does NOT give you the right to use the property of the group.  And the fact that you are not an owner of private property, means that the owner of that property, not you, can control that property. 

The problem on the Far Right is that those who are controlled from Public Property, think that because they are a member of the public, they have control on that public propety.  E.g. the issue of private grazing on public land.  The problem on the Far Left is that those who are forbidden from private property, insist that there is no Private Property.  E.g. the issue of occupying private spaces.  Both are wrong.

The public can control access to public property, whether it is forbidding grazing on certain public land, or licensing the public airwaves.  Private owners can control who speaks, carries guns, assembles, etc on their property.  Those spaces are private spaces over which the public has no control.  The fact that you were invited into a private space did not change it into a public space.

Thus while you have a right of free speech in public places, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, etc. are NOT public spaces.  An individual’s public rights have no standing in these private spaces.  Every thing that is not your private property is not public property.  It can be private property owned by another.  And the fact that you are a member of a group does not mean that the group’s property has become your private property.  

And yes, Donald Trump, us, a group, is U.S.  IOW, United we stand, divided we fall! So stop trying to divide us.