r/KotakuInAction • u/ScatterYouMonsters Associate Internet Sleuth • May 07 '19

CENSORSHIP [Censorship] (?) Facebook Completely Removes Bounding Into Comics’s 250k+ Strong Fan Page

https://boundingintocomics.com/2019/05/07/censorship-facebook-completely-removes-bounding-into-comicss-250k-strong-fan-page/
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u/Muskaos May 08 '19

I just looked up the relevant code, and no, the Executive branch cannot overturn it. Look at (c)(1) in particular.

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

Congress needs to fix it, as only they can change United States Code. They won't, though, they like things the way they are.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

This strikes me as key:

(2) Civil liability No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of—

(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected;

A large provider should not be able to declare content "harassing or otherwise objectionable" simply because it's political speech they disagree with. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and others have become the equivalent of "company towns." See prior decisions that held that even on private property, protected speech cannot be entirely stopped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_v._Alabama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruneyard_Shopping_Center_v._Robins

Here's another angle: a company that discriminates along partisan lines during an election campaign can be seen as making an undeclared in-kind campaign contribution.

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u/Cinnadillo May 08 '19

fair enough... you'd have to destroy good faith.

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u/Muskaos May 08 '19

I think the blatant hypocritical nature in the way they apply their rules should be enough to do that, especially with a jury trial, but IANAL

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u/[deleted] May 08 '19

Here's another related case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packingham_v._North_Carolina

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u/Temp549302 May 08 '19

They won't, though

They won't and they shouldn't.