The First Amendment Meets the Virtual Public Square

Allison Stanger

The First Amendment Meets the Virtual Public Square The First Amendment Meets the Virtual Public Square Allison Stanger Section 230, the twenty-six words that created the internet, has become the twenty- six words that are breaking the First Amendment. [...] Censorship has been the norm rather than the excep- tion throughout human history, from the time of the book-burning of the Qin dy- nasty in 213–212 BCE through the ritualized destruction of books in the Roman Empire to the recasting of history under Stalin and Hitler to today’s cancel cul- ture. [...] And to that we have now added the possibilities of automated disinformation that can spread vi- rally, as well as automated lobbying and persuasion, both of which combine to increase exponentially the power gap between the haves and the have-nots, the elites and the masses. [...] Perhaps in part because the public has proven to be so disengaged from these issues, the chapter on the role of social media in fanning the flames of the January 6 insurrection was omitted from the Final Report of the House Select Committee on January 6. [...] The Valentine’s Day story in The New York Times reporting the return of the former president to Facebook gar- nered just 125 comments.21 As the case of President Trump and his allies’ online behavior illustrates, social media platforms are vulnerable to hacking (defined as “an activity allowed by the system that subverts the goal or intent of the system”).22 Facebook faced down another variety of.