Ep. 214: ‘Private Censorship’ with J.P. Messina

The First Amendment forbids government censorship. Private institutions, on the other hand, are generally free to restrict speech.

How should we think about private censorship and its role within a liberal society?

On today’s episode, we’re joined by J.P. Messina, an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Purdue University and the author of the new book, “Private Censorship.”

Also on the show is Aaron Terr, FIRE’s director of public advocacy.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

3:10 The origin story of “Private Censorship”

8:29 How does FIRE figure out what to weigh in on?

12:04 Examples of private censorship

18:24 Regulating speech at work

22:21 Regulating speech on social media platforms

30:09 Is social media essentially a public utility?

35:50 Are internet service providers essentially public utilities?

44:43 Social media vs. ISPs

51:02 Censorship on search engines

59:47 Defining illiberalism outside of government censorship

1:16:06 Outro

Show Notes

Packingham v. North Carolina (2017)

Cloudflare’s announcement regarding the Daily Stormer

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