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First Amendment Doesn't Apply on YouTube; Judges Reject PragerU Lawsuit

posted by janrinok on Monday March 02 2020, @12:36AM   
from the or-social-media dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AnonymousCoward:

First Amendment doesn't apply on YouTube; judges reject PragerU lawsuit:

YouTube is a private forum and therefore not subject to free-speech requirements under the First Amendment, a US appeals court ruled today. "Despite YouTube's ubiquity and its role as a public-facing platform, it remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment," the court said.

PragerU, a conservative media company, sued YouTube in October 2017, claiming the Google-owned video site "unlawfully censor[ed] its educational videos and discriminat[ed] against its right to freedom of speech."

PragerU said YouTube reduced its viewership and revenue with "arbitrary and capricious use of 'restricted mode' and 'demonetization' viewer restriction filters." PragerU claimed it was targeted by YouTube because of its "political identity and viewpoint as a non-profit that espouses conservative views on current and historical events."

But a US District Court judge dismissed PragerU's lawsuit against Google and YouTube, and a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld that dismissal in a unanimous ruling today.

"PragerU's claim that YouTube censored PragerU's speech faces a formidable threshold hurdle: YouTube is a private entity. The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government—not a private party—from abridging speech," judges wrote.

PragerU claimed that Google's "regulation and filtering of video content on YouTube is 'State action' subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment." While Google is obviously not a government agency, PragerU pointed to a previous appeals-court ruling to support its claim that "[t]he regulation of speech by a private party in a designated public forum is 'quintessentially an exclusive and traditional public function' sufficient to establish that a private party is a 'State actor' under the First Amendment." PragerU claims YouTube is a "public forum" because YouTube invites the public to use the site to engage in freedom of expression and because YouTube representatives called the site a "public forum" for free speech in testimony before Congress.

Appeals court judges were not convinced. They pointed to a Supreme Court case from last year in which plaintiffs unsuccessfully "tested a theory that resembled PragerU's approach, claiming that a private entity becomes a state actor through its 'operation' of the private property as 'a public forum for speech.'" The case involved public access channels on a cable TV system.

The Supreme Court in that case found that "merely hosting speech by others is not a traditional, exclusive public function and does not alone transform private entities into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints."

"If the rule were otherwise, all private property owners and private lessees who open their property for speech would be subject to First Amendment constraints and would lose the ability to exercise what they deem to be appropriate editorial discretion within that open forum," the Supreme Court decision last year continued.

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Original Submission

• Re:Fascism is here Re:Fascism is here (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 02 2020, @06:54PM (1 child)

  by Freeman (732) on Monday March 02 2020, @06:54PM (#965609) Journal

  There is only one "Internet"

  The Internet (portmanteau of interconnected network) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.

  Everything else is a public/private network that may or may not be connected to the Internet. Nothing else even comes close in size to the Internet and thus, is categorized separately.

  Perhaps you're looking for these descriptors?

  A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographical area for the primary purpose of computer networking. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits.[1]

  Business, as well as education and government entities use wide area networks to relay data to staff, students, clients, buyers and suppliers from various locations across the world. In essence, this mode of telecommunication allows a business to effectively carry out its daily function regardless of location. The Internet may be considered a WAN.[2]

  Similar types of networks are personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area, respectively.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network [wikipedia.org]

  --
  Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

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• Re:Fascism is here (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday March 02 2020, @07:43PM

  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Monday March 02 2020, @07:43PM (#965631) Journal

  Before there was "the Internet " there were plenty of Internet's. Just interconnected computer. And life was good. We've gone backwards in so many ways since the BBS era, when you had to have some technical knowledge just to connect, and a bit more (and lots of enthusiasm) to run one. Kind of kept the riff-raffles out. No Facebook, no Twitter, and various BBSs were devoted to specific themes and users. Trolls died a quick death since call blocking meant they couldn't even try to dial in, and the lack of anonymity kept things legal.

  If you used a BBS you probably knew either the operator personally or the person who introduced you to it. Communities tended to have many local user, there were meet-ups before the term was even invented, and people helped determine the direction of the board by their interests and contributions. People were encouraged to upload shareware and freeware by enforcing upload/download quotas, so leeches didn't last.

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  SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.

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