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

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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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:17AM (9 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:17AM (#965806) Journal
    And still nothing about ever having a job. Kind of proving my point there, that you've spent your life on welfare sponging off the system you criticize so much. So tell us what someone with no tech experience and no skills of any sort is doing the last 20 years bitching and moaning on the green site and here about the evils of government, biting the hand that feeds you?

    Trolling or brain damage? Both? Because you don't have anything demonstrable in common with people who work. Just a lifer welfare bum.

    I've encountered a few. I grew up in such a neighbourhood, moved out at 16, but there are some who never left. Like the bullies who used to beat me up, never got an education, not even high sc, died painfully of throat cancer like the rest of their family. Or still drunk and drugged out. Or so physically wasted that nobody dare give them a slap in the head because it would kill them.

    The story is always the same, and so is the ending. Leave the hood or die like you lived, prematurely and your death unlamented.

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    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:44AM (8 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @02:44AM (#965818) Journal

    You are truly weird. So much like that guy. Watching you get worked up like this on pure imagination is quite the spectacle. Shirley it's not serious!

    Weird is cool. For the most part it's not boring.

    Maybe you two are just roomies...

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    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 03 2020, @10:20AM (7 children)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday March 03 2020, @10:20AM (#965925) Journal
      And you STILL can't provide anything from this century that would indicate that you ever had a job, no work anecdotes, no bitching about a crappy boss, nothing. You're just a lazy bum who complains about "the system " even as that same system lets you leech off taxpayers your whole life. Talk about low ambition motherfuckers. And if you hadn't complained that if you have to pee in a cup, so should Bernie Sanders, all would have just continued on. Nobody would have known you have to pee in a cup to get welfare.

      You see, that post was so unusual because it included a personal detail - something you never do. Stuck out like a red flag. You have only yourself to blame. So now we all know that your complaints are hypocritical - it's no longer a suspicion. All those years of posting, sanitized of any personal details, pissed away because you got caught up hating on Sanders. Go suck some more Trump dick.

      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:14PM (6 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:14PM (#966047) Journal

        Damn, man! Now you're just spamming. Please, talk to a therapist! Or come up with new material, at least!

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:56PM (5 children)

          by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday March 03 2020, @05:56PM (#966057) Journal
          All I'm doing is responding to your lies, which includes when you try to minimize or deflect from the facts about your history of antigovernment rhetoric being hypocritical because you depend on welfare to survive, and have no known job history despite years of posts here and on the green site.

          Or as Alfred E Neumann waif, "Don't go away mad, just go away."

          The more you try to cover up, lie, and deflect, the worse you're making it. Because you can't hide a couple of decades of bullshit and a total lack of any personal information. So go delete Trump And Boris Johnson. After all, they hate government as much as you.

          --
          SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 03 2020, @08:04PM (4 children)

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @08:04PM (#966118) Journal

            All I'm doing is responding to your lies

            Naw, you're just being goofy, imagining things. Great stuff for the viewing audience I'm sure. So funny, I might link the thread in my sig.

            Sure do wish you could see yourself! Thanks for the show! Feel free to keep it running as long as you like.

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Tuesday March 03 2020, @10:17PM (3 children)

              by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Tuesday March 03 2020, @10:17PM (#966191) Journal
              You're the one keeping it running - I have no philosophical problem with feeding the troll. So, keep on deflecting from the legitimate questions your posting history and your claim that if you have to pee in a cup, so should Bernie Sanders. That was the first slip-up in what, 2 decades? It exposed the reason for the lack of any personal details in your profuse posting history here and on the green site - you're a hypocrite who attacks society but has to owe in a cup to collect welfare.

              So everyone knows that your attacks on society are just you immaturely biting the hand that feeds you, because you're angry that you'll be on welfare your whole life. Nobody hires anarchists with no work history.

              You could do something constructive with your time but it would have to be supervised by someone like me, and you can't do that. Silly coward, made your bed and all you can do is whine about phony injustice.

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              SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
              • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday March 03 2020, @11:42PM (2 children)

                by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday March 03 2020, @11:42PM (#966228) Journal

                Watch this

                Speak!

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                La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
                • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday March 04 2020, @12:43AM (1 child)

                  by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday March 04 2020, @12:43AM (#966262) Journal

                  All you're doing is providing me more opportunities to point out that you're a right-wing troll who hypocritically demanded that if you had to pee in a cup, so should Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders isn't required to pee in a cup to collect welfare. You are. Too bad, so sad, angry unemployable who everyone now understands that every time you criticize society you're taking a nip at the hand that feeds you, and you're angry that the world isn't like you think it should be.

                  Just as everyone now understands why your posts don't mention any sort of work history or career - you're a talentless crybaby. You made yourself that way. So another lying troll with no redeeming qualities, nothing to add to the discussion, no wonder a life on welfare hasn't prepared you for anything constructive or even interesting.

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