{"id":5079,"date":"2017-11-03T14:09:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/11\/03\/free-speech-prageru-sues-google\/"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:09:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:09:12","slug":"free-speech-prageru-sues-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/11\/03\/free-speech-prageru-sues-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech: PragerU Sues Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is surely an outrage that Google would limit access to PragerU videos on YouTube given their high quality and educational value. So it is good news that Dennis Prager is punching back<\/a> with a lawsuit:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, details upwards of 50 PragerU educational videos that YouTube has, in PragerU\u2019s view, unjustifiably slapped with \u201crestricted mode\u201d or \u201cdemonetization\u201d filters, violating its First Amendment right to free speech.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What is not clear, however, is how the First Amendment comes into this. As I understand the free speech clause of the First Amendment,it protects the citizen against the federal government. "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech or of the press . . . ."<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Prager<\/a>Google and its subsidiary YouTube, however, are in the private sector. <\/span><\/p>\n

If I don't allow your comment to appear on my weblog, that is no violation of your First Amendment rights. You have no First Amendment rights here. This is private property.  It is the same as if you came into my house spouting leftist drivel. I'd throw you out. Why should I give some macro-aggressive destructive leftist a forum?  <\/span><\/p>\n

Google could argue similarly: why should they give a forum to the 'racist,' 'sexist,' 'homophobic,' etc. views of Dennis Prager and his associates?<\/span><\/p>\n

Note the difference between Google and Cal Berkeley. If Alan Dershowitz is prevented from speaking there by Antifa thugs, he could argue with some plausibility that since Cal Berkeley is the recipient of federal monies, he does have First Amendment rights there.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it will take rather more involved legal reasoning for Prager's lawyers to make their case.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of wickedly difficult issues here.<\/span><\/p>\n

All the political issues are rooted in philosophical conundra. My metaphilosophy, however, teaches that the problems of philosophy are, all of them, insoluble. Ergo, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is surely an outrage that Google would limit access to PragerU videos on YouTube given their high quality and educational value. So it is good news that Dennis Prager is punching back with a lawsuit: The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, details upwards of 50 PragerU educational videos that YouTube has, in … Continue reading “Free Speech: PragerU Sues Google”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech","category-u-s-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}