A thread on Trump’s deplatforming and why I think the debate about it reveals the bankruptcy of contemporary free speech law. 1/17

Many of those who approve of the platforms’ decisions to ban Trump argue that current First A law grants speakers no right of access to privately owned property. and conclude that there is no free speech issue here. 2/17

They’re right on the doctrine: the Roberts Court has gone to extraordinary lengths to make clear that private actors enjoy total freedom under the First A to censor whatever speech they like. 3/17

But this wasn’t always the rule. Until the 1970s, the rule was that the First A limited the ability of private owners to exclude speakers from sufficiently important private speech forums. 4/17

And the current rule is a bad one! Today almost all of the important mass public speech forums are privately owned. Do we really want private companies to completely control who gets to speak in these vital public spaces? Surely not. 5/17