Last Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that prohibits large social media companies from blocking content or removing users because of their political views. In a video posted on Facebook, Abbott said, “There is a dangerous movement by some social media companies to silence conservative ideas and values.”
Apparently, conservative ideas and values include forcing private companies to act as conservatives think proper. To conservatives, it is wrong for companies like Facebook and Twitter to prohibit certain content, but it is acceptable for government to force those companies to allow certain content.
In their attacks on Big Tech, conservatives have repeatedly said that they are fighting for free speech. Free speech does not mean that others must supply one with a platform to express one’s ideas. Yet, that is what conservatives seek.
Free speech means that individuals may express their ideas without interference or punishment from government. Government can fine or imprison an individual for expressing prohibited ideas; social media companies can’t. Government can censor; social media companies can’t. Requiring content is simply the flip side of prohibiting content. In calling Big Tech’s blocking of conservative content an act of censorship, conservatives are opening the door for actual censorship.
Conservatives are no strangers to censorship. As an example, in 2010 the Texas Republican Party platform called for a prohibition on sexually explicit material: “We urge more stringent legislation to prohibit all pornography including virtual pornography and operation of sexually–oriented businesses.”
For conservatives, free speech doesn’t mean protecting the expression of content or ideas that others might find offensive. For conservatives, free speech means protecting the expression of content or ideas that they support.
Conservatives don’t hold free speech as a principle. To them, free speech (like property rights) is a phrase to trot out when it will appeal to the base. And when it is politically expedient, they will abandon their professed support for free speech (and property rights). To claim exceptions to a principle is to negate that principle and turn it into a loose guideline that one will follow when it is convenient and comfortable. That is what conservatives have done with free speech (and property rights).