<story><title>Politically-correct witch-hunt is killing free speech</title><url>https://medium.com/@sarahadowney/this-politically-correct-witch-hunt-is-killing-free-speech-and-we-have-to-fight-it-7ced038d33ae</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Thorentis</author><text>Oh look, another response to &amp;quot;we want to express ourselves without losing our jobs&amp;quot; of &amp;quot;have you actually read the first amendment?&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I see this response on HN almost daily now. For the millionth time: PC culture goes beyond the constitution&amp;#x27;s definition of freedom of speech. This is a cultural discussion. This is a discussion about how much power we have given to private companies (like social media giants and media production companies) over our lives.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t care that the first amendment protects me from government censorship, if my livelihood, the reputation of me and my family, and my future job prospects, can all be destroyed in an instant because of some outrage mob on Twitter. Why are people apologising because a few people on Twitter told them to? Why are people being fired because they made a tweet that wasn&amp;#x27;t supportive enough (or supportive in the right way) of the &amp;quot;correct&amp;quot; social causes?&lt;p&gt;Call it freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to have an opinion. Whatever. But don&amp;#x27;t try and avoid the problem by pointing to the constitution as if that suddenly makes this all okay because &amp;quot;at least it&amp;#x27;s not the government&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>blacksqr</author><text>&amp;quot;We’re supposed to have a First Amendment right to freedom of the press, but this phenomenon is ruining it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Writer of linked article claims to be a lawyer, but strangely seems unaware that the First Amendment protects speech and the press from the &lt;i&gt;government&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;No examples of government restricting free expression were given.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Barrin92</author><text>&amp;gt;Why are people being fired because they made a tweet that wasn&amp;#x27;t supportive enough (or supportive in the right way) of the &amp;quot;correct&amp;quot; social causes?&lt;p&gt;I honestly rarely have seen this happen. There&amp;#x27;s almost always some other context to the story or the people who feel that they&amp;#x27;ve been unjustly fired actually vastly underestimate what the impact of their statement was.&lt;p&gt;The reality is when you post on twitter with your name attached to it you are making a public statement that can reach thousands of people. Doesn&amp;#x27;t matter if you tweet from your toilet, you&amp;#x27;re reaching an audience that is larger than most people 20 years ago could ever dream of.&lt;p&gt;If that actually for some reason causes a PR shitstorm for your employer, you&amp;#x27;ve damaged their business. This has always let to people being fired, this is not new.&lt;p&gt;Do you know how many local politicians or celebrities or public figures have lost their careers over a single sentence? A ton, there&amp;#x27;s nothing novel about it. Twitter gives you the opportunity as a complete nobody to reach hundreds of thousands within minutes. It&amp;#x27;s time people recognise they&amp;#x27;re not nobody&amp;#x27;s any more when that happens.</text></comment>
<story><title>Politically-correct witch-hunt is killing free speech</title><url>https://medium.com/@sarahadowney/this-politically-correct-witch-hunt-is-killing-free-speech-and-we-have-to-fight-it-7ced038d33ae</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Thorentis</author><text>Oh look, another response to &amp;quot;we want to express ourselves without losing our jobs&amp;quot; of &amp;quot;have you actually read the first amendment?&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I see this response on HN almost daily now. For the millionth time: PC culture goes beyond the constitution&amp;#x27;s definition of freedom of speech. This is a cultural discussion. This is a discussion about how much power we have given to private companies (like social media giants and media production companies) over our lives.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t care that the first amendment protects me from government censorship, if my livelihood, the reputation of me and my family, and my future job prospects, can all be destroyed in an instant because of some outrage mob on Twitter. Why are people apologising because a few people on Twitter told them to? Why are people being fired because they made a tweet that wasn&amp;#x27;t supportive enough (or supportive in the right way) of the &amp;quot;correct&amp;quot; social causes?&lt;p&gt;Call it freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom to have an opinion. Whatever. But don&amp;#x27;t try and avoid the problem by pointing to the constitution as if that suddenly makes this all okay because &amp;quot;at least it&amp;#x27;s not the government&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>blacksqr</author><text>&amp;quot;We’re supposed to have a First Amendment right to freedom of the press, but this phenomenon is ruining it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Writer of linked article claims to be a lawyer, but strangely seems unaware that the First Amendment protects speech and the press from the &lt;i&gt;government&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;No examples of government restricting free expression were given.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>subsection1h</author><text>Oh, look, another response from Thorentis. blacksqr wasn&amp;#x27;t the person who brought up the First Amendment; it was Sarah A. Downey. For the millionth time: People who complain about a lack of free speech on privately-owned websites and refer specifically to the First Amendment should be criticized every time.</text></comment>