Right he’s just closing down one of the “public squares” then saying “of course you can talk on these other less popular public squares!”
This is mind boggling that every single person on HN isn’t terrified of this.
Surely most of us were around in the 2000s when the Bush Administration demonized people who spoke against the war? Aren’t we the same people who were railing against censorship then? What HAPPENED to that community I grew up with that wouldn’t put up with censorship, who held free speech as the backbone of democracy? Where are all of those people now?
I have a few hunches, and I’m not sure I’d like to know the answer.
> he’s just closing down one of the “public squares” then saying “of course you can talk on these other less popular public squares
Let’s be real. Nobody is closing anything down. This is a bizarre game of brinksmanship between D.C. and Beijing that ends in one place: divestiture. The only reason it’s getting so much attention is because the object of concern is a social media property, not e.g. a port asset or power plant.
Do you think that the President banning people to sell paper, ink, electricity and internet access to the NYTimes has any chance to fly as not violating the 1A? I mean they can shout from the windows and write on the glass windows with lipstick.
A better analogy is – is it a violation of the first amendment if the government intercepts and holds a shipment of newspapers sent from China at customs?
It's authorizing the President to ban certain classes of transactions. Not behavior let alone speech.