Sarah B. Rogers

Supreme Court says government is not allowed to do that, even though the government, you know, our First Amendment says Congress shall make no law, you know, restricting the freedom of speech.

Supreme Court says government is not allowed to do that, even though the government, you know, our First Amendment says Congress shall make no law, you know, restricting the freedom of speech.

This wasn't Congress making a law restricting the freedom of speech, but it was a government entity adversely applying regulations to choke off certain...

This wasn't Congress making a law restricting the freedom of speech, but it was a government entity adversely applying regulations to choke off certain...

points and they were applying it instead of going directly to the guy saying the thing you don't like they're putting pressure on this risk averse middleman this bank and the the debanking and deplatforming is insidious for exactly that reason when you have a risk averse middleman like a financial institution it's almost like they designed it yeah they they they don't have skin in the game with respect they don't believe in your speech the way you do they have their in-house counsel telling them that this is going to piss off the financial regulator so it's easier to take it down

points and they were applying it instead of going directly to the guy saying the thing you don't like they're putting pressure on this risk averse middleman this bank and the the debanking and deplatforming is insidious for exactly that reason when you have a risk averse middleman like a financial institution it's almost like they designed it yeah they they they don't have skin in the game with respect they don't believe in your speech the way you do they have their in-house counsel telling them that this is going to piss off the financial regulator so it's easier to take it down

And that is the risk of giving any regulator kind of a capricious cudgel over the internet.

And that is the risk of giving any regulator kind of a capricious cudgel over the internet.

Even if the regulation isn't explicitly speech-based, it's just you can only do your merger if this guy likes the look of the merger, then companies are going to vie to impress that regulator.

Even if the regulation isn't explicitly speech-based, it's just you can only do your merger if this guy likes the look of the merger, then companies are going to vie to impress that regulator.

That, I think a bit of that was going on, frankly, with the Jimmy Kimmel thing.

That, I think a bit of that was going on, frankly, with the Jimmy Kimmel thing.

Because you had this merger in the works, this Tegna merger that they tried to complete under the Biden administration.

Because you had this merger in the works, this Tegna merger that they tried to complete under the Biden administration.

And my friends in telecom tell me that when Tegna was trying to sell itself during the Biden administration, it went out of its way to show the regulator how woke it was.

And my friends in telecom tell me that when Tegna was trying to sell itself during the Biden administration, it went out of its way to show the regulator how woke it was.

And so now it has an incentive to show the administration that it's MAGA aligned.

And so now it has an incentive to show the administration that it's MAGA aligned.

And that's what happens when you give a regulator a large cudgel.

And that's what happens when you give a regulator a large cudgel.