A recent court decision has determined YouTube does not qualify as a public forum and is therefore immune to free speech laws. This ruling sets a precedent for online free speech cases, as it has implications across all the web's social platforms.
The First Amendment debate has become especially intense in recent years as political arguments have intensified in online comments sections. Many people consider the internet a public place and attach the same notions to major sites like YouTube. Their concerns stem from the fear that if the largest video-sharing site in the world makes a choice to exclude one particular audience, it's effectively censoring millions of people.
Conservative media outlet PragerU pleaded this case in court after YouTube demonetized and restricted their videos, harming the channel's revenue generation in the process. A BBC report explains that San Francisco's Ninth Circuit court of appeals ruled against the popular right-wing channel, deciding that YouTube is not a public forum, and isn't required to promote free speech. PragerU's case argued that by denying some users access to their content, YouTube was deliberately silencing a conservative voice and continuing a trend of tech companies promoting a liberal bias.
What This Decision Says About Online Censorship
A 2019 Supreme Court ruling referenced in this trial decided that "hosting speech by others is not a traditional, exclusive public function and does not alone transform private entities into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints." The logic behind this choice is that if every place that hosted public speech was subject to free speech laws, it would be impossible to moderate speech for a specific audience. On a platform with the ubiquity of YouTube, moderation is essential and it's easy to imagine other social platforms pointing to this ruling in defense of their own moderation efforts.
Despite the high profile nature of this case, it's unlikely that YouTube will adjust its stance here, considering the platform is open about its commitment to pleasing advertisers. Part of signing up for YouTube means agreeing to its terms that it can restrict or demonetize videos it doesn't consider "advertiser-friendly", to protect companies from running an ad before a video that may be unsuited to their brand. Other platforms have similar policies, so it could be argued that agreeing to such rules as part of joining an online service is an act of surrendering free speech rights by default.
It's worth noting that in addition to justifying the demonetization of certain videos based on terms of the site's policies, YouTube's restriction of PragerU's content is also less harsh than it may seem at first glance. The company revealed that less than 2% of its daily users log in as restricted, which means the vast majority of its audience still has access to such videos. To some, PragerU's argument that YouTube is promoting liberalism with its content moderation represents another example in the long history of right-wing media "crying wolf" about media exposure. At the same time, LGBTQ channels have been met with similar moderation, and have also pursued appeals. The battle for free speech on YouTube will certainly continue, but this decision will at least make it more clear that user-created content hosted on a publicly accessible forum is not subjected to free speech.
Source: The BBC