The federal government is free to ask for whatever it likes. It’s pretty absurd to imagine otherwise.
What it can’t do is punish people for what they say.
Twitter as you point out, is a business that is free to do whatever it likes, and publish whatever it likes on its website.
At no point did Twitter enter into an agreement with people posting tweets about who they will be shown to. That’s not part of its business.
Elon doesn’t seem to be doing anything differently. He’s using Twitter to advocate for his political views, and ban people he doesn’t like.
Associating Elon with freedom of speech is a red herring. There is no connection.
That said, everything that people keep claiming to be ‘censored’ is somehow public knowledge, and nobody is afraid the government is going to punish them for talking about it.
The idea that freedom of speech is under threat because of anything to do with Twitter just isn’t in contact with reality.
What it can’t do is punish people for what they say.
Twitter as you point out, is a business that is free to do whatever it likes, and publish whatever it likes on its website.
At no point did Twitter enter into an agreement with people posting tweets about who they will be shown to. That’s not part of its business.
Elon doesn’t seem to be doing anything differently. He’s using Twitter to advocate for his political views, and ban people he doesn’t like.
Associating Elon with freedom of speech is a red herring. There is no connection.
That said, everything that people keep claiming to be ‘censored’ is somehow public knowledge, and nobody is afraid the government is going to punish them for talking about it.
The idea that freedom of speech is under threat because of anything to do with Twitter just isn’t in contact with reality.