Should Social Media Censor Content?

摘要

Before Twitter and YouTube could respond, millions of users saw video of journalist James Foley being beheaded. An equally large number of people were privy to naked photos of celebrities on sites such as 4chan and reddit, after a hacker illegally stole the photos from the cloud. These were eventually removed, but not before a surprising controversy rose up around these instances: Should social media sites be in the business of censoring content-and, by extension, users? Leslie Paul Machado, Virginia-based partner in LeClairRyan and co-chair of the national law firm's Media, Internet and E-commerce Industry team, says free speech applies even to distasteful episodes, such as the Foley beheading video or the celebrity photo scandal. "For example, the Supreme Court has upheld the right of anti-gay protestors at military funerals and the burning of the flag," Machado says. "That being said, we are increasingly witnessing websites taking down content like the Foley video or the stolen celebrity photos, usually because they violate the website's terms of use."