The Censoring of Social Media? - Why legislatures continually try to regulate freedom of expression, and what the courts are doing about it

There seems to be bipartisan agreement that everything from teen suicide rates to poor mental health and more is due to social media. The obvious solution, they believe, is to impose government oversight on how such services can be provided. Congress is considering sweeping social media legislation and a number of states have already enacted such laws.

- By Robert Corn-Revere

There seems to be bipartisan agreement that everything from teen suicide rates to poor mental health and more is due to social media. The obvious solution, they believe, is to impose government oversight on how such services can be provided. Congress is considering sweeping social media legislation and a number of states have already enacted such laws.

But as legendary journalist H.L. Mencken wrote more than a century ago, for every complex human problem there is always a solution that is “neat, plausible and wrong.” Courts thus far seem to agree, barring social media laws from going into effect in Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas and Utah as violating First Amendment protections for freedom of speech.