"The role of the media in any society is to investigate and share information and ideas, in particular on issues of public interest, so that the public is informed and able to play their part in political, economic and cultural life." (Media Freedom, Article19)
The First Amendment grants us the right to the Freedom of speech, and with that right we have the right of freedom of expression. This means for individuals that we can express ourselves in ways that help our development, and can contribute to how others understand individual’s ideas and information. The First Amendment and freedom of expression are supposedly in place to protect us from the prosecution of the Government, but that law has seemly different meanings when your thoughts and ideas are posted online. Posting online and the Freedom of Speech become a whole different issue (The First Amendment of Social Media, Solis).
With the use of social media, individuals can find their voices and pour their hearts out with little thought to the repercussions of their post, tweet, or picture. With the idea that we are protected by the security of the Freedom of Speech, the tendency with our opinions and proclamations online is to allow the context to be a little hazy. (The First Amendment…, Solis). With the ability to shorten words, along with abbreviations and the endless use of emojis the context of your thoughts and ideas is what can really spell disaster for someone’s freedom of speech. It is easy for the information you are sharing to be interpreted in the completely opposite way you were intending when writing your post. This is where many people have run into legal issues such as being fired from jobs, and prosecuted in court for their posts on social media. Prosecutions can be initiated for any post online if it is worded in a way that makes someone (or a group, corporation, organization etc.) feel as if they are the target of the post. It is difficult with online statements because technology based statements take out the voice and demeanor cues that help to decipher if someone is making an actual threat or not (Freedom of Speech and Social Media, Diem). Many incidents that bring up a red flag usually have to do with race, religion, sexuality, political incorrectness, and misconduct in the work place. With social media it is hard to take everything you see on the screen seriously. This is when it becomes difficult to decide what is worth acting upon and what can be left alone (Freedom of Speech and Social Media, Diem).
Unfortunately, in the ever-changing world of social media, platforms tailored to creativity and expression, especially sources such as Twitter and Facebook, seem to be the exception to the First Amendment and are not fully protected by the First Amendment. Freedom of Speech is not absolute (Freedom of Speech in Social Media Age, Hoffman). There is a fine balance that needs to be maintained on social media. It cannot be a free-for-all speech forum (Freedom of Speech and Social Media, Diem) as this will just lead to hate speech, bullying and threats. But there cannot be too much censorship to the point where no one feels able to express themselves in the ways that they feel are going to help other individuals define who they are (Freedom of Speech and Social Media, Diem). The right to the Freedom of Expression is connected to the right to the Freedom of the Media, but there is a moral and ethical standard that needs to be upheld (US Trump...., Article19).
Under the First Amendment, obscenity (the definition relies on context, but regular old porn is not considered obscene) fighting words, child pornography, blackmail, true threats, and plagiarism of copyrighted material (Which Types of Speech…, Newseum Institute) are all unprotected speech. Since an individual is not face to face with the person, company, or organization that they may be harming with their words, many of these categories are much easier to abuse over the internet. When using social media you have to be aware that you are going to come across topics posted that you may not agree upon. These are pro and cons to the use of the internet. The media holds a lot of power and when that power is in your possession it is very easy to abuse it. When you abuse your power on social media you are abusing your own freedom of speech as well as abusing other individual’s freedom of speech and expression. In addition, on social media there is a moral standard that should be upheld, the same one you would hold yourself to in your personal and professional life. The media relies on the good will of the public (Don’t Expect…Jones & West) and with social media it is really up to the people to keep it a domain where we can consciously use our voices to express ourselves and connect with others (The First Amendment of Social Media, Solis) while maintaining a level of moral integrity.