Hi Chris,

Yes, I read Umair's article. I just found it to be alarmist:

"Well, these days, as we all know, “free speech” is code for “hate speech."

There's no evidence that allowing Twitter to be a platform for free speech is synonymous with making it a platform for hate speech. That's like saying that because some crazy people start religious cults, everyone should be denied freedom of religion.

I agree the First Amendment requires moderation, and there has always been some "moderation" of free speech. But courts haven't changed the limits of moderation in these times; they still adhere to narrow exceptions to free speech: hate speech and speech intended to sexually harass or discriminate are a few of these exceptions. Bullying or being mean doesn't qualify:

https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/03/6-exceptions-to-freedom-of-speech/

Regardless, the problem now is that a lot of people are being censored for expressing speech that doesn't fall into these categories or anywhere near them.

It seems many Americans have forgotten that the Constitution is an extremely broad grant of rights, which is what makes it so special! It has very few carve outs. The mindset today seems to be "You only have a few rights, but if you behave really, really nicely, you might get a few more."

That's not how our constitutional democratic republic works. In fact, that's more akin to how an authoritarian government functions.

Regarding the vaccine: I think you may not have read my initial comment closely. Yes, vaccines can prevent illness in some people, but that wasn't the point I was making in my Tweet. My point was that they can't prevent, i.e. eliminate the possibility, of infection or transmission (when people get infected, they're capable of transmitting the virus). I posted this video from CDC Walensky to substantiate my point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeLySlAc6js

That Twitter would suspend my account for posting factually correct information is completely non-sensical.

But for the record, the First Amendment doesn't even require us to speak "facts." We're perfectly free to lie, as long as we don't do it under oath, when speaking to law enforcement, or in advertising (again see here: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/03/6-exceptions-to-freedom-of-speech/)

Everything else is fair game.

Think about it: if the First Amendment required us to always tell the truth, 75% of the people we elect would never be able to open their mouths!