Two Values of Free Speech

 

After reading through the Eight Values of Free Expression, the two that stood out the most to me were the Marketplace of Ideas, and Protect Dissent. These two topics are the best summaries of what makes America unique, and what gives us freedom and protection when it comes to speech. They are personal to me, and every other American in the US, as they protect our ability to discuss our thoughts in the open, online, and in the press. On a similar note there is Protect Dissent, which protects our views which are in the minority

The Marketplace of Ideas first came from Justice Oliver Wendell during his dissenting opinion in Abrams v. United States. The metaphor puts the importance of free speech and expression into simple terms, by comparing it to a market, where everyone is free to bring their opinions and discuss them, much like how one can bring their goods to a flea market. The Marketplace of Ideas also discusses how information that is true will always drown out information that is false. 

The Marketplace of Ideas is one of the most important things to keep in mind when discussing the ever evolving world of social media. While our right to free speech is constitutionally protected, it will not be protected from private companies' social media websites. One of the biggest examples of that is hate speech. Even though it is protected by the First Amendment, hate speech is one of the quickest ways to get banned on nearly every social media platform. These companies are private, and normally have the government and advertising corporations breathing down their neck to make guidelines stricter and stricter in order to appease them. 

However, the Marketplace of Ideas falls apart when it is used to analyze the spread of false information spread online. While it states that the truth will drown out false information, this could not be further from the truth. The internet has bred a lazy person, one that does not care enough to look further into the information they are presented, instead they take it at face value and blindly believe it and spread the word to others who have the same beliefs and biases as them. If any information comes out that either disproves the statements or provides evidence that another way will be more beneficial, its disregarded as ignored, as it does not fit the person’s biases. The Marketplace of Ideas, while it was a strong concept and worked when it was created, seems to be less and less true in the ever evolving age of misinformation. 

 

 

The second topic, Protect Dissonance, is one that is just as important as when it was first written about. The US is fueled by its arguments, as arguments are the only thing that pushes for progress. The Civil Rights movement and Anti-Vietnam protests are just two quick examples of why protecting the minority opinion is important; it allows for serious discussion of what is wrong with American society. Criticism of the Government is also one of the most important things that this protects, as a healthy leadership must be able to take the thoughts of the American people and use them to improve the Country. Overall, both the Marketplace of Ideas and the Protection of Dissonance are important topics in the rapidly evolving digital world that all of the citizens in the US live in.