Free speech still lives at Facebook. The tech giant’s chief operating officer said Facebook would never censor a campaign video like the one Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., had pulled from Twitter.
“The question is should divisive political or issue ads run?” Sheryl Sandberg told Mike Allen of Axios. “Our answer is yes because when you cut off speech for one person, you cut off speech for other people.” And that is truly tremendous news.
If Facebook follows through on Sandberg’s promise, it means that they’ll be the biggest digital forum for democracy on the globe. With something like 2-billion monthly users, Facebook is basically a free speech zone about the size of India.
While Facebook has morphed into a catch-all for annoying videos, memes, and notifications from your grandmother, it’s free speech stance shouldn’t be dismissed. When college campuses incubate mobs and Twitter censors the content of speech, Facebook could be a constitutional bulwark. That’s good news and it’s worth a like.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
