Zero Hedge Twitter Ban Violates Constitutional First Amendment

There are unprecedented censorship activities taking place with social media these days. Very powerful big tech companies exude enormous influence and have the ability to censor our content. We are at the point now where these businesses have become so powerful that lawmakers may have to step in to be sure our First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech is not being violated. With the level of their influence, there may have to be more accountability, inspection, and even a potential legal precedent set by the high courts. When you have the ability to shutdown years of someone's hard work building brand influence and followers in an instant, you must have high scrutiny. It doesn't matter if these social media powerhouses are private or not (many are publicly traded), as the power they yield to potentially limit free speech is far too great and a new phenomenon. Some will claim 'free speech' only applies to government, but it actually should and does apply to any 'entity' that attempts to suppress the voice of the people. Constitutional laws are of course open to interpretation. The founders of America certainly could not anticipate a beast of this nature in their time. Big social media is a different animal and they are becoming free speech platforms. Therefore, new protections must be established. Several of these companies are now deeply connected to government which makes this case even stronger (Twitter maybe not as much as others). With technology evolving so quickly and these giants getting closer to Washington bureaucracy, maybe they can no longer be considered "private." Twitter has become so powerful that it is now vital even for President's to reach their audience directly. A federal court ruled that Trump blocking Twitter users is a First Amendment violation, so why would Twitter blocking users accounts not be the same (without a very strong reason for legitimate threat)?

Recently, popular financial blog ZeroHedge was banned from Twitter permanently over a post that a Chinese scientist may be responsible for leaking the coronavirus and that it may be being used as a biological weapon. The same thing happened to them with Facebook, but it was eventually overturned. They called it "arbitrary and unjustified." Well, if you are going to ban them for supposed fake news, then you must also ban every single mainstream media Twitter handle as well. These media outlets have controlled/dominated the narrative by brainwashing American's since the beginning (especially after invention and mass usage of the television). With their enormous power conglomerates controlling them behind the scenes, they determine what we're allowed to see and not to see. Zero Hedge is one of the few financial blogs with some influence and sizeable audience, that is not controlled by large Wall Street media players. Therefore, it is extremely valuable to receive a truth that we won't hear about otherwise. ZeroHedge has been one of the few to go after and attempt to wake people up on what is happening with the central banks and the Federal Reserve and should be commended. While some of their articles may push the limit, we find that they may be providing more truth than most of the mainstream media. Typical Wall Street financial outlets will do nothing but pump stocks and talk about how the stock market is going to the moon. Yet, they hardly ever mention anything about bubbles and downside risk. They want the party to go on as long as possible and are willing to mislead and deceive to achieve that agenda. A great example of this is what's happening right now with Tesla. Fake analysts are raising price targets like its candy just keep the squeeze going. There is no true justification for the stock to be where it is. It is important to hear the other side of the story. Wall Street in general is always biased to the upside because that what gets the institutions whales, trust funds, government, execs, and investors paid. There is much more falsehood going on with the long side than the short as many more people have an interest in stocks rising. Often times companies hide the truth in order to keep it from effecting their stock price value...a few examples are Enron, Valeant, and Lehman Brothers. All were concealing shady practices and who knows how many others are out there that have not been caught. Many CEO's are compensated via stock performance and therefore understandably want stocks as high as possible in order to get big bonuses. They are likely to hide the truth because it simply doesn't fit the agenda of a higher stock price. Often times it is the shorts that expose truth and fraud involving public companies. Longs should be very thankful for their market participation as these alerts can save them a lot of money. ZeroHedge is often considered to be overall bearish on the market and thank goodness for that. It is important to get a contrarian viewpoint when everyone else on Wall street is drinking the spiked Kool-Aid thinking the party can never end. Bearish commentators should be respected by bulls because they often expose a rare and valuable truth to the public that we rarely hear from anyone else. 

What's happening with big tech censorship is really a violation of the First Amendment and is setting dangerous precedents. With the power and influence of big tech companies growing and the invasion of our privacy increasing, there may have to be laws changed regarding free speech to keep us protected in relation to social media power. The ability to ban someone's hard work and effort is quite serious. Zero hedge has the constitutional right to post whatever they want, as long as not posing a potential physically danger to anyone. They should be immediately allowed back on the platform. It may come to the point where potential class action lawsuits will have to be created and a Supreme Court ruling implemented. Citizens must stand up to this kind of restriction or it is going to get worse and worse. The First Amendment states below...

First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Bottom line, big tech has far too much power to censor our hard work and therefore something has to change. These tech companies must take it into consideration and be responsible by respecting First Amendment constitutional rights. It's become far too easy for them to restrict any material (by blocking or removing from search) that they may not agree with or that does not fit their personal agenda. Twitter is a great platform for exercising your right to free speech and can be used for much good. But, it should not be used as a censorship weapon. We hope Jack Dorsey will see the bigger picture and reverse his decision. While all of these companies offer great services loved by many, the abuse of free speech simply cannot be tolerated. It is our job as American's to stand up, or it will slowly and gradually get worse to a point where it will be too late to reverse!
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Twitter said it suspended ZeroHedge, for violating its rules against "abuse and harassment," according to a screenshot of a notification from Twitter shared by ZeroHedge pseudonymous author Tyler Durden. ZeroHedge claims they're confident they did not violate any terms. Think about the time and hard work it has taken them to build 600k followers. Imagine if it was your business and after all of that work, Twitter just wiped it out in an instant. At minimum, there should be a serious process involved to make such a decision. Furthermore, Twitter has pretty much erased all of Zerohedge's past content, which is incredible. There has to be more accountability for this kind of power. While in general, we are not a fan of too much government intervention...in this case lawmakers must take action to insure our right to free speech is not being violated. They aren't just wiping out some silly algo profile that was started last month and has ten followers. This is serious business as any one of us could be the next victim. Of course, if there is legit abuse or harassment then it is a different story. But, in this situation it appears ZH was banned mostly because Twitter did not agree with information being putting out there. Whether or not the material is false or conspiratorial is irrelevant. Numerous Twitter accounts and news outlets are putting out misinformation without threat of ban on a regular basis. Let the public decide what is true and what is not! We want to stress that Twitter is an incredibly valuable platform and the company would probably appreciate a clear resolution to this issue themselves. It has been said that "with great power, comes great responsibility." It is imperative that these big tech companies be kept in-check and the only way to stop the free speech encroachment is for the people to rally and convince our lawmakers to make the necessary changes.