Lindke v. Freed

Facebook, Internet Censorship, and the Evolving First Amendment

Abstract

Under the United States common law system, significant legal precedent is established when First Amendment rights are applied to social media and internet censorship. However, censorship, specifically within the realm of the internet, is a concept of growing concern in both legal and political spheres. Digital public forums such as Facebook are central mediums for national political discourse. The First Amendment only protects free speech rights of individuals against government entities, but not against non-state, private actors. Because social media platforms are privately owned, there is an increasing number of cases that attempt to protect the free speech of social media users. To address these concerns, this paper analyzes the case Lindke v. Freed (2024) to comparatively study the recent internet censorship court rulings. Through a case study framework, this paper analyzes cases before and after Lindke, while also predicting what the nature of Lindke means for future internet censorship and free speech cases.