Please respond to this peer discussion. You may agree or disagree. Use critical thinking skills to justify your position.

According to the Legal Information Institute, freedom of speech is defined as “the right to speak, write, and share ideas and opinions without facing punishment from the government.” (Legal Information Institute, 2021) My opinion on free speech on the internet is that it should be allowed. It is my belief that public discourse and the free exchange of ideas is crucial for the health of any society. Freedom of speech allows citizens to discuss how they wish to be governed, criticize public officials, promote social change, and be exposed to different ideas and opinions, among other things. Freedom of speech, however, does not protect actions such as threats of violence, defamation, and obscene words and materials. While I firmly believe that free speech on the internet should be encouraged and protected, the reality is that most of the online venues we use to have our discourse resides in private entities such as twitter, facebook, instagram, etc. The authority of these social medias to moderate speech and content on their own platforms is unclear. A supreme court case, Knight Institute v. Trump, was brought against the former president on the grounds that because the former president was a public official, his online posts constituted a public forum, and as such him blocking other users constituted a violation of the first amendment. (Knight Institute v. Trump, 2021) The case was dismissed as moot after President Trump was banned from most social media sites, and as such the case was not judged on its merits. Therefore, the question remains as to whether or not these social media sites can be considered public forums that must be required to permit free speech.