Alan Dershowitz to Newsmax: Big Tech Power 'Great Issue of 21st Century' (Newsmax/"America Right Now")
By Eric Mack | Saturday, 15 October 2022 02:02 PM EDT
The Republican National Committee is preparing to sue Google for alleging blocking GOP emails on its Gmail platform, and legal expert Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax there is a case to be made here both in courts and Congress with regard to Big Tech censorship.
"Congress does have a weapon to do this," Dershowitz told Saturday's "America Right Now" about addressing Big Tech's protections under the law. "The courts do also, and I think there are going to be some very serious considerations by the courts."
This is the "great issue of the 21st century," Dershowitz told host Tom Basile, asking the constitutional question under the First Amendment whether or not social media like Google and Twitter are subject government control.
"Everybody says that the First Amendment is relevant," Dershowitz told Basile. "Google says the First Amendment gives them the right to suppress and sensor and pick what emails they're going put in whatever basket, but the RNC says, 'no, no, no: They are more like a common carrier, and they can't discriminate.'
"This is an issue that has not been addressed by the United States Supreme Court. It's before them in a number of cases. Obviously President [Donald] Trump is involved and other people are involved."
It will take years, if not the rest of this decade to resolve the rights and protections afford Big Tech companies, according to Dershowitz.
"By the end of this decade, we will finally get a resolution of that issue, but probably not in the next two or three years," he added. "It's a work in progress."
The Constitution needs to be amended in the new modern era of Big Tech to define these issues in America, Dershowitz concluded.
"Look, Google and Twitter are not like the mom-and-pop-store private, and they're not like the state of Arizona: completely public," Dershowitz said. "They're somewhere in between. I think they're very analogous to what used to be the telegraph company or the telephone company: They are somewhere between private and public, and they perform an essential function.
"And the courts are going to have to deal and come to grips with what their exact status is as a matter of constitutional law."
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