Censorship as a Public-Private Partnership: New at Reason

Just as one effective end-run around the Fourth Amendment is to ask private companies for data they slurped up on their own, the First Amendment can be sidestepped when officials pressure the private sector into self-censorship. The end result can be rules more restrictive than the companies would impose on their own—and more intrusive than the government could get away with if it tried to impose them directly.

Jesse Walker looks at how this has been done in the past to Hollywood, broadcasters, cartoonists, musicians, and video game designers, and why we should worry about it being done to social media now.

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