What is considered a public forum?
Legal Definition of public forum : a place that has a long-standing tradition of being used for, is historically associated with, or has been dedicated by government act to the free exercise of the right to speech and public debate and assembly — see also limited public forum.
Is Facebook a public or private forum?
Given the fact that Facebook provides a public space for government officials, departments, and agencies, to engage in public outreach by creating pages, courts have found that a limited public forum exists, where First Amendment protections apply to these types of Facebook pages.
Is YouTube a public or private forum?
“Despite YouTube’s ubiquity and its role as a public-facing platform, it remains a private forum, not a public forum,” the court said.
Is Twitter a public forum?
The court ruled that President Trump’s Twitter feed constitutes a designated public forum.
Is Facebook an open forum?
A local government official learned the hard way that her Facebook page, launched to help communicate with her constituents, is a public forum for First Amendment purposes. An official’s Facebook page was ruled a public forum after a constituent sued over the deletion of her negative comment.
Is email a public forum?
First, it is important to note the parties agreed and therefore the Court accepted that the agency email system was a “non-public forum,” where the agency has the greatest amount of discretion to impose restrictions on speech.
Is YouTube owned by the government?
Uploader holds copyright (standard license); Creative Commons can be selected. YouTube is an American online video sharing and social media platform owned by Google. It was launched on February 14, 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is the second most visited website, right after Google itself.
Are social media companies public forums?
The primary grounds for these dismissals are that social media companies are not state actors and their platforms are not public forums, and therefore they are not subject to the free speech protections of the First Amendment.
What are non public forums?
Nonpublic forums are forums for public speech that are neither traditional public forums nor designated public forums. Examples of nonpublic forums include airport terminals, a public school’s internal mail system, and a polling place.
Can a social media page be a public forum?
Moreover, following that argument to its limits would say that no social media page could ever be a public forum, a position that the Supreme Court expressed skepticism for in Packingham. The court also searched for limits—was the whole page a public forum, or just the comments section?
What is an internet forum?
An Internet forum is a discussion area on a website. Website members can post discussions and read and respond to posts by other forum members. A forum can be focused on nearly any subject and a sense of an online community, or virtual community, tends to develop among forum members. Internet forums allow members to respond to posts by others.
Is president Trump’s Twitter feed a public forum?
The court ruled that President Trump’s Twitter feed constitutes a designated public forum. Judge Naomi Buchwald likened his Twitter feed to a public park in which many voices could congregate to express their views and ideas.
Will the Internet change the way we communicate in court?
The continued expansion of the Internet as a means of communication will continue to force the courts into examining traditional doctrines considering how the American people communicate over the Internet.