• Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io
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    3 months ago

    X has “reportedly worked with Donald Trump’s campaign to censor material that could be harmful to the former president’s White House chances as part of a pattern of election interference that is unprecedented in U.S. history,” according to The Daily Beast.

    Gee willikers, that sure sounds like it would be illegal. I mean if I were to do this sort of thing, I’m imagining I would be in jail, awaiting trial.

    18 U.S. Code Chapter 29 - ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-29

    Overview of Federal Criminal Laws Prohibiting Interference with Voting https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB11125

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Gee willikers, that sure sounds like it would be illegal. I mean if I were to do this sort of thing, I’m imagining I would be in jail, awaiting trial.

      as far as I can tell, none of those laws apply to censorship on what is ultimately a private company’s platform.

      Like twitter isn’t a government agency. they’re allowed to be partisan and delete content however they see fit. This would be similar to, say, a newspaper electing to not cover trump’s awkward moments while covering Harris’ awkward moments; or a bakery offering pro-harris cake or cookies but not pro-trump stuff.

      the constitution only bars government or public agents from infringing on free speech- it does not bar you from kicking your asshat trumper out of thanksgiving dinner.

      so far, the only thing I can see that Musk has done that is against election law is to solicit donors with the $47 he promised to recruiters, so to speak… and that’s… well… I’m not sure that’s going to be an easy case to win.