Social Media sites are struggling how to handle some of Donald Trump’s misleading, outright false, and sometime violence inciting posts. Twitter and Snapchat have started to flag some of the postings but Facebook is refusing so far to censor or flag any of the Trump’s postings.
Freedom of Speech protected under 1st Amendment applies only to Government and not private entities or individuals. It bars government to censor or bar any speech with few exceptions such as obscenity and speech that incites imminent lawless action.
When private entities like Twitter flag or restrict certain speech, they are also exercising their freedom of speech right to restrict certain postings as they see fit according to their own policy or morals. However, as a business, it is a slippery slope from public relations point of view because they may be perceived as siding with one political side or the other. Facebook’s position, although hated by many, is the proper approach. If Trump is posting lies on Facebook, others have equal access to post the truth in reply and let the readers decide. Ironically, in all this saga, it is President Trump who is violating the 1st Amendment by signing executive order to take away protections for content posted on social media sites