I think that freedom of speech in today’s democratic society is important. The core value of the United States as a stable state is the ability of citizens to express their views, defend their rights, and demonstrate their approval or disapproval of the actions of the government on an equal footing. In addition, the richest and most successful countries have a high level of democratic institutions and civil society development. Everyday democracy worldwide faces challenges that may affect it, adapting it to certain events and phenomena. Pandemics, wars, and terrorism force governments to make certain adjustments to the level of freedom of speech, so some restrictions are sometimes useful. One such example is Ukraine, where in recent days, the armed forces have gone on a counteroffensive and are liberating territory. The General Staff has temporarily restricted media activities in areas of active fighting so as not to put the lives of military personnel in danger.
In the U.S., the problem of restricting freedom of speech has touched on social networks. I could argue that actions by the federal government to influence free speech on Facebook, Twitter, and other such networks are acceptable, but only if they are related to national security. The FBI could use the incident of terrorist recruitment of suicide bombers via the Internet to obtain the data of accounts that show suspicious activity (Interpol, 2022). At the same time, in my opinion, it is unacceptable to prohibit the transfer of all personal user data to intelligence agencies or to ban accounts for showing civic or political positions since these fundamental rights are the foundation of a democratic state. It seems to me that in the U.S., there is almost no problem with the authorities or social networks controlling information or public debate. It is because there are so many independent sources of information in the country, including big influential broadcasters like CNN, which cooperate with the government but are not part of it.
On the other hand, social networks retain their status as a forum for discussion, where people write posts expressing their personal opinions and political parties post their political programs. However, sometimes questionable reputational stories happen, as in the case of the vaccine campaign, where the White House and big social networks discredited certain sources of information. Civil society protested, and the government made concessions, so freedom of speech in the U.S. is perfectly safe despite some problems.
Reference
Interpol (2022). Analyzing social media.