Application of the American First Amendment in 1780 and 2020

By Chanah Park

Cypress High School

On December 15, 1791, the American Bill of Rights was ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. This bill was fought for by the Republican delegates, who were led by Thomas Jefferson, and crucial in unifying the thirteen colonies under the Constitution.

Many Americans would agree that out of the ten outlined in the Bill of Rights, as a country, we treasure the First Amendment the most. It states that the government can make no law that takes away the American people’s freedom of religion, speech, press, or the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government.

As a country, we exercise this right greatly and with no fear of punishment. From credible news sources heavily criticizing aspects of our government, mainly the executive branch, to fourteen year-olds anonymously leaving hateful comments on others’ social media posts, there really is no limit, as long as it holds no true threat. However, I think that the American people should start to rethink the difference between the human application of this amendment in 1780 and 2020.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the First Amendment is great. I can say anything as controversial as I want whenever I want like I’m doing right now. But, I began to question the extremes to which people take the First Amendment after rewatching Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez absolutely destroy Mark Zuckerbeg, the CEO of Facebook,- trust me when I say I don’t use the word “destroy” lightly.

In her inquisition, she asked Zuckerberg if Facebook had a censor for false news. When she asked if a presidential campaign could advertise a false voting date to target Black people on Facebook, meaning that no censor would prohibit or take down such a post, Zuckerberg replied that the user would be allowed to post such things.

Obviously, this is not the outcome that our Founding Fathers had envisioned when drafting the Bill of Rights, and more specifically the First Amendment. I definitely do not believe that our First Amendment should not be taken away from us as I think it is one of the foundations that the United States of America was built on. However, I do think it is time that we begin to rethink how we want to exercise our American rights.

Junior at Los Alamitos High School, Kyle Min, believes that Americans don’t have the same kind of freedom of speech we used to. Galiyan Zheng (UCSB), says, “I think there shouldn’t be limitations on our freedom of speech. But I don’t fully support that to censor press or posts made by platform users, because it will only show what the platform users want us to see instead of what the minorities in our community’s feel and their comments.” I agree with Galiyan that censorship on press and media should not be based on the platform creator’s own opinions, but hate speech and fake news should be censored for situations like the one AOC presented to Zuckerberg will never happen.