The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, religion and the press. It also protects the right to peaceful protest and to petition the government. The amendment was adopted in 1791...

... False or defamatory statements – called libel – are [not] protected under the First Amendment...

... Although the First Amendment applies only to state actors, there is a common misconception that it prohibits anyone from limiting free speech, including private, non-governmental entities...

It was the most violent assault on the US Capitol since the British Army set it ablaze in the war of 1814.

This week's Tech Tent asks what role social media played in preparing the ground for the riots which saw Donald Trump's supporters storm Congress...

... is it even clear that social media bears most of the responsibility for spreading the lies and hatred that led to the assault on the Capitol?

Remember, Fox News, talk radio stations and more recently TV channels such as OANN and NewsMax have fed their audiences a Trump-shaped view of the world for a long time... Ever since the Reagan administration abolished the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s, television news channels have been free to offer a partisan view. The result today is that viewers of Fox News and MSNBC might as well occupy two very different countries...

Google has suspended "free speech" social network Parler from its Play Store over its failure to remove "egregious content"...

The United States is a land of free speech. Nowhere is speech freer – not even here where we sedulously cultivate it even in its most repulsive form.

... spout baseless lies after being hit with record payout he immediately hits his brain dead supporters...