Let’s tell a story about one Amro Elansari, a player of RuneScape who was muted for undisclosed reasons (so almost certainly involving his being toxic to other players). Mr. Elansari filed a suit against the Chinese-owned UK company Jagex for this action in Pennsylvania court, arguing that the actions in question violated his constitutional right to free speech. And now, after five days, the suit has been summarily dismissed because that’s not what free speech means.
The full legal documentation, of course, does not simply state “that’s not what free speech means,” instead outlining that the constitutional assurances of free speech refer to governmental entities and not private parties, which are under no obligation to continue providing a platform. It thus dismisses the case without allowing for the possibility of amendments to the complaint, although the filing is able to be brought up again in state court if there’s a more substantive claim to be added. Thus do we have a nice reminder about the fact that no, getting banned is not a violation of your free speech.
