Nilay Patel discusses what exactly free speech covers.
The First Amendment is one of our country’s most cherished institutions — and one of its most profoundly misunderstood. The confusion comes from those first five words: “Congress shall make no law.” Congress isn’t allowed to abridge your freedom of speech. That means the First Amendment only applies to the government, not private parties
In short, corporations can censor you. For instance, if I worked for a Republican think-tank in Oklahoma and my boss heard me tell everyone that Gov. Mary Fallin is an incompetent shill who lacks leadership1, that boss could fire me.
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Hypothetically speaking, of course. ↩︎