Joy Behar says she “loves” the First Amendment, but she doesn’t love it enough to leave it alone.
On Tuesday’s The View, Behar declared that she wanted to see freedom of speech “tweaked” to get rid of speech she doesn’t like. The 2nd Amendment deserves a modern updating as well, according to the liberal host. Unfortunately she wasn’t the only one advocating for this.
Behar, and her liberal peers were fawning over Australia’s new “anti-trolling” law which makes social media companies like Facebook liable for “defamatory comments.” The proposed law will force Facebook to give over the identity and personal information of anonymous users to the government if a complaint is made against them so it can be used in lawsuits.
The liberal hosts were a little too excited by the idea of government and social media companies working together to punish “trolling,” which is so vague, it could easily be used to censor political speech or non-violent criticism.
Still, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines and Joy Behar were thrilled by the idea.
“Now if we had a legal process like this, would it actually make people think twice about trolling or would people just find a new -- a new way to troll?” Whoopi Goldberg wondered.
“I think it would,” Hostin affirmed. Haines cheered the idea: “It would be so nice.” Hostin jumped back in to express her envy for Australia’s way of doing things:
It would be so juicy and good. I mean, think about it. How many times as public people -- granted we're in the public. How many times don't you get those nasty tweets from people with that keyboard courage in their mama's basements or somewhere else, and they're always hidden behind, like, a cat photo or a private account or a frog photo or a flag photo in my case. I get a lot of flag photos and they say the nastiest things that they would never say to you face to face. I would love their identifying information. I would looove it.
Hostin wasn’t the only one excited by the idea of finding out the personal information of strangers online. Guest host Jane Coaston, a reporter for the New York Times, could see pitfalls with such a law here but still admitted she has wanted to dig up trolls’ personal information, as a reporter:
[M]y concern is always, like, if I'm on Twitter as I am, and I start, you know, going after somebody who is supportive of something that I find abhorrent, am I a troll? Can they get my identification? What about the use of language, and then it gets into a very murky area because I know, like, I remember in 2016 I got photoshopped in the gas chambers by the worst people in the entire world, and, like, I obviously at a point was, like, I would love to know where they lived and I could, you know, do a little research...
But there was no slippery slope here, according to the Hostin, Haines and Behar.
“People are killing themselves over social media!” Hostin exclaimed. Talking over each other, Behar agreed, “People are threatening other people with death. You want to know who they are!” Haines chided that there was no “criminal accountability” for these folks, though it was unclear if she was referring to bullying or death threats. “I want them to have to identify themselves,” she affirmed.
But “trolling” is not the same as death threats, which is already punishable by law. Still, Behar wanted to expand these ideas outside of social media. “When the Founding Fathers were busy with the amendments, the First and Second Amendments did not have AR-15s in there, weapons of war, and they didn't have Twitter. So both amendments, I think they need to be tweaked a little bit,” she proposed.
“That's a whole new conversation. That's a whole new conversation,” Goldberg stated. Behar added that although she “loved” the First Amendment, “[T]here’s a lot of hate speech and misinformation [that] needs to be dealt with.” Whoopi agreed before cutting to commercial.
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Read the transcript below:
The View
11/30/21
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Hey. So Jack Dorsey -- Jack Dorsey just stepped down as CEO of Twitter, and unlike Mark Zuckerberg, he was more proactive in removing defamatory content. He most famously deleted you-know-who’s account. [ Applause ] Now Australia --
JOY BEHAR: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: Australia wants to go a step further, drafting a legal process for those feeling they have been defamed, bullied, or harassed, that would force social media companies hand over the identities of the accused bully to the courts. Now if we had a legal process like this, would it actually make people think twice about trolling or would people just find a new -- a new way to troll?
SUNNY HOSTIN: I think it would.
SARA HAINES: It would be so nice.
HOSTIN: It would be so juicy and good. I mean, think about it. How many times as public people -- granted we're in the public. How many times don't you get those nasty tweets from people with that keyboard courage in their mama's basements or somewhere else, and they're always hidden behind, like, a cat photo or a private account or a frog photo or a flag photo in my case. I get a lot of flag photos and they say the nastiest things that they would never say to you face to face. I would love their identifying information. I would looove it.
[applause and agreement]
GOLDERG: It sounds good, but now before we've identified what harassment means to the court or to the person --
GOLDBERG: -- You have to be careful because as you have identified someone who you feel is harassing and messing with you, so can somebody else about you.
…
JANE COASTON: Australia does not have the First Amendment.
GOLDBERG: No it doesn't.
COASTON: Because Twitter is a private platform, Twitter can moderate, edit users, and the content as much as they see fit. My concern is always, like, if I'm on Twitter as I am, and I
start, you know, going after somebody who is supportive of something that I find abhorrent, am I a troll? Can they get my identification? What about the use of language, and then it gets into a very murky area because I know, like, I remember in 2016 I got photoshopped in the gas chambers by the worst people in the entire world, and, like, I obviously at a point was, like, I would love to know where they lived and I could, you know, do a little research. At the same time, I'm just thinking about, like, what does this mean for --
SUNNY HOSTIN: People are killing themselves over social media!
JOY BEHAR: But a lot of it is threats also.
HOSTIN: Yeah, threats, bullying.
BEHAR: People are threatening other people with death. You want to know who they are.
HAINES: Without criminal accountability -- without criminal accountability, I want them to have to identify themselves. Because stand by it. I know freedom of speech as a government, but the value is honored in this country.
HOSTIN: Mm-hmm.
SARA HAINES: That doesn't mean -- that is typically honored for a protest, for an organization. It is not for an egghead on Twitter.
HOSTIN: Yep.
[cross-talk/ agreement]
….
JOY BEHAR: ...When the founding fathers were busy with the amendments, the First and Second Amendments did not have AR-15s in there, weapons of war, and they didn't have Twitter. So both amendments, I think they need to be tweaked a little bit.
GOLDBERG: That's a whole new conversation. That's a whole new conversation.
[cross-talk]
BEHAR: We make our living on the First Amendment so we love it, but there's a lot of hate speech and misinformation, needs to be dealt with.
GOLDBERG: That's right, but not right this second because we got to tell you something else. We'll be right back.
