Tech giants free to censor content under US constitution

LOS ANGELES, Feb 27 (AFP): Tech giants including Google are free to censor content as they wish, a US court ruled Wednesday, in a landmark freedom-of-speech case concerning private internet platforms.

The decision by San Francisco's Ninth Circuit appeals court rejected a conservative news outlet's claims that YouTube had breached the First Amendment by censoring its content.

The US Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government, but not private parties, from censoring free speech.

Despite its two billion monthly users, Google-owned YouTube "remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment," the court found.

Conservative non-profit PragerU had argued that Google unlawfully limited access to its videos discussing topics such as "male-female differences," "environmental issues" and "other topics discussed on university campuses."