Eight values of free expression

 

A place where the First Amendment can be tested

    I'm deciding to look at the fifth value of free expression, checking on governmental power or the function of the First Amendment.  This one resonates and is important to me because I see it frequently on my social media of someone testing their limits of the First Amendment. Whether it's a police officer, a politician, or just some regular person, everyone has a phone that they can record with at any time and of anything in a public space. This also extends to people using their phone to go into the Capitol and film whatever is happening or interacting in public spaces like hallways or conference rooms. This is related to Balsi's idea of checking the value of the First Amendment. In his journal, he states, "The value that free speech, a free press, and free assembly can serve in checking the abuse of power by public officials.(p. 527)" This is important to say because now more than ever we are able to check government power, and it isn't only through news channels or professional journalists. Anyone who simply has a phone can record any government official in public that no one has seen and post it, which shows potentially millions of people. A good example of this is during ICE raids or stops where someone in the distance can record the interaction and post it online, which provides a new angle the public can see. 

ICE stop where agents recorded on a civilian's phone

    A specific example is the Minnesota ICE shooting, where civilian bystanders started filming the interaction and caught valuable insight into the situation that people didn't see before. In a lot of ways, nothing can be done by the government other than censorship of the post, which has happened to people commenting on ICE situations, but not only ICE or police, but also criticism of Trump.

    This does bring up another issue and that is that sometimes people don't know they are in trouble when they film; for example, there was this content creator on TikTok who would film inside the Capitol Building, filming congresspeople and senators. He would ask them questions about government decisions relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict, with legal borderline harassment. Even though it was funny, he would get into trouble because there were certain places he couldn't film, and those are the ones that he tried to stay away from. He would wait in hallways and common areas before meetings, which are public spaces in the Capitol, but he couldn't go into or film in offices or meeting spaces. I can't provide a link because I believe he got banned for his content, which most likely violates some sort of TOS, but maybe it's also censorship from the government because he would catch some nasty interactions. Even though he was seen as annoying, the fact that he was able to post stuff at the time and get millions of views was really valuable because the average person can't go to the Capitol to see these decisions being made. It also shows that public officials can be seen and criticized at any time by anyone, which is really important for the value of the First Amendment.

     Balsi's theory highlights something important, and that is that someone like this journalist could be an asshole, wrong, or annoying in some people's eyes, but it doesn't make it unimportant to the general use of the Amendment. The value of having the ability to criticize government officials, I believe, is super important because you can't always trust news organizations, but I also think it's better for the public to see these videos and decide for themselves what they think instead of having nothing at all. In the end, being able to check governmental power stands out to me because technology, which I'm around a lot, has made information about the government easily accessible to me almost every day, which is important for our democracy. It's also become more relevant as it has added another check to the government by the governed.