Surveillance capitalists weaponize free speech doctrine to block oversight of their algorithms

Evidence

In this context, surveillance capitalists vigorously developed a “cyberlibertarian” ideology that Frank Pasquale describes as “free speech fundamentalism.” Their legal teams aggressively assert First Amendment principles to fend off any form of oversight or externally imposed constraints that either limit the content on their platforms or the “algorithmic orderings of information” produced by their machine operations. As one attorney who has represented many of the leading surveillance capitalists puts it, “The lawyers working for these companies have business reasons for supporting free expression. Indeed, all of these companies talk about their businesses in the language of free speech.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 352

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘cyberlibertarian’ and ‘free speech fundamentalism’ as contested terms central to the framework.
• XREF: connects to: Political saboteurs can weaponize platform algorithms legally without any coding skills — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 473