Censorship in the United States has rapidly changed and evolved from the invention of the printing press to the birth of the internet. Here we will examine some of the most important and influential events in that history.
In 2017, there were at least 13 states with online censorship laws, with many of these believed by many to be in violation of the first amendment.
In 2020, Donald Trump was banned from using the social media platform Twitter (X). This raised questions of the legality behind this. Ultimately, Twitter prevailed as it is a private company and does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment. This hotbed issue eventually led to Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter because of his disagreement with how the situation was handled.
In 1996 The Communications Decency Act was passed, this mandated a federal sentence of up to two years in prison for individuals that "use any interactive computer service to display in a manner available to a person under 18 years of age, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image or other communication that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs."
This would later get struck down by the Supreme court case Reno vs. ACLU in 1997.
In the Supreme Court case of Miller v. California (1973) obscenity gets an official definition from the Supreme Court. The Supreme court defined obscenity as:
"the average person must find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law; and
the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
In Rosen v. United States (1896), the Supreme Court made it easier to prosecute people for mailing obscene materials under federal law. The Court ruled that indictments in obscenity cases did not have to specify exactly which parts of a publication were considered obscene. This decision lowered the bar for censorship and made it simpler for authorities to crack down on materials they deemed inappropriate. The Rosen case set an important precedent in the history of censorship in the United States, favoring the government's ability to restrict speech and expression in the name of upholding moral standards.
During the 1798 presidential race between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, critics supporters of Thomas Jefferson began throwing insults at John Adams. John Adams did not take too kindly to this, in return he signed a bill in 1798 that made it illegal to criticize a government official without backing up those criticisms in court. This led to the arrests of around 25 individuals. These events began the idea of censorship in the United States.
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