The Invisible Hand of the State: How Government Coercion is Rewriting the First Amendment in Silicon Valley

The US government is coercing tech companies to censor and surveil citizens, bypassing the First Amendment. This is happening through 'jawboning,' where officials use high-pressure tactics to force compliance. The line between persuasion and coercion is thinning, raising questions about the effectiveness of the First Amendment. This is a rapidly evolving legal crisis that has reached the Supreme Court. Tech companies are being deputized to do the dirty work of censorship and surveillance that the Constitution forbids the state from doing itself.