The First Amendment is Collusion Protection
"But the Feds can't have coerced Twitter to censor if Twitter WANTED to censor. ...so it's not a violation of the First Amendment!"
A thought on the issue of whether the Feds were truly coercing Twitter to censor viewpoint X, especially in light of the fact that Twitter might well independently have wanted to censor viewpoint X. (And, indeed, it seemed like they did.)
This constantly comes up in arguments, and even some of the supportive amicus briefs seem to accept the premise that we must show that Twitter was coerced by the Feds.
But I don’t think we need to show coercion at all.
Let’s presume instead that Twitter is independently eager to censor viewpoint X.
The real issue then is whether the specific manner in which Twitter engages in censoring viewpoint X is being in some way decided by the Feds.
If Twitter is independently deciding the manner in which it censors viewpoint X, then (still under the premise that there’s no coercion at all) there’s no 1A violation. Twitter wants to censor X and does it however it would have done, independent of the Feds.
If, however, Twitter’s specific manner in which it censors viewpoint X is being directed by the Feds, then it’s clearly a case where the Feds are using Twitter as its arm. And that’s true even if Twitter is eager to censor viewpoint X, and even if Twitter is eager to be directed by the Feds.
In our case, it’s abundantly clear that the Feds were directing / coordinating the specific manner in which Twitter censored: which suite of topics at which times, which accounts, etc.
Now, it happens to be the case that the Feds did threaten Twitter, and Twitter emails show they were worried about whether they were meeting the Feds’ demands well enough, and the censorship & suspensions ramped up abruptly after the Feds made their demands…
BUT even if Twitter wasn’t coerced (or didn’t feel coerced), was eager to censor us, and itching to take direction, that DIRECTION is what the First Amendment protects us from.
In short, eager collusion with the Feds to censor the populace violates the First Amendment, whether coerced or not.