New Yorker writer says free speech is being 'weaponized' against journalists

New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll suggested on Monday that the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was being "weaponized" by journalists in the era of online disinformation.

During a discussion on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Coll was asked by network anchor and correspondent Kasie Hunt to weigh in on Big Tech having a "bigger responsibility" about what is shared on their platforms and what they should do. 

Coll responded by pointing out that Facebook is "motivated, as all companies are, to make money" though at the same time is "acting like a public square."

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"It's a structure. It's not just something that can be changed except by changing the structure of it," Coll, who serves as dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, explained. "And yes, Facebook has moved somewhat. They've had a better election in 2020 than they did in 2016. They've learned to put some brakes on, you know, here and there, but you can't get away from the fact that their mission is to connect everybody in the world. That's what motivates Mark Zuckerberg and it's his passion and he profoundly believes in free speech."

The New Yorker staff writer then hinted that the principle of free speech has actually been hurting journalists rather than helping them. 

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 "Those of us in journalism have to come to terms with the fact that free speech, a principle that we hold sacred, is being weaponized against the principle of journalism and what do we do about that," Coll continued. "As reporters, we kind of march into this war with our facts nobly shouldered as if they were going to win the day and what we're seeing that is because of the scale of this alternative reality that you've been talking about, our facts, our principles, our scientific method--it isn't enough. So what do we do?"