The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall make no law abridging (curtailing) the freedom of speech. Thus, free speech is only protected by the U.S. Constitution when it is the government that seeks to limit free speech. And the First Amendment is inapplicable when a nongovernmental person or entity—such as a social media company—seeks to limit free speech. But despite the legal authority of social media companies to regulate speech on their platforms, there is an ongoing debate about whether such companies should regulate speech, and if so, the extent and manner in which they should do so.

In Delaware, as in all states, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects individuals from government restrictions on free speech, but it does not apply to private entities, including social media companies. These companies have the legal right to regulate speech on their platforms, as they are considered private actors and not subject to the First Amendment's restrictions on government. The ongoing debate surrounding social media companies' regulation of speech is not about the legality of their actions under the First Amendment, but rather about the ethical and societal implications of their decisions to limit certain types of speech. This debate often centers on issues such as censorship, platform neutrality, and the balance between protecting free expression and preventing harm caused by misinformation or hate speech.