Using the USPS for Free Speech on the Internet

Here is an interesting take on the 1st Amendment and the USPS being used for it's original intent......

'Well actually you could use the Post Office for its original intent, to guarantee Freedom of the Press. If you consider that the Press was the written word, the US Postal service was the defender of the written word, with its own laws and police force.

Bring that up today, the written word has been privatized by Facebook, Google, Twitter and email service providers. It is being actively used against the population.

Create a Constitutionally protected email Service, Twitter, Facebook and Google under the US Postal Service and you can remove a good portion of the technocracy that is working to globalize our Freedoms.'  https://youtu.be/1J5EsUok4ps?t=6427

- Boing_Snap

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Private internet services like Facebook, Google, and Twitter and the other dominant Search Engines have become the de-facto gatekeepers to speech on the internet. However, they actively censor free speech and the free exchange of ideas, artificially amplify chosen themes that do not represent the interests of the majority, actively steer political conversation, and even ban people for their political beliefs, but since they are private companies, 'We the People' have no recourse. The result has been an unhealthy public national discourse that has been skewed politically, and outright controlled by extremely wealthy individuals and multinational corporations.

Now granted we can 'vote with our feet' and move to other social media platforms that are tolerant to the particular political slant of our speech and ideas, but this only results in increased fragmentation and division of the populace, and does nothing to foster constructive dialog and the building of national unity. This results in precisely the 'Divide and Conquer' effect that the Oligarchs and Multinational corporations need us to subject ourselves to, so that they can remain in control of our government and our lives.

I say this is an excellent Idea. Replace privately owned social media, free email service and  search engine with official US government replacements administered by the United States Postal Service.

If the USPS had a mandate from congress to create and operate public internet services that could compete with private internet platform providers, it would greatly benefit the American People, it would improve our communications and relationships with our government and allow the people to have more influence and say in their government. 

Here are some rules and structure that could be instituted to make it truly free, accountable and fair, and ensure that every American gets a voice, equally and without conferring advantage due to money or influence.

1. Freedom of speech in accordance with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution will be the only limitation placed on content that users post on these systems and services.

2. User accounts that can send USPS authenticated e-mails and make social media posts on these official systems can only be held by legal US citizens of voting age, and entities / organizations that are legally registered to operate in the US. Each legal US citizen is limited to one personal user account, but may operate as an administrator of user accounts for up to 20 legally registered entities.

3. Access to all of these systems would require Multi Factor Authentication to minimize fraud and unauthorized use. Additionally, the same laws and penalties that apply to fraud and abuse of the physical postal mail, would apply commensurately to these USPS online systems & services.

4. All e-mails, social media posts, and other online transactions made through these systems will be placed on a Blockchain so all   PUBLIC posts and transaction can be recorded, authenticated, and verified by anyone on the internet. However, for private e-mail, social media posts, and other transactions, authentication and verification would be limited to authorized parties to the e-mail, post or transaction in question. 

5. Each and Every user's official photo (as in Passport or Driver's License photo) and their full legal name must be attached on a mandatory 'disclosure page' on the user's publicly viewable profile.

6. If the user account is for a corporation, organization, or other legal entity, the user profile must have the official photo of the user account administrator, the registered corporate / entity logo and Federal Tax ID (and stock ticker symbol, if applicable) of the entity that operates that user account, and the account profile must display hyperlinks to the personal user profiles of all the officers and administrators of the entity, and all stockholders of the entity with 5% or more ownership of the entity.

7. As in all traditional human interactions and peaceable assembly protected by the laws of the United States, individual users of this system are free to interact and peaceably assemble and to associate with, and 'follow' whomever they wish. Accordingly all Individual non government users and organization / entity users may, upon their own discretion; configure their own user accounts to facilitate communication, interaction and assembly with other users of their choosing, and also to prevent communication, interaction and assembly with other users of their choosing. Therefore, they may choose to 'block' other users, to configure their own user accounts to prevent them from seeing or receiving e-mails, social media posts, and other transactions from any other user or users. However, permanently blocking accounts would begin to break down communication and damage the 'National Conversation' if left un-checked, therefore 'blocking' between individual users is temporary, and not to exceed 30 days unless it is court ordered.

6. No US citizen or entity can be denied use of this system, be banned or 'shadow banned'  from this system, or otherwise have their activities limited or revoked on this system by any government entity or official government user account, unless that person is currently physically incarcerated, after having being duly convicted of crime that would normally prelude them from being free to access the internet. However, if the incarcerated person would be able to send or receive regular postal mail, they can not be denied access to the e-mail portion of the system, however restrictions imposed on regular mail would be applied commensurately to e-mail access by the incarcerated.

7. All users of this system's social media component(s) have equal access and public visibility, and the unfettered ability to follow other's user accounts in accordance with their own beliefs and free will, and to likewise have others follow their user accounts. There will be no system of advertising or targeted promotion to increase exposure, viewership or search rankings by one user or group of users over that of another.

8. The Online Right to petition the government for redress of grievances: Online Petitions can be created by any individual user of this system who is eligible to vote; to petition any government entity or government official for any grievance(s). Petitions that gather more than 100 signatures must be permanently displayed on the designated petition webpage of the entity or official they are directed to. The petition webpage of the petitioned will display the full petition as well as the responses and correspondence of the petitioners and how the petition was concluded, adjudged or resolved by the government.

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01/13/2021 Discussion - The practical reasoning of creating a government controlled social media platform

Question: Why would TWP advocate for a GOGO (Government Owned, Government Operated) social media platform where users need to identify themselves to government employees, with their government issued ID in order to become a member and use the service? Don't you think ''We the People'' should go in the other direction and seek have a totally anonymous platform that users can not be tracked on, that is totally encrypted end to end, hosted offshore in a jurisdiction not accessible to the US government?

Answer: There are already plenty of anonymous platforms, with so called end to end encryption. privacy and independence from government, that is not the point of this proposed project. You can try to achieve this, but it is a dead end, even if you could achieve total privacy and independence from government network systems. The sole outcome what you are seeking to do with all this privacy and independence from government is to drive free speech underground, into the margins, or under the oppressive control of Oligarch run social media platforms, where information important to the American People can be suppressed or censored at the whim of these faceless corporate entities.

The point of this proposed Official Government Social Media Platform is to establish an online communications platform that is an official government record of the voice and will of the American people (and only the American people); one that can not be hidden, lost, set aside, or suppressed by private interests, or hidden political forces.

Look... The US Government, through the NSA ''owns'' the internet and all of the information put on it, and even if you encrypt your communications, they have the ability to store a secret record of it indefinitely, until such time it can be unencrypted and/or used against you as evidence in some future legal proceeding or other government action. What is lacking about the current state of government / NSA dominance and ownership of the internet is automatic and effective mechanisms of accountability and transparency, a lasting, accessible, verifiable, unalterable public record of information that was posted online by employees and officials of the government, and the general public, and a transcript of those online conversations.

Sure... With great power comes great responsibility.

By legally identifying yourself when you use a government social media platform, you can more easily be held legally accountable for what you post and face civil or criminal penalties for posting something that is false or libelous, or for other forms of speech that are not protected by the 1st amendment, but you would also be granted the power to make your voice and conversations with government officials regarding official government business and policy; part of the national conversation, the public record, and the official history of the government's business dealings with it's citizenry.

This ability for verified members of the American public to say something on the offcial public record that can not be censored, removed, or hidden is a corrupt government offcial's worst nightmare. This system would grant enormous power to those who speak the truth to power and make it simple to expose government corruption and unethical behavior.

If the People of the United States of America had an immutable voice that could not be censored and silenced; to hold our governmnet and it's offficals accountable, the balance of power would shift immediately towards favoring that of the people, and away from that of the Oligarchs and multinational corporate interests that currently hold the power in this country.

In the past, the press held this postition of "public watchdog" and the power of the press, enshrined in the bill of rights was used to hold our government accountable, but the legacy media / press, as well as the dominant online media has been consolidated and bought up decades ago by Oligarchs and Multinational Corporate Interests, and is now effectively a tool used to opress the American People through censorship of important information, and ceaseless propaganda and manipulation of public opinion.