Benjamin Franklin once said, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” It’s clear he did not live in the era of Facebook.
With more than 750 million users worldwide, has the time come for another Constitutional Convention to convene to setup and ratify a Facebook Constitution? Some would say it past time. After all, there are only two countries with larger populations than Facebook: China and India. Fourth place, the United States, has less than half the population.
While it’s highly unlikely any of the Founding Fathers could conceive of such a phenomenon as Facebook, it’s clear they’d find it useful and would by and large approve. Consider social media backin the day consisted of one guy scrawling a letter with a peacock feather dipped in ink and then handing it off to another guy on horseback. Even the 6+ miles between Concord and Lexington a few hours for a round-trip “post and reply”.
Just imagine the war of words that could have ensued between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as they campaigned against each other in 1800. They probably would have “de-friended” each other, and one no doubt would have blocked the other. They definitely would not have “poked” each other—at least not in their later years.
Still, I think the entire group would totally dig Facebook today. They’d totally rule Adams would totally Farmville and Washington would be the one to chase on Pot Farm.
But back to the question of a Facebook Constitution. The US Constitution would be a great boilerplate.
Separation of Powers
The Founders would absolutely agree that it isn’t cool that Zuckerburg and his crew are all three branches of the Facebook government. They’d split ’em up so they couldn’t continue as judge, jury, and execution.
Amendments
Most could stay in place. After all, Facebook members by and large enjoy the freedoms protected under the 1st Amendment. Speech, religion, and the press are all alive and well, and in some instances thriving.
The right the bear arms will, however, need a bit of tweaking, but will essentially remain intact. Facebook members can protect themselves by deleting posts, de-friending BFFs (Ben Franklin’s Friends?), and blocking past BFFs, all the equivalent of owning a gun and occasionally defending themselves by pulling these online “triggers”.
The 5th Amendment—the right to not self-incriminate—would be troubling. Not the part about Facebook users seemingly being incapable of blabbing every last detail of their lives to people who are willing to do who knows what with the information, but for the fact it’s all recorded in databases, easily retrieved by nearly anyone with a desire to retrieve it and throw it back in someone’s face!
It’s probably going to take some time to craft a Facebook Constitution, but it’s clear the time has come. Any way you slice it, Philadelphia, the cradle of the US Constitution and past capitol of the United States, is the logical host-city for the New Constitutional Convention. I say bring it on. Philly will figure it out!