How the US Military has restricted speech of service men and women on social media

The US military considers extremism in its ranks to be an important problem, especially where it entails "white nationalism" - and has been actively working on suppressing this phenomenon, including by limiting political speech, even that expressed through retweets and likes.

This brings up the issue of the status of military personnel in America's political and legal system when it comes to their right to free speech - and whether the First Amendment in reality stretches far enough to fully protect them as well.

The clampdown started after it became clear that many participants in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill protests and rioting were army veterans; reports put this number at about ten percent of the nearly 900 people that have been charged. One active Marine and four reservists were also in that group.

This was seen by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as severe enough to pause all operations for 24 hours and look for ways to deal with what he said was extremism among the members of the military. Subsequently the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group was formed in April 2021, to identify around 100 cases of extremism in the US military that year.

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