At Saturday's Halifax International Security Forum, Eric Schmidt announced that Google will alter its search algorithm to "de-rank" results from Russia Today.

Why did Google do this? Perhaps they were concerned about Russia meddling in American elections or they thought their customers wished to see less of Russia Today. It matters not. Generally, Google has broad power to police its platform. We might not like the decision, but it is not ours to make.

Feinstein boldly asked Google to hamper RT's ability to communicate with American audiences.

There is a second possibility. Government officials may have threatened Google to bring about this "de-ranking" of Russia Today. If so, the First Amendment poses questions for us. We need to answer such questions, however, only if government officials did, in fact, threaten Google.