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Sure sounds like censorship to me

Posted by Dave_K on May 19, 2020 at 14:32:11

In Reply to: I endorse most everything Cohen said... posted by vacuous on May 19, 2020 at 01:17:35:

Be careful what you wish for. Have you seen what these states have been up to in their COVID-19 data reporting:

Florida
Georgia
Virginia

If governments keep fudging numbers like this, don't you want people to challenge them? Now imagine if anybody who challenged the official numbers could be accused of peddling false data and conspiracies, and have their stories censored on social media.

I am OK with censoring some content: threats of violence, underage porn, conducting crime, repeated harassment, etc. And obviously, live streaming of a massacre as well. If I were Zuck, I would try to apply similar standards as you would in a public square, because that's basically what Facebook has become. That means you would have to tolerate people like the Westboro Baptists sharing the platform. It doesn't mean you have to follow them or even be aware of their content. But if they wanted to create a Facebook page and post their crap every time a soldier dies, it seems to me that it should be allowed.

I don't see a fundamental difference between a physical public space that people meet up in, like a town square or park, and a virtual public space to meet up in like Facebook. I'm sure you'll argue that Facebook is a private company and thus the 1st Amendment doesn't apply. While that's legally true, it misses the point. Facebook has achieved a monopoly and provides the most widely used platform for online speech. People do most of their speaking and assembling online these days, and if we adhere to our principles, we should be able to exercise our freedom of speech and assembly with the same limitations online or in person.

Besides, if the Federal government steps in to regulate the types of speech allowed on platforms such as Facebook, they definitely are constrained by the 1st Amendment. While suing Facebook over the terms of their service agreement on 1st Amendment grounds will get you nowhere, I would expect a plethora of lawsuits against the FCC if they start to regulate content, especially politically relevant speech.

The prevalence of conspiracy theories reflects a loss of trust in government. If we can restore trust in government, the conspiracy theories will be contained to the fringes. That will require a lot of work to get there. Openness and transparency and a strong commitment to ethics in government are the most important parts.

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Sonic Craft

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