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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 14 2019, @04:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-were-you-saying-about-Free-Speech? dept.

Leaked Draft of Trump Executive Order to 'Censor the Internet' Denounced as Dangerous, Unconstitutional Edict

It would give these bureaucratic government agencies unprecedented control over how Internet platforms moderate speech by allowing them to revoke the essential protections Congress laid out in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). CDA 230 is the basic law that makes it possible for online platforms to let users post our own content, and to make basic decisions about what types of content they as private entities want to host. Every meme, every social media post, every blog and user-created video on the Internet has been made possible by this crucial free speech protection.

In practice, this executive order would mean that whichever political party is in power could dictate what speech is allowed on the Internet. If the government doesn't like the way a private company is moderating content, they can shut their entire website down.

From https://www.salon.com/2019/08/12/leaked-draft-of-trump-executive-order-deemed-unconstitutional_partner/ we get the following:

According to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft, the new rule "calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. Although still in its early stages and subject to change, the Trump administration's draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies."

While Politico was the first to report how the draft was being circulated by the White House, CNN notes that if put into effect, "the order would reflect a significant escalation by President Trump in his frequent attacks against social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. And it could lead to a significant reinterpretation of a law that, its authors have insisted, was meant to give tech companies broad freedom to handle content as they see fit."

"[...] It's hard to put into words how mind bogglingly absurd this executive order is," said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, in a tweet. "In the name of defending free speech it would allow mass government censorship of online content. In practice, it means whichever party is in power can decide what speech is allowed on the internet."

This authoritarian legislation is being pushed by claiming it will do the opposite of censorship by giving the federal government even more broad power. Reminds me of the following quote, "I like taking guns away early," Trump said. "Take the guns first, go through due process second."

See also:


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  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday August 14 2019, @07:48PM (1 child)

    by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday August 14 2019, @07:48PM (#880489)

    Hm, that's some unfortunate collateral damage.

    8chan probably should have been an open-source toolset, easy to spin up and deploy anywhere, instead of a single point of failure. That would work better for getting around Chinese censorship anyway.

    If it was a network of independently-run imageboards, it would probably not impact society's ability to turn away from violent nazi propaganda. It just wouldn't implicate everyone else using the platform.

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:50PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:50PM (#880550) Journal

    Isn't that what Mastodon was supposed to be?

    It doesn't work, because nobody uses it. But they could, it's GPL. But it only works if people use it.

    OTOH, I don't use it, so I'm not really sure.

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