The Growing Threat to Free Speech Online:
There are times when vitally important stories lurk behind the headlines. Yes, impeachment is historic and worth significant coverage, but it's not the only important story. The recent threat of war with Iran merited every second of intense world interest. But what if I told you that as we lurch from crisis to crisis there is a slow-building, bipartisan movement to engage in one of most significant acts of censorship in modern American history? What if I told you that our contemporary hostility against Big Tech may cause our nation to blunder into changing the nature of the internet to enhance the power of the elite at the expense of ordinary Americans?
I'm talking about the poorly-thought-out, poorly-understood idea of attempting to deal with widespread discontent with the effects of social media on political and cultural discourse and with the use of social media in bullying and harassment by revoking or fundamentally rewriting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
[...] In 1996, [Congress] passed Section 230. The law did two things. First, it declared that "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." In plain English, this means that my comments on Twitter or Google or Yelp or the comments section of my favorite website are my comments, and my comments only.
But Section 230 went farther, it also declared that an internet provider can "restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable" without being held liable for user content. This is what allows virtually all mainstream social media companies to remove obscene or pornographic content. This allows websites to take down racial slurs – all without suddenly also becoming liable for all the rest of their users' speech.
It's difficult to overstate how important this law is for the free speech of ordinary Americans. For 24 years we've taken for granted our ability to post our thoughts and arguments about movies, music, restaurants, religions, and politicians. While different sites have different rules and boundaries, the overall breadth of free speech has been extraordinary.
[...] Large internet companies that possess billions of dollars in resources would be able to implement and enforce strict controls on user speech. Smaller sites simply lack the resources to implement widespread and comprehensive speech controls. Many of them would have no alternative but to shut down user content beyond minimalist input. Once again, the powerful would prevail.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday January 29 2020, @09:30PM (7 children)
I have every right to tell people not to spew their nonsense around me. It's called personal space for a reason. Violate it, pay the consequences.
Technology can't make censorship impossible, because anything technology can do, other technology can undo. Or, in the case of you insisting that other people listen to your views, a couple of cops with a harassment complaint. Can't beat low tech.
And if you're depending on my resources to disseminate your words, I can certainly stop you. My printer, my ink, my paper, go buy your own.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 29 2020, @09:52PM (6 children)
Now you're just repeating yourself. I have addressed all that.
Any law regulating content is unjust. We have to use whatever we have to defeat it.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @12:41AM (5 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @01:19AM (4 children)
they can't even organize themselves because, well, anarchy.
:-) The machine will do all the work
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @02:01AM (3 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @02:05AM (2 children)
Such bigotry! That's not true at all. Evidently you don't understand the concept of cooperation. You disappoint me
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @02:26AM (1 child)
I understand the concept of cooperation just fine. I also understand that anarchies are failed states. We have a few of them floating around right now - go live in Somalia and you won't have to worry about censorship because you'll have far bigger things to worry about.
Anarchists are seriously immature. But that's okay - they can't really get their shit together to be taken seriously. It's a self-limiting problem.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:21AM
anarchies are failed states
Amusing thought, but obviously you don't understand the concept of anarchism. Let us know when you figure it out.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..