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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: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @01:15AM (4 children)
You are being repetitive. Those aren't even the things I'm discussing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @01:58AM (3 children)
Yes they are part and parcel of the discussion. You're complaining about censorship. I'm pointing out that if you want to be uncensored, create your own mesh network using the wifi available on every laptop. You can run your own frt, http, telnet, and Usenet nodes, no censorship. You can also express yourself in other more traditional ways. You have no right to demand that others provide you with any censor-free platform. Make your own and quit crying - others have done it, and some of them have no other choice.
If you have either a laptop with a wifi adapter or a desktop with a wifi router you can have your own network. Free of all censorship. What you can't do is expect anyone to support your point of view. You need to make your case, and you haven't. You haven't proposed any sort of solution to the main topic. I did. It allows for anonymous posts, takes the burden off site owners since all anonymous posts disappear after a set time, and gives a way to have non-anonymous users accountable.
You just don't want accountability. In other words, you want to have your cake and eat it too. Instead of whining, why not try to come up with a solution?
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @02:03AM (2 children)
Yes they are part and parcel of the discussion.
And I already covered it. No need to do it again.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 30 2020, @02:31AM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 30 2020, @04:40AM
So quit your whining and propose a .solution already
Already have, many times. The solution has to come from the voters. They have to vote for an open internet, free of all meddling. The technical solutions to censorship will have to come from the people with the means. They don't need me to know which direction to take.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..