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Justice Clarence Thomas suggests US should regulate Twitter and Facebook:
Justice Clarence Thomas suggested on Monday that Congress should consider whether laws should be updated to better regulate social media platforms that, he said, have come to have "unbridled control" over "unprecedented" amounts of speech.
The provocative and controversial opinion comes as Twitter banned former President Donald Trump from its platform for violating its rules on incitement of violence and some conservatives have called on more regulations in the tech world to combat what they view as political bias on social media.
"If part of the problem is private, concentrated control over online content and platforms available to the public, then part of the solution may be found in doctrines that limit the right of a private company to exclude, " Thomas wrote in a 12-page concurring opinion Monday.
Thomas's stance will raise concerns from critics who point out that social media platforms have not historically been subject to such content regulation, but instead have been left to devise their policies on their own.
[...] Today's digital platforms, Thomas argued, "provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech," but he said it also concentrates control "of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties."
[...] "The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions," he added.
[...] The conservative justice said that the court will soon have "no choice" but to address how legal doctrines apply to "privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms."
Katie Fallow, a First Amendment expert at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said that the group actually shares Thomas concern about the power over speech being concentrated in the hands of so few. "But we think that concentrating that same power in the hands of government regulators will not necessarily solve the problems associated with social media companies." Instead, she worried it might exacerbate the issue.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Wednesday April 07 2021, @03:00AM (4 children)
They will if the government tells them to. Regulation of service provision is infinitely more important than regulating entertainment providers, which is all facebook et al are, and we always have another channel to tune in. It's no big deal if facebook cuts you off, but it sure is if your ISP does. They must be classified as common carrier utilities. Leave facebook alone.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 08 2021, @02:33AM (3 children)
Not just no but hell no. Any calls for telecom regulation right now are being driven as a long term plan to demand crackdowns on those the woke do not approve of. The government needs to stay the fuck out unless abuse of that type actually starts happening.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday April 08 2021, @02:48AM (2 children)
Wrong again. There is plenty of abuse. Common carrier (dumb pipe) status is absolutely necessary, symmetrical download/upload, no redirection, no exclusive contracts, the right to muni/state supplied service to compete, etc. We have to open the market, ignore the lobbyists. The government needs to stay the fuck out of Facebook and Twitter and all other content providers. They are cartoon channels
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 08 2021, @05:09AM (1 child)
Pointing fingers at those who aren't blatantly fucking the American people to take the focus off the ones who actively are? Really? How much are they paying you?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday April 08 2021, @05:48AM
But they are. Can you put up your own server? If you are consuming the same bandwidth, they shouldn't tell you what you can put on it. Bandwidth is bandwidth. That's the only thing they should be allowed to regulate, not the content. Indeed, your ISP is doing all the fucking, using facebook as its big wooden pecker. You are wagging the dog
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..