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from the legislators-protecting-us-from-bad-things dept.
In Colorado:
Concerning the regulation of digital communications, and, in connection therewith, creating the digital communications division and the digital communications commission
Session: 2021 Regular Session
Subjects: Professions & Occupations
Telecommunications & Information Technology
Bill Summary
The bill creates the digital communications division (division) . . . On an annual basis and for a reasonable fee determined by the commission, the division shall register digital communications platforms . . . such as social media platforms or media-sharing platforms, that conduct business in Colorado . . . A digital communications platform that fails to register with the division commits a class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 for each day that the violation continues.
The division shall investigate and the commission may hold hearings . . .
- Include practices that promote hate speech; undermine election integrity; disseminate intentional disinformation, conspiracy theories, or fake news; . . . .
- May include business, political, or social practices that are conducted in a manner that a person aggrieved by the practices can demonstrate are unfair or discriminatory to the aggrieved person. . . . .
- Practices that target users for purposes of collecting and disseminating users' personal data, including users' sensitive data
- Profiling users based on their personal data collected
- Selling or authorizing others to use users' personal data to provide location-based advertising or targeted advertising; or
- Using facial recognition software and other tracking technology.
The full text of the bill is here.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 05 2021, @09:07PM (5 children)
With that cleared up, maybe it now makes sense to explain that this kind of bad thing happens as a knee jerk reaction to something. Sometimes, maybe not always, but sometimes that something may be a something that most people would "agree" should be censored. And that is unfortunate.
Also as I pointed out in elsewhere here, speech can have consequences.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday March 06 2021, @02:42AM (4 children)
Most people nowadays are taught that America is an evil empire rather than teaching them our actual history; good, bad, and ugly. So how the hell are they supposed to know why the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and subsequent amendments are together the greatest bit of foundational law ever penned? They're lucky to escape legally mandatory indoctrination even knowing their constitutional rights or why they're important at all.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday March 08 2021, @02:21PM (3 children)
Our actual history should definitely be taught. Including the ugliness. Unfortunately, that doesn't make as great a story. Ferry Tails with happy endings are what people want. Or a video game version of history.
Switching gears, we also seem to have a sizable number of people today that seem to think the law does not apply to them. They don't have to register vehicles, have driver licenses, pay taxes, etc. After all, they are a god! These people also believe fairy tales. I don't know how much overlap this group has with the first group on a Venn diagram.
This brings me to: some people, and I have to admit to this myself, have an internal knee-jerk reaction, that the solution is to stop the spreading of the disinformation. That said, I think the real problem here is that people believe the disinformation. If people didn't believe disinformation, then it wouldn't matter how many news networks spread it. (reminder: I quit watching CNN in June 2013) A significant fraction of our population seems to grow up poorly educated, no useful or marketable skills, and no particular talent for anything. (excepting maybe video games and social media)
Give me Liberty or give me something of lesser or equal value, or a coupon for it.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 11 2021, @01:34PM (2 children)
I dunno, man. I was taught the whole shebang. Give me liberty or give me death right along with 3/5 of a person. Due process and trail of tears. Jim Crow and MLK Jr... But that's not what kids are being taught today. The failings are being emphasized while the noble efforts and progress are glossed over or not brought up at all. They shouldn't come out of school with the notion that we're perfect but neither should they come out of school with the idea that everything we've ever done or will do is either wholly evil or irretrievably tainted by some imperfection.
Disinformation? Any organization telling you they're a repository or authority on truth should be called a damned liar and have their faces spit in. It's a safer bet than gravity. There aren't any that even try for truth anymore. Any media organization, any fact-checking organization, and even any simple repository of knowledge should be assumed to be completely and maliciously full of shit on everything they say until proven otherwise. We're living in an age where one end of the political spectrum is happy to lie any time they think they can get away with it and the other end has taken a page from China and decided the truth is whatever they say it is (even if they say it is the exact opposite of the actual truth) and anyone saying otherwise should be utterly destroyed. So, yeah, disinformation is the least of our problems.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 11 2021, @04:00PM (1 child)
Interesting. I would agree that there is no grand central repository of truth. But back when we both learned history (and math, omg!), people were able to discern obviously true and obviously false things. There was little to no question that Nixon was a crook as evidence came out and his own actions made it clear there was definitely something to hide. Why is it today that people will accept and even passionately believe outright falsehoods?
Truly I don't want censorship. I think people should be able to state opinions freely. I do here on SN, and I own my own opinions without hiding behind an AC. But is making up lies and spreading them to gullible people the same thing as stating an opinion? And that goes for CNN too. I quit watching in 2013 after (a) their hiding of SOPA / PIPA in 2012, and (b) their abysmally biased coverage of Snowden in 2013. Wouldn't it be nice if news was about the facts, all the facts. And editorial was clearly separate? And Turner wouldn't have supressed CNN coverage of SOPA / PIPA just because they supported pushing this outrages legislation under cover of dark.
Without censorship, what would YOU propose about people and organizations that make up and spread outright lies? One solution that occurs to me is something that is happening right now. Some are now being sued in multi billion dollar defamation suits over things that are not only obvious lies, but easily verified to be obvious lies, that were willfully spread with the deliberate intent to cause damages. So yes, civil suit them into a smoking crater. After all, truth is an affirmative defense. But any other ideas? I also recall that in the early 1980s, and then again rearing its ugly head in the early 1990s, there were some racially hate motivated murders. In the early 80s from the KKK. Now the perps were convicted of murder. But the families were able to civil suit for damages that basically wiped out the organization that incited this. And then again the 1990s. In the latter case, the mother of the victim ended up with all of the property and buildings of the hate group. Maybe wiping them out financially is the only solution? But then is that censorship? I don't think so, although some would see it as such. Speech has consequences.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 1) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday March 13 2021, @02:50PM
Partly because they've been trained to by the news media, education system, entertainment media, social media, their politicians, online encyclopedias, online dictionaries, etc... And partly because there's nowhere they can trust anymore to find out the truth.
Yup. Legally required retractions in the event of a provable error with as much air time/page space, in the same time/page slots as the original error received would be nice as well. High bar for proof and as decided by a jury, of course.
As for censorship, how do you tell the difference between an intentional lie and just being wrong? Are the folks at MSNBC running deliberate, malicious psyops or are they just genuinely idiots that will believe anything that suits their narrative, and only things that suit their narrative? Do you criminalize being wrong?
The least harmful remedy? Do absolutely nothing. The only alternative is a Ministry of Truth deciding what is legal to say and what isn't. Like right now we have Facebook and Twitter being the arbiters of what medical science is true and what isn't. With punishment for saying anything else, even if you're actually qualified to hold an expert opinion. And they're benign as hell compared to what a government version would be.
The correct answer to bad speech is always going to be more speech. Sunlight will always be the best disinfectant, so spread sunlight. If there's provable malice that falls under slander, libel, defamation, or the like, so much the better.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.