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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 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.