[ad_1]
“For our democracy to work, we need to protect freedom of expression,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. But from that premise to the kinds of decisions social media companies have to make every day, there is still a long way to go.”
Hardly any place on the Internet or in the physical world is an absolute field of free expression. The challenge of online expression is that of expression with questions that have a few simple answers: When is more conversation better and when is it worse? And who will decide?
In countries where powerful courts, civic groups, and the news media have to hold politicians accountable, elected leaders can be relatively benign when they speak out about their opponents online. But in countries like Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Somalia, government leaders have weaponized social media to expose their criticism to relentless verbal abuse, to spread often unchecked lies, or to incite ethnic violence.
If Twitter wants to step back from the moderator speech on its site, will people be less willing to hang out where they can be harassed by those who disagree with them and littered with cryptocurrency, fake Gucci handbags or pornography sites?
The 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote that same year gave Silicon Valley executives, US elected officials, and the public an insight into what can go wrong when social media companies choose not to dig too deep into people’s sites. Russian propagandists further polarized the electorate, reinforcing the views of deeply divided Americans and Britons.
During Mr Trump’s presidency – especially during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequently as Mr. Trump and his supporters spread false allegations about voter fraud in the 2020 election – Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have changed their views on the role they play in fanaticism. anger, lies, distortions, and division that make some people feel exhausted and cynical about the world around them.
Pressured at times by their employees, Twitter and Facebook took further steps to remove or tag posts that might break their rules against misinformation, and tampered with computer systems to prevent viral lies from spreading too quickly. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube also kicked Mr. Trump off their platforms after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
[ad_2]
Source link