this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Media is already regulated to a degree in the form of newspapers, television, movies and magazines .... the same should be done for social media companies and corporations.
No one private company should ever be allowed to freely control so much information that is exchanged by the public on a regular and wide basis. It would be like allowing only a single company to provide all the newspapers in Canada or a single company to provide all the television in the country and not regulate any of them.
This isn't to say to regulate the internet ... no government should ever do that ... but to regulate the companies and corporations that have so much control over the free flow of information across the internet.
Regulate the social media companies ... you don't need to regulate the internet.
Classify the social media conglomerates as publishers. Make them liable for anything that goes up on their sites, the same as newspapers or TV stations.
Put the onus on them to police their sites, or pay the price for sloppy/no moderation.
The only snag is that if you regulate the big players, the disinformation cockroaches will scurry into smaller corners and multiply there.
At least when they're all in one place, it's easier to keep an eye on them all at once.
The true irony here is that my conspiracy-junkie mother is still on Facebook -- despite the fact that it's the single biggest surveillance network that people voluntarily contribute to daily.
If you break up the big players and all the roaches scurry to smaller corners .... the less effective they become.
The fact that there are big corporations controlling information and allowing disinformation to flourish means that bad actors have a large base to work from. And the company has all the incentive to make money on it. Literally Facebook is short selling democratic society by investing in fascist and authoritarian ideology.
Having big corporate social media companies doesn't round up and control bad actors ... they give bad actors a platform and a very large blow horn to reach as many people as possible.
The "easier to keep an eye on them" mentality only works if we do something once we observe shenanigans.
Otherwise it's just a mealy-mouthed punt in the same category as "both sides".