"Free Speech" on Internet Platforms
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 5:42 pm
So. Alex Jones just got simultaneously shitcanned by Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and Facebook...banned from all these platforms. (Which is f**k delicious , but I digress.)
Issue is that we have an entire generation that grew up with social media etc. being the central part of how they relate to the rest of the human race, and they honestly seem to view posting their bullshit on other people's private business platforms as "free speech". The usual suspects are currently raging about Alex Jones having his "freedom of speech" stripped, of him being censored, etc etc. This has always been a common moderation gripe on PCF sites as well...people seem to think they have free speech here, tragically enough.
At what point, as we continue to evolve towards online platforms as the central hub of all discourse, does it actually become a free speech issue? At what point does a platform like Facebook become so all-encompassing that we have to extend legal protections of speech and expression to it? Or will there need to be established some sort of public platform that truly is a free speech zone, and how would that be managed? Laws governing hate speech, threats, illegal activity, etc etc would still need to be enforced.
Issue is that we have an entire generation that grew up with social media etc. being the central part of how they relate to the rest of the human race, and they honestly seem to view posting their bullshit on other people's private business platforms as "free speech". The usual suspects are currently raging about Alex Jones having his "freedom of speech" stripped, of him being censored, etc etc. This has always been a common moderation gripe on PCF sites as well...people seem to think they have free speech here, tragically enough.
At what point, as we continue to evolve towards online platforms as the central hub of all discourse, does it actually become a free speech issue? At what point does a platform like Facebook become so all-encompassing that we have to extend legal protections of speech and expression to it? Or will there need to be established some sort of public platform that truly is a free speech zone, and how would that be managed? Laws governing hate speech, threats, illegal activity, etc etc would still need to be enforced.