Comment by oblio
1 year ago
Conceptually regulation is "not very complicated".
1. Bring back those laws requiring fairness of media representation.
2. Force standardized disclosure of sponsored content of any type (total, segments, placement). Many countries already do this. Standardized = big, high contrast "Ad" sign in the corner with mandatory size proportional to content size.
3. Mandate providing sources.
4. Treat all influencers with an audience above NNN followers (10000?) as mass media.
5. Require that widely shared content is fact checked and that fact checking is automatically included while sharing and provide recourse for fact checking up to the legal system.
6. For sensitive topics (politics, primarily) require AML and KYC disclosures of funding, primarily to find foreign funding sources and propaganda.
However, you know, vested interests, the bane of humanity.
> Bring back those laws requiring fairness of media representation.
There is no way for this not being censorship and not being used to suppress less powerful opposition. Which is exactly how it was used in the past. Plus, just look what both sidesm currently does - it motivates journalists to write as if both sides were equal in situation where they clearly are not.
> Require that widely shared content is fact checked and that fact checking is automatically included while sharing and provide recourse for fact checking up to the legal system.
Fact checking is irrelevant to public opinion. And again, it is not that difficult to bias it.
Confidential sources are necessary for lots of whistleblower based reporting.
Fairness of media representation seems hard to define and prone to abuse.
But mandating the the financial conflicts be disclosed and ads labeled seems reasonable.
As much as I agree, you might run into a challenge with case law in the US. IANAL, but I reckon Near v. Minnesota (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_v._Minnesota) is relevant here.
Problem is: some people will demand their free speech rights are being violated. The legal system is a weak guarantee: just check how the legal system works in a dictatorship. Or if a political faction decide to throw a lot of money into fake news and opinion laundering.
It is baffling to me how "free speech" has come to mean "freedom to use mass broadcasting systems".
Of course anyone should be free to publicly say anything, however untrue it might be.
Should they be free to broadcast their nonsense to million of people?
I don't know, but I do feel these are two different things.
They are different: in the U.S. that's why "freedom of the press" is also written down in the First Amendment, and historically, that's exactly how the U.S. courts have interpreted the phrase "freedom of the press" - as a (pretty) general right for anyone to use any media technology they can access to spread any ideas they want. There are always some limits, but from the start "the press" meant "the printing press", not "institutionalized news organizations". It's a general technology-usage right, not a specialized right for a certain group. Everyone is allowed to do more than just talk, or even shout. People can have different opinions on how wise that right is, but in the US at least, you are indeed free to broadcast your nonsense to millions of people, if you have the resources.
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