Comment by altruios
5 months ago
Censorship is a tool to combat misinformation.
It's taking a sword to the surgery room where no scalpel has been invented yet.
We need better tools to combat dis/mis-information.
I wish I knew what that tool was.
Maybe 'inoculating information' that's specifically stickier than the dis/mis-info?
Easy solution: Repeal Section 230.
Social media platforms in the United States rely heavily on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides them immunity from liability for most user-generated content.
This would cause widespread censorship of anything remotely controversial, including the truth. We'd be in a "censor first, ask questions later" society. Somehow that doesn't seem healthy either.
Have you visited nytimes.com in recent months? Just this morning the top headline was about the lies Trump told at the UN. That's pretty controversial - the newspaper of record calling the sitting president a liar. That's not allowed in many or most countries, but it is allowed in the US. And Trump is suing New York Times for $15 billion, for defamation. That didn't intimidate NYT. They are willing to stand behind the articles they publish. If you can't stand behind what you publish, don't publish them.
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