What does the FDA do when someone gets caught selling a fake medication? Do we wrap truth in scare quotes and try to make the sugar pills a philosophical issue?
Why is it so unconscionable to hold tech corporations accountable? We know (maybe I should say knew at this point?) how to enforce fraud and consumer protection. I fail to see how this shouldn't fall under commercial liability that's really all that different than run of the mill false advertising or product defects.
If we fail to do this we subsidize the operators and externalize the cost of fraud onto the general public.
The FDA has a very limited ability to regulate "truth". It has the single ability to regulate what standards something has to meet in order to be called "medication", and slightly more generally, in order to be advertisable with very specific health claims. But that's about it - you are absolutely free to sell snake oil as long as you don't call it medication and you don't, say, claim it specifically cures alopecia, but simply claim that it helps with hair growth. The gigantic health supplements and homeopathic and alternative remedies industry is testament to that.
I fail to see how any of this is even vaguely comparable to, say, stopping the spread of fake news. How would you write laws that allow the government to stop the spread of fake news, but not block the release of true but highly inconvenient news? For example, should Big Tech be allowed to spread news about the stolen US election, as the President of the United States calls it? How about the Genocide in Gaza, that the United Nations recognizes but that the United States calls fake news and antisemitic propaganda? And even if you have a clear opinion on which of these is fake news and which isn't, do you trust this administration and all future ones to have the same opinion?
And if I'm misunderstanding that you are talking about regulating the spread of fake news, please suggest what specific regulations you're thinking of.
What does the FDA do when someone gets caught selling a fake medication? Do we wrap truth in scare quotes and try to make the sugar pills a philosophical issue?
Why is it so unconscionable to hold tech corporations accountable? We know (maybe I should say knew at this point?) how to enforce fraud and consumer protection. I fail to see how this shouldn't fall under commercial liability that's really all that different than run of the mill false advertising or product defects.
If we fail to do this we subsidize the operators and externalize the cost of fraud onto the general public.
The FDA has a very limited ability to regulate "truth". It has the single ability to regulate what standards something has to meet in order to be called "medication", and slightly more generally, in order to be advertisable with very specific health claims. But that's about it - you are absolutely free to sell snake oil as long as you don't call it medication and you don't, say, claim it specifically cures alopecia, but simply claim that it helps with hair growth. The gigantic health supplements and homeopathic and alternative remedies industry is testament to that.
I fail to see how any of this is even vaguely comparable to, say, stopping the spread of fake news. How would you write laws that allow the government to stop the spread of fake news, but not block the release of true but highly inconvenient news? For example, should Big Tech be allowed to spread news about the stolen US election, as the President of the United States calls it? How about the Genocide in Gaza, that the United Nations recognizes but that the United States calls fake news and antisemitic propaganda? And even if you have a clear opinion on which of these is fake news and which isn't, do you trust this administration and all future ones to have the same opinion?
And if I'm misunderstanding that you are talking about regulating the spread of fake news, please suggest what specific regulations you're thinking of.
Fake medication at a gas station or do you mean on the internet?