By what right do Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg set the rules for speech in America? For Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham, the answer is clear–none. They have proposed to create a new independent, bipartisan agency that would rein in the power and excesses of big tech. Is that a good idea?
It sounds like it, until you consider the following:
- First Amendment rights are currently adjudicated by an allegedly apolitical body–the Supreme Court. How’s that working for you these days?
- The new agency sounds a good deal like the FEC, which is completely impotent due to ongoing partisan wrangling.
- Lindsey Graham’s favorite golfing buddy has already made it clear that he wants to put our existing independent agencies under presidential control pursuant to the unitary executive theory. If you add the legislative proposal to Trump’s ambitions, you are setting the stage for a GOP Secretary of Internet Censorship.
The bottom line here is that the Warren/Graham proposal would only work in a society in which there is general agreement about what is and isn’t protected speech. Without that agreement, leaving the issues to tech giants, while hardly a perfect solution, is probably the least unsafe way to deal with censorship questions.