Once upon a time, the founders of what became giant social media companies had a vision: to bring the world together with cute cat videos. They seemed harmless at the time. Heck, a lot of people even gave Facebook credit for the Arab Spring. Social media seemed like an unvarnished good.
That was then, and this is now. Social media, as it turns out, can as easily be a pipeline for religious, ethnic, and ideological hatred as for your travel photos. Algorithms used by the social media corporations generate higher profits when they drive consumers to extreme opinions. Rumors and conspiracy theories thrive and spread in this friendly environment. The companies can’t respond quickly enough to solve the problems, and have every financial incentive not to. What can be done?
Antitrust actions can limit the size of these corporations, but do very little to resolve the free speech/censorship problem. The repeal of Section 230 would address the issue pertaining to false and inflammatory posts by forcing the corporations to take legal responsibility for objectionable material posted on their platforms by third parties, but it would discourage speech, to the ultimate detriment of the GOP members who claim to support it. The answer has to lie elsewhere.
The antitrust actions that have been filed in the last month were an appropriate response to Facebook’s attempts to eliminate competition. The free speech/censorship issues are best addressed by the adoption and enforcement of clear and transparent government regulations which establish standards that have nothing to do with the current algorithms.
In the meantime, if you’re a Republican complaining about Twitter and Facebook using the First Amendment rights your party fought so hard to give them against Trump and his henchmen, put a sock in it.