Presidential candidate Warren has made it clear that she will impose burdensome and restrictive regulation on social media, which includes designating them “platform utilities”, aggressively eliminating “disinformation” to protect “free speech”, as well as fulfilling the incoherent populist rallying cry of “breaking up” the biggest of the corporations. It would be a massive, authoritarian intervention into a very free and open market for networking, finding and sharing news,
But “disinformation” is in the eye of the beholder. How long would it take before legitimate criticism of various powerful officials, agencies, or industries would be deemed disinfo? Free speech enjoys far greater protection on the internet right now, in the absence of any government regulation. Warren’s hyperbolic proposal would siphon all the energy of the free, unhampered interaction occurring every second on social media, leaving a digital product that no one would want to use. And what of other, smaller social media firms? At what point would they receive the same bureaucratic treatment?
Warren’s plan would kill social media, and in the process severely damage freedom of expression on the web.
