May 28, 2020 11:33 PM
(This post was last modified: May 28, 2020 11:43 PM by C C.)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opini...-the-power
EXCERPT: Where do you go to get the news? For most people in the United States, a primary source is social media [...] But President Trump wants to take us back to the previous century, when we relied on an oligopoly of privileged media denizens, with no platform for the rest of the public to call out fake news. That's because his crusade ... to get revenge against Twitter ... would make social media companies and online comments sections liable for the words of individual users.
[...] Trump's executive order would instead create a perverse incentive for companies to permit only speech that they specifically publish. Why? Because not one company, not even media giants ... will gamble on the federal government's interpretation of whatever neutrality means or have the staff to moderate every single assertion posted to their sites.
And so, the masses would be forced to buy their own website domains and hope that emails would be enough to circulate their thoughts if they wished to have their voices heard. Legacy media organizations, such as the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post", would become the default. The beneficiaries of Trump's crusade would be the largely liberal newsrooms of legacy media. The losers would be the bloggers and independent accounts that have created something of a renaissance in conservative media.
Trump's war is misguided for about a million and a half reasons, not least of which is the precedent that would hand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the keys to the castle for regulating "hate speech" online. But its actual, practical ramifications should be reason enough to reject its very initiative. (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: Where do you go to get the news? For most people in the United States, a primary source is social media [...] But President Trump wants to take us back to the previous century, when we relied on an oligopoly of privileged media denizens, with no platform for the rest of the public to call out fake news. That's because his crusade ... to get revenge against Twitter ... would make social media companies and online comments sections liable for the words of individual users.
[...] Trump's executive order would instead create a perverse incentive for companies to permit only speech that they specifically publish. Why? Because not one company, not even media giants ... will gamble on the federal government's interpretation of whatever neutrality means or have the staff to moderate every single assertion posted to their sites.
And so, the masses would be forced to buy their own website domains and hope that emails would be enough to circulate their thoughts if they wished to have their voices heard. Legacy media organizations, such as the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post", would become the default. The beneficiaries of Trump's crusade would be the largely liberal newsrooms of legacy media. The losers would be the bloggers and independent accounts that have created something of a renaissance in conservative media.
Trump's war is misguided for about a million and a half reasons, not least of which is the precedent that would hand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the keys to the castle for regulating "hate speech" online. But its actual, practical ramifications should be reason enough to reject its very initiative. (MORE - details)