Promoting freedom of speech by changing the economic and digital infrastructure of the Internet
The future of free speech
A series of articles to rethink the First Amendment in the digital age
Over the past ten years, society has embraced the benefits of the Internet and social media in an effort to empower expression and improve the market for ideas, but this view has changed dramatically recently and now it seems that not everyone is happy. Some believe that the platforms are filled with trolling, bigotry and hatred. 1 Others feel that they have become overly intrusive in terms of politics, and systematically silence or censor certain points of view. 2 Not to mention privacy and what they do (or don't do) with all the data they collect.
The situation has created something of a crisis, both inside and outside these companies. The platforms are constantly trying to fulfill new responsibilities as “arbiters of truth and kindness” on the Internet, despite the fact that historically they have positioned themselves as defenders of free speech. Meanwhile, in the US, politicians from the two main parties criticize them, even if for completely different reasons. Some complain that the platforms potentially allow foreign interference in their elections. 3 Others complain that they were used to spread disinformation and propaganda. 4 Still others accuse platforms of simply being too influential. 5 The following draw attention to inappropriate accounts and content removal, 6while others talk about trying to mitigate discrimination against certain political points of view. 7
It is clear that there is no simple solution to these problems, and most of the proposed ones, as a rule, are far from the reality of the technical and social difficulties, which probably make their solution impossible.
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