Twitter And Social Media Are A Cancer On Our Civic Life. They Don’t Deserve Protection – IOTW Report

Twitter And Social Media Are A Cancer On Our Civic Life. They Don’t Deserve Protection

Federalist: The debate about whether social media companies should have protection from liability misses a larger question about their role in American society.

There’s nothing like a row between Twitter and President Trump to turn everyone into an expert on 47 U.S. Code § 230, a heretofore obscure section of federal law that deals with liability protections for companies like Twitter.

Go on social media right now and you’re bound to find friends, neighbors, and colleagues opining on federal statutes and citing old Supreme Court cases to bolster their arguments that we have to do this or that right now to save the internet or protect free speech.

So let me just say up front, I am not an expert on Section 230 or on federal liability law generally. I don’t have a strong opinion on exactly how the law should be reformed or what the mechanisms of a successful reform might be, nor do I think there aren’t real trade-offs to consider here.

But I don’t need to be an expert in liability law to know this: social media are corrosive to our civic life, and social media companies like Twitter are largely unaccountable for their actions in that regard. Without question, Twitter and Facebook and YouTube have harmed democratic life in America, eroded our civic values, and exacerbated divisions and distrust between citizens. If they all disappeared tomorrow, the country would be better off. more


12 Comments on Twitter And Social Media Are A Cancer On Our Civic Life. They Don’t Deserve Protection

  1. It’s damn good and well finally someone said it.

    ….and SHITCAN you damn smartphones, too. They’ve made you ALL digital slaves.

    I’ve been saying this for YEARS.

    12
  2. If anyone needs protection from social media it’s the American people.

    You can add the drive-by media to the mix, who definitely prove everyday they are enemies of America.

    I pray for America tonight and President Trump! 🕊️❤️🙏🇺🇸

    5
  3. I’ve been using Twitter to follow where the looters are going. I’ve learned a new term, “Bougie means wanting to be a higher class than one actually is. It means giving off the appearance of a particular lifestyle without actually having the money to back it. Bougie is being pretentious.” The looters were giving props for busting up bougie “ bourgeoisie“ neighborhoods.

    Right now, just about every suburb community around Seattle have lockdown their malls and have told business owners In town to board up their windows. That’s a lot of ground for AntiFA to cover. We’ll see what happens after the sun goes down.

    6
  4. Antifa and big liberal cities are made for each other.

    A pox on both their houses.

    I hope they annihilate each other.

    Taking the side of either one of them is sheer idiocy for a conservative.

    7
  5. If these “protests” keep up, there won’t just be “food deserts” in big American cities. They’ll become “commercial deserts” – where stores of any kind don’t exist.

    5
  6. THIS IS MY SOCIAL MEDIA, here @iOTW, this is where I post, no where else. FUCK everything else.

    I have no accounts in any other media. I DO follow certain twatters to keep on top or in real time, that’s it.

    9
  7. The media are selling the the word “peaceful” now to justify the illegitimacy of demonstrations during a curfew, with no permit and mixed with occasional window breaking, fires and looting.

    “Peaceful.”

    Big city police departments are f*cked by their management, the mayors and city councils. We are witnessing the death of American cities: Phase I of the collapse.

    2
  8. According to someone on Quora, the reason Trump spends so much time inWashington because he knows prosecutors in New York are after him. I guess after all those years Trump lived in NYC, prosecutors did not discover any illegal activity.

    It is sad some of the stupidity I see on Quora.

    2
  9. I was on facebook for 11 or 12 years. It was pretty fun in the beginning… distant family and friend interactions.

    But yes, this is my only social media now too. I was on Breitbart on disqus for a number of years but was perma-banned when I pissed off some Elon Musk sycophant.

    2
  10. I bought some food for my ducks, and goat, whilst you were pissing away your money on a stupid fucking car, Ei7eghaequ.

    Buy gold, canned food, and ammo. You ignorant slut.

    2

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