The Anti-Defamation League is boycotting Facebook because they allow hate speech, Holocaust denial, and Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Now other corporations are pulling out of their connection to Facebook because of inadequate policing of hate. I wrote about social platforms recently. However, my post was on the other side of the issue, namely that people are being removed, shadowbanned, and declared as violating hate speech norms when they hold to conservative religious and political positions. The views of those in social media will influence what they see as hate or not hate. I certainly agree with the ADL on their standard and on the definitions of what constitutes Anti-Semitism. Social media is a too powerful and hard to govern technology. The challenge is enormous. More competition certainly would help. I would like to end the neutral platform protections for media services and let all compete and know that different platforms have different standards of what they will allow. However, I wonder if we are looking for a debate and a consensus on what should not be allowed, a consensus that would have to have the agreement of both religious and political conservatives and liberals. The idea of banning those who teach that God’s Law is only supportive of traditional heterosexual marriage would definitely be banned by some on the left as hate. What about religious conservatives challenging the LGBT agenda? However, the liberal response to conservatives who want to see everyone experience the love and acceptance of God could be also seen as hate. Here are some thoughts.
- Any content that calls for violence should be banned.
- Any content that declares that any racial group is inherently genetically inferior or superior to another, I can see banning.
- Maybe blatant lies that bring a panic and danger to people can be banned, like free speech does not allow for calling fire in a theater when there is no fire. One could say that New York is going to be hit by a nuclear bomb.
These standards actually are biblical. I wonder if there could be agreement on more. There are tons of misinformation on the internet. The internet can quickly spread bad information to millions. However, I don’t know how that can be policed. It seems that people will have to grow to be better consumers who can do better research and know what to believe.