Murphy’s statement came after left-wing tech giants Apple, Facebook, and YouTube banned controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his publication, Infowars, from their platforms.
Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 6, 2018
Needless to say, Murphy’s push for censorship did not receive very much support on social media. Here are just a few of the non-explicit responses Murphy received:
Orwell would never have invented a character like this U.S. senator. Too dumb and creepy to be realistic enough. https://t.co/ea2T44zyXA
— Tom Woods (@ThomasEWoods) August 7, 2018
The same senator who attacks the #2A now wants to censor speech, and take down websites limiting speech.
Where have we seen this act before? https://t.co/aZqVbq9D6r
— Conservative Review (@CR) August 7, 2018
Murphy is correct
The survival of our democracy
Is at stakeBut in the exact opposite way
And he is on the side trying to Destroy itOnce the Left gets their #ThoughPolice fully functional
Conservative ideas of all kinds are next on the chopping block https://t.co/wHWJ99W3B1
— Jim Hanson (@Uncle_Jimbo) August 7, 2018
[divider][/divider]He's moments away from telling children to turn in their parents. https://t.co/Cfnr2uXoTE
— Tony Katz (@tonykatz) August 7, 2018
Reason.com reported: A leaked memo circulating among Senate Democrats contains a host of bonkers authoritarian proposals for regulating digital platforms, purportedly as a way to get tough on Russian bots and fake news. To save American trust in “our institutions, democracy, free press, and markets,” it suggests, we need unprecedented and undemocratic government intervention into online press and markets, including “comprehensive (GDPR-like) data protection legislation” of the sort enacted in the E.U.
Titled “Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms,” the draft policy paper—penned by Sen. Mark Warner and leaked by an unknown source to Axios—the paper starts out by noting that Russians have long spread disinformation, including when “the Soviets tried to spread ‘fake news’ denigrating Martin Luther King” (here he fails to mention that the Americans in charge at the time did the same). But NOW IT’S DIFFERENT, because technology.
“Today’s tools seem almost built for Russian disinformation techniques,” Warner opines. And the ones to come, he assures us, will be even worse.
Here’s how Warner is suggesting we deal:
Mandatory location verification. The paper suggests forcing social media platforms to authenticate and disclose the geographic origin of all user accounts or posts.
Mandatory identity verification: The paper suggests forcing social media and tech platforms to authenticate user identities and only allow “authentic” accounts (“inauthentic accounts not only pose threats to our democratic process…but undermine the integrity of digital markets”), with “failure to appropriately address inauthentic account activity” punishable as “a violation of both SEC disclosure rules and/or Section 5 of the [Federal Trade Commission] Act.”
Bot labeling: Warner’s paper suggests forcing companies to somehow label bots or be penalized (no word from Warner on how this is remotely feasible)
Define popular tech as “essential facilities.” These would be subject to all sorts of heightened rules and controls, says the paper, offering Google Maps as an example of the kinds of apps or platforms that might count. “The law would not mandate that a dominant provider offer the serve for free,” writes Warner. “Rather, it would be required to offer it on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” provided by the government.
Other proposals include more disclosure requirements for online political speech, more spending to counter supposed cybersecurity threats, more funding for the Federal Trade Commission, a requirement that companies’ algorithms can be audited by the feds (and this data shared with universities and others), and a requirement of “interoperability between dominant platforms.”
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