Linked – More Governments Granting Themselves Extra Censorship Powers With ‘Fake News’ Laws
Tim hits the nail on the head here, there’s a very fine line between trying to weed out “fake” information, and outright censorship.
“Fake news is apparently everywhere. All over Europe, legislators and officials are trying to regulate content with “fake news” legislation and directives, as though the term could somehow be narrowly-defined enough that regulation could even have a positive effect. All these new laws and demands for cooperation from tech companies are sure to generate plenty of negative effects, not the least of which is these laws will become tools for censorship and a super-easy way to silence dissent.”
An unintended side effect of all this censorship (and let’s be honest, that’s what it is), is what we see the fake news sites doing in response to Twitter and Facebook’s attempts, citing that “censorship” as proof of how they are being suppressed by the government/corporations/military/pick your boogieman. So you know what they’re selling must be powerful truth.
It’s not, but instead of bringing it into the light of day and making people answer for their claims, we’ve gone the opposite route, making it more difficult to share and granting it some special “power” that it doesn’t have.
The truth is, if you follow people on social media who share things that are blatantly biased and/or untrue, you know who not to trust about anything. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. If you have a tendency to believe anything that happens to trend toward your own biases, without a shred of critical thought, Facebook and Twitter aren’t to blame for that. That’s on you.
Follow these topics: Links
