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The Communications Decency Act of 1996 permitted Internet Companies to not be held responsible for content posted by users. That was an interesting experiment.
by flowerlad 7y ago
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 permitted Internet Companies to not be held responsible for content posted by users. That was an interesting experiment. Looking back we now know that it did some good, but it also did some bad: It meant that everyone on the internet could become a publisher and the result has been fake news, unbridled growth in hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and so on. It meant many users trapped in echo chambers who receive an untrue view of the world.
It is now time to review the Communications Decency Act and perhaps take back some of its provisions based on what we have learned in the last 23 years. Sacha Baron Cohen is right, social media companies should be held to the same decency standards as traditional publishers.
- zaroth 7y ago> Looking back we now know that it did some good, but it also did some bad: It meant that everyone on the internet could become a publisher and the result has been fake news, unbridled growth in hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and so on. It meant many users trapped in echo chambers who receive an untrue view of the world. From my perspective, your last sentence perfectly describes the prior. The most prominent purveyor of “fake news” is, by far, the major networks themselves. Hate speech has never been less unbridled, and terrorist propaganda never had anything to do with the CDA.