It's worth considering: 1) A distinction between 'opinions' 'facts' and 'hate speech'. and 2) Media is an existential power, almost like a wing of government.

It's worth considering: 1) A distinction between 'opinions' 'facts' and 'hate speech'. and 2) Media is an existential power, almost like a wing of government. If you control the media, you can control a nation. Which is why authoritarian states take a very active role. FB and others already do have policies against very aggressive speech, for example, if you start calling people the 'N-word' - you'll get banned. But where 1 and 2 collide is on the issue of factuality. Take the pandemic: it would be quite easy for 'big name politicians' and others to outright lie about the nature of COVID. These lies perpetuate into behaviours and outcomes which are very bad for everyone. I'm not sure if the statement 'COVID doesn't kill anyone' is much of an opinion, more or less statement of fact. (Edit: which is wrong of course, I hope that is obvious) When you take this information and push it into the political arena, where facts are harder to discern ... it becomes a problem. This ultimately is the crux of the issue. We have no choice but to 'call out bad information' or it will hurt us severely. We did this traditionally by forcing some kind of consent and responsibility with the major news outlets - they were 'free' but responsibly managed. Press owners, are kind of 'part of the elite' - they have a kind of status of responsibility. Once there's no control, you have 'Democracy by TikTok' and it's not good. It's an issue we have to deal with.