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What are the criteria for when a private site crosses the line to become a "public" site where it is no longer allowed to moderate its content (or has to modera
by clucas 5y ago
What are the criteria for when a private site crosses the line to become a "public" site where it is no longer allowed to moderate its content (or has to moderate its content based on federal rules)?
If it's based on average users over a time period, do we trust the site to report it accurately? If a user gets banned from a "private" site that has not yet hit the size threshold, and the user complains to the government and alleges that the site actually is big enough, does the the government go in and audit the company's logs to make a determination over whether it should be a "public" site?
If it's based on something looser, like "percentage of people who use this site as their only news source," (which does seem more defensible, to me) how do we set up the criteria for making the determination?
Also, how would the federal rules for content moderation look? Would a call for open insurrection still be bannable? What if two roughtly equal portions of the electorate don't agree about whether it was a call for insurrection? Who decides if it was?
I think questions like these need to be thought through and answered before we can seriously talk about making a law that prevents social media companies from banning anyone they choose.
- engineer_22 5y agoYup, let's begin immediately!
- clucas 5y agoWell, I can't see any answers to those questions that don't have serious flaws, worse than the problems such government control would prevent. Which is why I think government control over social media moderation is a really bad idea. Since you're the one who wants to change the status quo, why don't you suggest a proposal for how such federal moderation regulation would work? I'm willing to acknowledge that I may just be suffering a failure of imagination. Though, maybe not in this thread... contact in profile, or I'm sure we can discuss it next week when it comes up on HN again. :)