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If Facebook wants to own the public forum they have to manage it as well. Their power comes with responsibilities to keep it lawsful for all participants. That
by Vespasian 5y ago
If Facebook wants to own the public forum they have to manage it as well.
Their power comes with responsibilities to keep it lawsful for all participants. That means removing unlawful speech while at the same time allowing lawful speech.
It's only logical that conflicts needs to be settled in a similar fashion as they are in other similar situations in the offline world.
For western democracies that usually means some sort of due process and unbiased weighing of facts with a decision that adheres to the existing standards in that society.
Facebook would like to do everything automatically of course but with great power comes great responsibility.
I predict that sooner or later the regular court system will be responsible for those cases and Facebook will be happy to make money by providing the tech platform.
- corty 5y agoRegular courts are already responsible. They can and do order illegal content to be removed, accounts blocked and users punished. Some new legislation in Germany requires Facebook to also proactively remove posts from users that have been reported and are "obviously" illegal, even without waiting for a court order. But Facebook goes even beyond that and uses standards that are stricter than current laws, and processes that are simpler, harsher and stricter than the usual court proceedings. The court judgement in the article limited that practice a bit. You may be right in that the legislation described in the second paragraph requiring Facebook to be proactive may be expanded. I do find this tendency unfortunate, because free speech is put in the hands of a private for-profit entity that is by law required to be very quick about its judgements.