Free Speech No longer an issue of allowing people to speak, it is - - PDF document

Free Speech

 No longer an issue of allowing people to speak, it is

now an issue of who is paying attention

 Also an issue of how credible is the information  How did this come about? 3 important developments:  1) Cheap speech via internet

• Easy to harass and abuse e.g. troll armies
• “Flooding” with fake news, fake commentators and

propaganda bots

• Opens the door for hate speech
• Anonymity allows people to say whatever they

want without consequences (this was not the case when the 1st amendment was drafted)

• Can’t lose credibility
• The process of agreeing/disagreeing is cheap.

Reactionary speech without thinking about it

 2) The attention economy

• Less nuanced conversation because you are

broadcasting to the general public

• Not really public speech – targeted and private so

not everyone sees the same thing

• Vulnerable to propaganda – intended to grab your

attention and not intended to inform

• Polarizing topics tend to get more response
• Alternative facts – spinning topics to be really

good or bad

 3) Filter bubble / Echo chamber

• Groupthink – self-reinforcing conversations with

like-minded people

• Algorithms optimized for attention and

engagement

• Social media propagates your own views as you

tend to only follow people that agree with you  Irony: the most effective forms of censoring free speech today is with more free speech  How can the 1st Amendment be adapted to deal with these issues?

• 1st Amendment is about govt actions
• Include accomplice liability if govt had a hand in it

e.g. if a politician has a troll army that harasses someone, that politician should be held accountable

• Stricter laws on misinformation campaigns
• Can we prove that the misinformation is

deliberate?

• Who gets to decide what is misinformation?
• Place responsibility on govt to cite sources
• Slippery slope: 1st Amendment was intended

to prevent govt from shutting down opposing views

• Can we quantify the amount of harm of your

free speech if it is misinformation?

• Expand definition of state action to encompass

speech platforms

• If govt official is the source on a speech

platform, then 1st amendment should apply

• How can a govt have jurisdiction over an

international speech platform?

• Target ads are a big factor on speech

platforms

• Regulation of tech companies
• Jeffersonians: want to break up big tech

companies to produce a just society

• Hamiltonians: monopolies are good for

innovation, want to regulate big tech

• Who should enforce laws on free speech on social

media?

• (Side conversation) Are bots under the 1st

amendment?

• Should the companies do it?

 Right now, they enforce their own policies