US Judge restricts Biden officials from contact with social media firms
US Judge restricts Biden officials from contact with social media firms
A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday restricted some agencies and officials of the administration of President Joe Biden from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, according to a court filing.
I feel like this is technically a good thing in the grand scheme, but the fact that it's in response to the government trying to combat COVID and election misinformation makes me... uneasy, to say the least.
This is a difficult topic to make my mind up tbh.
On one hand, it's good that the government isn't allowed to interfere with what people are allowed to post on social media. I mean, imagine if there's a wannabe dictator as POTUS in 2025, and he decides that all negative things about him on social media isn't allowed. Yeah, that should be avoided.
However, simultaneously allowing the government to interfere with social media could result into less misinformation, less conspiracy theories, and less bullshit on the internet.
Ultimately, I think a good compromise would be to appoint an independent department to manage misinformation on the internet, as long as this department is independent of politicians and/or social media companies themselves (so that there is no situation of self-regulation). Who would appoint the people to manage this department and on what criteria? No idea, it's difficult to judge who is allowed to decide what is 'true' or 'false'.
wannabe dictator as POTUS in 2025, and he decides that all negative things about him on social media isn’t allowed. Yeah, that should be avoided.
you should know by now that they wont enforce the rules for their favorite orange bunghole
The government notably didn't dictate anything social media companies HAD to allow or disallow, but rather ASKED. I'm fine with that, as they also do that with news agencies and have since the founding of the country for various reasons.
So long as a company retains the right to tell them to kick rocks, I don't see an overstepping of bounds here.