Who’s Afraid of Online Speech?
(Not This Crowd)
The video from a fun Internet policy event at New America this week is now online. Yes, we had keynotes from Senator , focusing on her legislative effort to advance transparency and accountability in online political ads, and , outlining Constitutional and other interests as we examine the platforms’ responsibilities around online speech. Interesting questioning and dialogue ensued, featuring , , Jennifer Daskal, and Kate Klonick.
And then, starting at 1:11:05, came the epic panel that, obviously, literally everyone in Washington has been buzzing about ever since. (It’s the Trump era, so that now qualifies as a true statement).
Moderated by the brilliant and intrepid journalist , the conversation unfolded among (of the Wikimedia Foundation), Whitney Phillips (author of two excellent books on trolling and online culture), (privacy nerd, ex-Obama White House, ex-Facebook, now at New America, just published Digital Deceit, a great report with Ben Scott on how to fight the technologies behind precision propaganda), and me. We dug into the responsibilities of online platforms for their users’ speech; the wisdom and legitimacy of their content policies and practices; the relationships between product design and community culture; the need for better user-empowering features; roles and tactics for governments and communities to fight some categories of harmful online speech; the availability of existing criminal and common law tort hooks like impersonation to achieve better outcomes absent regulation by the administrative state; the value of regulating ends, not means, in technology markets; the availability of multiple alternative speech platforms; and more.
You won’t want to be the only person to miss this sizzling, sprawling smorgasbord of rich, creamy tech policy deliciousness.
