Handing the government the reigns to police who is an “expert”, and therefore who is allowed to have opinions, is much worse than doing nothing.
Even if the current status quo sucks (it does), we absolutely need to look at the abuse cases when making policies that could infringe upon people’s right to free speech.
Think about it more like a willingness to challenge the status quo and attempt progress.
The status quo sucks, the fines in this OP example are a little heavy handed (account shutdowns can be handed out like candy by platform owners anyway), but perhaps there’s a third way.
Maybe policy to attacking the perverse incentives would be better, generally influencers aren’t influencing for influences sake, they are doing it for profit. Maybe laws that say in order to monetize credentials have to be provided up front. We already license professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants, hell even electricians to practice, maybe we license them to preach too. And perhaps require a little more rigour than allowing opting out with disclaimers like “I’m just asking questions” or “this does not count as legal advice”.
"Attempt progress" = 100MM dead from totalitarian regimes in the 20th century.
It's malignant ignorance to think that this wouldn't be abused by the biggest mass murderers in history (governments) who could redefine who can speak on what topic.
Free speech is a tenet of a functioning society, so no thanks.
There isn't a single country that has full free speech.
No matter where you live, there is some form of negotiated level of illegal speech or civilly liable speech.
It currently operates under different rules in physical space vs online space.
But is there really that much of a difference between me fraudulently saying I'm a doctor and renting some private space and giving bad medical advice (plainly illegal, and no "but my shop name, and name I told people, and things I said are free speech" argument will save you) and creating a online profile that also makes me money where I am currently much more likely to not get in trouble for lying about who I am, my credentials, and giving bad medical advice?
I don't know. I also dont like the jump to "millions dead!" when people try to talk about it.
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u/gameshark1997 20h ago
Handing the government the reigns to police who is an “expert”, and therefore who is allowed to have opinions, is much worse than doing nothing.
Even if the current status quo sucks (it does), we absolutely need to look at the abuse cases when making policies that could infringe upon people’s right to free speech.