I understand people are upset & worried about crazy insurrectionists right now, but I'll keep repeating that you will absolutely regret passing laws that say "social media cannot allow or amplify" such speech. Because such a law WILL be applied to BLM protesters too...
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Replying to @mmasnick
This is an argument against all laws, though. You may wanna make an argument against this particular idea, but the structure of your argument applies to every single thing we regulate—without exception.
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Replying to @zeynep
I don't think that's necessarily true. In fact, it's not true.
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Replying to @mmasnick
The argument: If we pass a law saying "[some powerful entity] cannot do Y" it will be applied to X. That applies to every single thing we regulate. In fact, people in power *do* try to use laws (too) broadly for almost any law we do pass.
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Replying to @zeynep
Again, I believe you are misrepresenting what I am saying, and there are plenty of laws to which that does not apply. But my point stands that such laws that are directed at speech will be misused.
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It’s true that laws restricting speech are abused, consistently and predictably, by people whose interests are affected by that speech. But that’s an argument for: 1) well-crafted laws 2) better jurisprudence 3) better law enforcement practices and 4) strong civil watchdogs.
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Because history teaches us laws restricting speech are inevitable, and are generally in response to extraordinary circumstances. These are extraordinary circumstances.
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I'm not even arguing it's a good idea, or how, or what we should do. I just never understood the slippery slope argument in this form because it's practically only the US among almost all democracies without stronger regulation in this arena.
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