Hardtalk
Hardtalk with Stephen Sackur
Recently I was introduced in the hard-hitting BBC television show/ podcast, Hardtalk. The host Stephen Sackur takes no punches. The exchange with Alan Dershowitz was awesome. On my run today, I listened to the episode with Lina Khan, a US lawyer who took on Amazon about whether the tech giants can be tamed.
The episode covered both Amazon’s position in a free market, as well as the power of Twitter to censor people. The comparison with Europe was quickly made, where European laws regulate these types of issues more strictly. It was a great observation by Sackur. Yet, he didn’t follow through on his train on thought: what’s the difference with US law, and what role has US congress played or failed to play.
The public focus right is on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple or Amazon. The debate is about banning Trump, or about removing Parler from their platforms. Yet, little conversation in the US happens about the role of Congress, or the enforcement of existing laws swiftly. The only talk seems to be about punishing tech companies by revoking Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 provides immunity to online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content.
Is anything online acceptable and must tech companies allow it? Free speech and the first amendment don’t apply here. A company doesn’t have to allow any speech on their platform.
I don’t know what the right answer is here. I surely don’t want to end up in an over-regulated system where one debates the curvation of a cucumber. Yet, I do think that we should discuss what online speech should be prosecuted and how, as not to rely on companies to have to create such guidelines on speech and moderation.