Free Speech on Social Media

In a utopian world, we would all focus exclusively on seeking out the truth and always to speak it. We would respect facts unconditionally and our journalists would always check sources against truth.

Media would no longer use the term “news” if they did not adhere to strict rules on factual reporting and little or no editorializing. Indeed, FOX News would be “Fox Entertainment” given its almost exclusive focus on supporting falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Outlets like CNN would also separate their news component from their editorial panels analyzing the news and spinning it. 

People would be educated to seek out the truth and base their political and social decisions on accurate reporting rather than on some pundit’s view of manipulated facts to achieve a particular political objective.

In a utopian world, social media outlets, like traditional media in the past, would assume the responsibility for fact checking every posting to ensure accuracy and veracity. While free speech gives everyone the right to express their views, it doesn’t give them the right to have them published if they are false or misleading.  

This would not be censorship but it would ensure that fact-based news is published on social media and that what is published can be trusted.

Indeed, when the truth is published, there is no need for censorship.

To quote former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, “trust but verify”.

Ensuring that a statement published on social media is truthful is not censorship – it is ensuring that the audience gets the truth rather than some manipulator’s lie or interpretation. Each reader should also be able to come to their own conclusion about a statement of fact and do their own research to ensure that they are properly informed.

Elon Musk’s take over of Twitter and his intention to make it a private company is being positioned as a way to unlock shareholder value for a company that today trades at close to the same price as when it went public. Others view it as a way to defend free speech so that everyone is able to publish their views – that would include Donald Trump’s return to the platform.

Social media and its algorithms that collect and amplify data to maximize profit over truthfulness are a complicated enough issue to address on a company wide basis and can only become more difficult when that company is in the hands of one person. We have already seen the results of Mark Zuckerberg’s running of Facebook with no checks and balances. In a similar vein, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch fall into the same category and we have also seen how Elon Musk has used Twitter in the past to amplify Tesla’s stock price to his advantage.  

Providing an unfiltered platform to those who would divide people and destroy democracy and democratic institutions is to guarantee our own demise as a free society. 

Concentrating so much power on a global basis into few hands, without these checks and balances, allows these firms and their algorithms to amplify false and divisive messaging by populists to manipulate public opinion, divide societies, and promote hatred of others. This is not freedom of speech – it is the promotion of ignorance and confusion for evil ends.

We do not live in a utopian society.

We live increasingly in dystopian times.

The rise of extremes on the right and the left, empowered by social media and a general population unable or unwilling to check the veracity of the views proposed is a major threat to democracy as we know it.

The rise of international groups dedicated to promoting racist and divisive politics and shape public opinion in target countries to ensure the triumph of illiberal democracy must be monitored and standards must be imposed by governments.

We are encouraging generations who do not understand that they are responsible for their decisions, and that their support for infotainment rather than factual news will determine their future as citizens of viable democracies. These generations are getting their main news from social media, where conspiracy theorists abound, and where they have little or no critical judgment to evaluate the veracity of what they are reading.

Parents and educators have the prime responsibility to train our youth to use critical judgment and base decisions on reason and fact rather than the mad hysteria that seems to take over social media on most issues. However, getting the facts cannot be their responsibility alone. 

Government has the responsibility of regulating social media and cable news to ensure that it does not destroy the very fabric of democratic society. While this may at first appear to be a contradiction in terms, we are talking about imposing the same journalistic standards as those imposed on mainstream television, radio and newspapers. Liberty is not libertinism, and information must be curated to ensure factual reporting.

The whole global argument on Covid-19 and the questioning of science from leaders like Donald Trump down is an indication about how social media and cable news are a force for mendacity and political manipulation in the hands of a few aiming to grab absolute power.

Governments must ensure that freedom of speech does not turn into freedom of promoting lies or falsehoods that can affect lives and freedoms.

As I said above, each of us has the right to express our views, but there is no basis, in any constitution, to expect the freedom to publish anything that is not based on facts. 

[email protected]

Keep reading: Moscow and the European Right

Edición: Laura Espejo