what free speech means in the context of a somewhat anonymous internet?
what free speech means in the context of a somewhat anonymous internet?
My current view is that while I want to promote openness and free speech that can really only work in a context where the person exercising their speech feels some necessity to use it responsibly and in an honest way.
On the internet that takes a lot of self control because the social norms of every day life don’t always apply because:
- no one knows who you are
- there is not a human being right in front of you that you might feel empathy for
- there are no consequences to anything you say
- not all posts are even by humans.
With all these taken together there is a compelling argument that speech may need to be more highly regulated on the internet than in face to face interactions. However there are people with legitimate ( beliefs and ideas honestly held that they wish to discuss ) views that I worry are going to be silenced and further marginalized.
This is bad for society because if people get dismissed or pushed aside it just breeds resentment, distrust, and more misunderstanding. I think as we start defederating and making decisions we are setting up a dangerous situation where it becomes potentially easy to defederate for the wrong reasons.
For instance "we think they are being racist" or "they are spreading misinformation" could have unintended consequences. Some religions and communities might have beliefs that appear to be pseudoscience or even discrimination. However if these are honestly held beliefs that they are willing to engage in civil discourse around I don't think it's right to actually block them.
This is likely just the beginning of a much larger discussion so what are your thoughts?---
My opinion is that we live in a world that's more and more divided and that stems from extremists being given platforms to easily spread their message and pull people in. Extremist terrorism is on the rise and people (especially social conservatives) are frequently seen assembling in huge numbers to protest, something that hadn't happened in decades (not in the number of times or the number of people anyway) in most of the the western world.
It's better to allow them to exist in their corner with little interaction with the rest of the world like they used to during the 80s to early 00s than to give them a platform to find gullible people in search for easy answers to recruit.
However there are people with legitimate ( beliefs and ideas honestly held that they wish to discuss ) views that I worry are going to be silenced and further marginalized.The vast majority of them don't wish to discuss because their beliefs aren't built upon rational foundations. If proven wrong with facts they use irrational arguments to defend their point of view. If experts intentionally don't argue with them then what are we doing arguing with them as laymen? Heck, arguing with them just gives them more space to share their message and convince people.
I'd argue that we're not more divided because of extremists being given platforms, but rather the opposite:
Because we build comfortable echochambers for ourselves (by algorithmically, or manually, cutting off contrary opinions) that succumb to groupthink, which by nature develop to be more and more extreme. The same is true for the "others" that get sent to their corner of the internet because they're wrong and not welcome.
Social media algorithm push extreme opinions because they generate more clicks and involvement from users, they also divide people a lot more because generating a debate about "gender vs sex" is much more controversial than if government subsidies for farmers are ok if it's too generate corn that's used to produce fuel.