Free Speech No longer an issue of allowing people to speak, it is - PDF document

Free Speech  No longer an issue of allowing people to speak, it is now an issue of who is paying attention  Also an issue of how credible is the information  How did this come about? 3 important developments:  1) Cheap speech via internet o Easy to harass and abuse e.g. troll armies o “Flooding” with fake news, fake commentators and propaganda bots o Opens the door for hate speech o Anonymity allows people to say whatever they want without consequences (this was not the case when the 1 st amendment was drafted)  Can’t lose credibility o The process of agreeing/disagreeing is cheap. Reactionary speech without thinking about it  2) The attention economy o Less nuanced conversation because you are broadcasting to the general public o Not really public speech – targeted and private so not everyone sees the same thing o Vulnerable to propaganda – intended to grab your attention and not intended to inform o Polarizing topics tend to get more response o Alternative facts – spinning topics to be really good or bad  3) Filter bubble / Echo chamber

o Groupthink – self-reinforcing conversations with like-minded people o Algorithms optimized for attention and engagement o Social media propagates your own views as you tend to only follow people that agree with you  Irony: the most effective forms of censoring free speech today is with more free speech  How can the 1 st Amendment be adapted to deal with these issues? o 1 st Amendment is about govt actions o Include accomplice liability if govt had a hand in it e.g. if a politician has a troll army that harasses someone, that politician should be held accountable o Stricter laws on misinformation campaigns  Can we prove that the misinformation is deliberate?  Who gets to decide what is misinformation?  Place responsibility on govt to cite sources  Slippery slope: 1 st Amendment was intended to prevent govt from shutting down opposing views  Can we quantify the amount of harm of your free speech if it is misinformation? o Expand definition of state action to encompass speech platforms  If govt official is the source on a speech platform, then 1 st amendment should apply

 How can a govt have jurisdiction over an international speech platform?  Target ads are a big factor on speech platforms o Regulation of tech companies  Jeffersonians: want to break up big tech companies to produce a just society  Hamiltonians: monopolies are good for innovation, want to regulate big tech o Who should enforce laws on free speech on social media?  (Side conversation) Are bots under the 1 st amendment?  Should the companies do it?  Right now, they enforce their own policies 