EFF: Social Media Platforms Should be Accountable and Transparent About Content Removal, But DOJ’s Plan to Investigate Raises Concerns
Social Media Platforms Should be Accountable and Transparent About Content Removal, But DOJ’s Plan to Investigate Raises Concerns The Justice Department’s announcement yesterday that it will meet with states to discuss whether social media companies are “intentionally” stifling free speech represents a potentially dangerous new step in the wrong direction. Instead of focusing on making social media accountable and transparent, the Justice Department’s effort seems aimed at pressuring social media platforms to censor or promote speech in accordance with the government’s views of which speech it prefers. If the Justice Department is aiming at convincing state attorneys general to exercise their new powers under FOSTA , or worse, further undermine platforms’ ability to host our speech by making them liable for what we say, all of us who rely on social media platforms will lose out. We know that governmental censorship schemes almost always silence the less powerful, qu...