<
https://theconversation.com/why-deregulating-online-platforms-is-actually-bad-for-free-speech-253015>
"One of the first executive orders that President Trump signed after his
inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, was titled
Restoring Freedom of Speech and
Ending Federal Censorship. The order accused the previous administration of
having “trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online
platforms.”
What Trump was referring to as censorship was the government’s attempt to work
with social media and broadcasting platforms to regulate misinformation,
disinformation and misleading information by removing content, limiting its
dissemination or labeling it, sometimes with fact-checking included. Similar
accusations had been brought before the Supreme Court in 2024, where the
justices sided with the federal government, preserving its ability to interact
and coordinate with social media platforms.
However, the decision came during a trend toward deregulation of online
platforms as Elon Musk removed guardrails after acquiring X, and Meta and
YouTube removed policies meant to combat hate and misinformation. With Trump’s
commitment to free speech protections through deregulation, online platforms
are likely to remove more guardrails.
As a scholar of legal and political philosophy, I know that deregulation and
free speech are often linked. Recently there has been a significant increase in
broad court rulings on the First Amendment that support deregulation in all
sorts of market sectors, from contributions to political campaigns to graphic
labels on cigarettes.
This is not surprising considering that free speech has long been associated
with the metaphor of free trade in ideas, closely tied to the value of a
deregulated market economy. The presumption has been that the way to protect
freedom of speech is through a deregulated marketplace, and speech on social
media platforms is no exception. However, research on online speech shows the
opposite to be the case: Regulating online speech protects free speech."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
