Richard Sexton 26 April 2019 · Facebook has some thoughts on how the government should regulate it. 1) To prevent harmful content, the government or a 3rd party should create standards and measure internet companies against them. 2) To protect elections, we need new legislation for what types of political ads can be done and how they will be verified. 3) To protect privacy, the US should adopt a GDPR-like policy, giving people the right to choose how their information is used. 4) To ensure data portability, you should be able to move your data from one platform to another easily with a common standard. Questions, comments, anvils? 11 comments Seen by 86 Like Comment Comments Richard Wright Well, it‘s at least an acknowledgement there is an elephant in the room. Like · Reply · 1 y Matthew Skala Platforms that "curate" should be liable for what they allow; platforms that don't want to be liable should not "curate." Same rules as the phone company. But that would be the worst-case scenario for Facebook and they will beg for anything but it. Like · Reply · 1 y · Edited Richard Wright That should be PERSONALLY liable for what they allow, and the harm done with it. That'd make people think twice before "Scraping" Like · Reply · 1 y Richard Sexton In other words, this is what it means in legal terms when we say "common carrier" (unencumbered) or "editorially controlled" (you curate it, you're responsible and liable for content). If Zuck wants to do something he can, he just does it and answers to nobody. So if it's doming something now that takes lots o negotiations with the government then it's quite clear he's being coerced into it by them. And what he's saying here is "why just us? If you want to make rules that all social media has to apply then why don't you do that" and of course these would apply to usenet as well. Apparently it still exists. Now, the question is does a new law need to be drafted here? Or it that being done for some other reason specifici to fb? It's against the law to yell "fire" in a crowded theatre or to libel somebody. If somebody does this over twitter do we need new laws for that? Should Twitter he thrown in jail as an accessory? If somebody libels you do you expect to be able ot sue FB? Is FB an editor or a common carrier because of the "community guidelines" which are arbitrary, capricious and ever changing. That's up to courts and congress to decide and good goddamn luck to them. Can I still say that here? I notice the CBC applied a george-carlins-heavy-seven filter yesterday afternoon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin' 1964 YOUTUBE.COM Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin' 1964 Bob Dylan The Times They Are A Changin' 1964 Like · Reply · 1 y Katie Thomas GDPR is cool on paper but so far all I see is me being forced to consent to a dozen "necessary" cookies for every site I want to glance at. Like · Reply · 1 y Jeff Carroll These days the US government is incapable of meaningful regulation in the public interest. Too many of the participants view the very concept of regulation as actively evil. Like · Reply · 1 y Richard Sexton But ICANN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZvg_FjL3Q Bob Dylan - Hurricane (Audio) YOUTUBE.COM Bob Dylan - Hurricane (Audio) Bob Dylan - Hurricane (Audio) Like · Reply · 1 y Write a reply... Jeff Carroll And, honestly, it's kind of naive to expect a Facebook to carve out a kind of American exceptionalism that would prevent Moron-Americans from doing stupid shit like electing Trump. Like · Reply · 1 y Richard Sexton How was that not predictable though. Friend to the Clintons and lifelong democrat, a guy whose expertise was gutting businesses like a fish and sell them off, was funded by the Clinton to win the GOP nomination while the Clintons systematically Bernie (wikileaks showed where they admitted this). How could there be any other outcome? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMz2EyNvdfg Harry Chapin - The Mayor Of Candor Lied YOUTUBE.COM Harry Chapin - The Mayor Of Candor Lied Harry Chapin - The Mayor Of Candor Lied Like · Reply · 1 y Write a reply... Richard Wright Translation, "We should like to be absolved of all responsibility for what we do. We just want to rake in the money." Like · Reply · 1 y Richard Sexton Sure. Like Usenet. Like BBS systems. Like the telephone. If you put up a whiteboard on your lawn and invited poeple to leave messages would you want to be arrested if somebody wrote "there's a fire in the theatre" on it? Would that be reasonable? That's what you're asking for. Be careful what you wish for, you may get it, as our learned friends remind us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTBx-hHf4BE One Tin Soldier - The Original Caste [Original] YOUTUBE.COM One Tin Soldier - The Original Caste [Original] One Tin Soldier - The Original Caste [Original] Like · Reply · 1 y