Can social media be “fixed”?

  Last week, executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google testified before Congress. Again. This was the third congressional hearing this year where the internet giants were grilled on their content policies, their privacy and security practices, and their role in democracy.

  It’s been a rough couple of years for social media platforms. They’ve come under fire for so many different things that it can be hard to remember all of them. To recap: For enabling Russian propagandists to influence our presidential election and terrorist organizations to find new recruits. For allowing fake news stories to go viral. For exacerbating political polarization by trapping their users in “filter bubbles.” For giving hate mongers and conspiracy theorists a platform to reach a wider audience. For filtering or down-ranking conservative viewpoints. For collecting private user data and selling it to the highest bidder. For siphoning profits away from struggling local news organizations.

Gene Policinski: Closing down ‘Free Speech’ is no joking matter

  If this were a joke, it would have to start out: “So, three censors walk into a bar….”

  Except that it’s no joking matter when the trio calling for private or public censoring of the Internet include the two leading candidates (at this moment) for leader of the Free World, and the head of the largest search engine and information company on the planet.