COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY JOHN NAUGHTON IN THE
GUARDIAN
Theresa May thinks
Facebook will police itself?
The PM has joined the
social media ‘techlash’, but only new laws, not pious aspirations, will make a
difference
"… and in
particular the way they are allowing their users to pollute the public sphere
with extremist rhetoric, hate speech, trolling and multipurpose
abusiveness"
Very worrying statement for all those who embrace freedom of
thought and expression.
"...pollute the public sphere..." sounds much like
something from a Soviet Commissar or a Nazi Gauleiter.
No one in his right mind would trust someone like Theresa
May or Tony Blair or the editor of this newspaper to police the internet.
In the matter of human freedom, it is always better to err
on the side the internet giants now perhaps err on.
When it comes to Facebook, that most appalling of social
media, the kind of stuff being talked of is the very least of its sins.
This is a genuinely controlling, high-handed, and almost
police-state device by its very design and way of operating.
The way it treats all of its members and its dishonesty are
what is most troubling, not the fact that it may contain this or that
unacceptable postings by some reckonings.
But that doesn't bother the establishment. No, what bothers
them is that there are people saying things with which they disagree.
______________________________
Response to a comment
about people subjected to all the name-calling on sites:
