HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Everybody Is Wrong About Big Tech

Views: 876
Robby Soave doesn't like it when social media deplatforms users, but the far bigger threat comes from lawmakers on a mission.

------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------

The country is currently in the throes of a moral panic over social media, says Reason Senior Editor Robby Soave in his new book, Tech Panic: Why We Shouldn't Fear Facebook and the Future. Instagram is accused of making our daughters bulimic and YouTube is turning our sons into alt-right terrorists. Amazon is forcing us to buy stuff we don't want while Twitter degrades political discourse into an endless series of trolling memes. Conservatives clamor that they are being systematically discriminated against while liberals say social media perpetuates electoral fraud and COVID-19 misinformation. The result of such fearmongering, he tells Nick Gillespie, is increasingly intrusive and bipartisan attempts to regulate online speech and business models.

Conservatives like Gov. Ron DeSantis (R–Fla.) and Gov. Greg Abbott (R–Texas) have signed controversial legislation banning social media platforms from suspending or moderating the accounts of political candidates. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested private businesses like Twitter and YouTube should be classified as common carriers, subject to strict regulation by the federal government.

Liberal legislators in Colorado have proposed creating a "digital communications commission" that would have the power to change how platforms do business in the name of fighting "hate speech" and "misinformation." Lawmakers in at least 38 states have introduced over 100 laws in the past couple of years to regulate online speech and related issues.

In Tech Panic, Soave says such attacks are nothing more than modern-day witch hunts whose main accusations fall apart under even mild scrutiny. They are contemporary versions of past freakouts over video games, rock music, and comic books. "We shouldn't fear Facebook and the future," writes Soave, who criticizes social media for deplatforming people rather than supporting free speech. The bigger threat, he says, comes not from private companies but from politicians, woke mobs, social conservatives, and activists whose real goal is to limit speech they don't like.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Edited by Ian Keyser. Intro by Regan Taylor. Graphics by Lex Villena, Isaac Reese and Regan Taylor.


Music Credit: "Battle Drums," by Kyle Preston via Artlist


Photo Credits: BSIP/Newscom; Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash; Stephen M. Dowell/TNS/Newscom; Bob Daemmrich/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Dennis Brack / DanitaDelimont.com; Akshar Dave on Unsplash; Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash; Photo by Alessandro Stigliani on Unsplash; JT Vintage Glasshouse Images/Newscom; Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash; Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash; Photo by kabita Darlami on Unsplash; Saad Faruque from Bangalore, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash; CNP / Polaris/Newscom; Photo by Thiébaud Faix on Unsplash; Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash; Photo by horacio olavarria on Unsplash; Photo by Akshar Dave on Unsplash; Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash; Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash; Photo by XVIIIZZ on Unsplash; Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash; Photo by Alex Motoc on Unsplash; Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Ken Cedeno / Pool via CNP; Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; jglazer75, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Ken Cedeno - via CNP/Polaris/Newscom; Time Machine via archive.org, C-SPAN; Michael Brochstein/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom, Ken Cedeno / Pool via CNP
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for California Business Owners Sue Gov. Newsom Over the Lockdowns5:44
California Business Owners Sue Gov. Newsom Over the Lockdowns
ReasonVids
950 views
Thumbnail for Rep. Justin Amash: The Two-Party System Needs to Die29:21
Rep. Justin Amash: The Two-Party System Needs to Die
ReasonVids
993 views
Thumbnail for FDA vs. Modern Medicine: Q&A w/ Peter Huber9:49
FDA vs. Modern Medicine: Q&A w/ Peter Huber
ReasonVids
854 views
Thumbnail for Biting the Hands that Feed Us: Food Laws vs. Culinary Reality10:08
Biting the Hands that Feed Us: Food Laws vs. Culinary Reality
ReasonVids
912 views
Thumbnail for The Whitest Kids U'Know Season 5 Episode 1022:33
The Whitest Kids U'Know Season 5 Episode 10
wkuk.topic
444 views
Thumbnail for Gov. Gary Johnson Among the Occupy Wall Street Protesters5:21
Gov. Gary Johnson Among the Occupy Wall Street Protesters
ReasonVids
799 views
Thumbnail for Veronique de Rugy Tells the Truth about Taxes & Entitlements4:12
Veronique de Rugy Tells the Truth about Taxes & Entitlements
ReasonVids
793 views
Thumbnail for Matthew Elliot on Britain's Burgeoning Tax Revolt5:44
Matthew Elliot on Britain's Burgeoning Tax Revolt
ReasonVids
952 views
Thumbnail for Richard Riordan on Unions and Dysfunctional LA (Extended Interview)40:42
Richard Riordan on Unions and Dysfunctional LA (Extended Interview)
ReasonVids
903 views
Thumbnail for The Great Philly Beer Bust or, Step Away From The Unlicensed Ale or I'll Shoot!7:30
The Great Philly Beer Bust or, Step Away From The Unlicensed Ale or I'll Shoot!
ReasonVids
789 views
Thumbnail for 2 Million Voters in 7 Counties Will Decide 2016. Who Will Win Them?16:03
2 Million Voters in 7 Counties Will Decide 2016. Who Will Win Them?
ReasonVids
884 views
Thumbnail for Why John Boehner Was a Better Speaker than Paul Ryan: Justin Amash6:03
Why John Boehner Was a Better Speaker than Paul Ryan: Justin Amash
ReasonVids
844 views
Thumbnail for More Taxes or More Jobs? California Shows We Can't Have Both7:01
More Taxes or More Jobs? California Shows We Can't Have Both
ReasonVids
831 views
Thumbnail for Nathan Rabin: Confessions of a Trash-Culture Connoisseur1:16:51
Nathan Rabin: Confessions of a Trash-Culture Connoisseur
ReasonVids
729 views
Thumbnail for How California Could Have Avoided Its Epic Water Crisis3:43
How California Could Have Avoided Its Epic Water Crisis
ReasonVids
829 views
Thumbnail for Megan McArdle: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success13:23
Megan McArdle: Why Failing Well is the Key to Success
ReasonVids
874 views
Thumbnail for Don't Be Afraid of Those 6,000 Felons Just Released From Prison - FAMM's Kevin Ring10:55
Don't Be Afraid of Those 6,000 Felons Just Released From Prison - FAMM's Kevin Ring
ReasonVids
874 views
Thumbnail for Remy: It Wasn't Me (Shaggy Parody)1:28
Remy: It Wasn't Me (Shaggy Parody)
ReasonVids
871 views
Thumbnail for Dashcam Tornado0:15
Dashcam Tornado
AOU
2079 views
Thumbnail for And here is why you need to make sure you kill your attacker0:37
And here is why you need to make sure you kill your attacker
bestofupgoat
70 views
Thumbnail for Neighbors having an argument, gets a little wet.0:50
Neighbors having an argument, gets a little wet.
publicfreakouts
1128 views
Thumbnail for Larry Summers Calls Milton Friedman a "Devil Figure"0:33
Larry Summers Calls Milton Friedman a "Devil Figure"
ReasonVids
850 views
Thumbnail for What We Saw at the Students For Liberty Conference 20152:47
What We Saw at the Students For Liberty Conference 2015
ReasonVids
922 views
Thumbnail for Rep. Justin Amash on Trump, Ryan, and the 'Stupidity' of How the Government Spends Your Money33:14
Rep. Justin Amash on Trump, Ryan, and the 'Stupidity' of How the Government Spends Your Money
ReasonVids
940 views
Thumbnail for 3 Myths About American Decline4:44
3 Myths About American Decline
ReasonVids
1113 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian, reason magazine, reason.com, reason.tv, reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle