The Internet We Know Is Broken

But there is still time to fix it

Photo by Polina Zimmerman from Pexels. Image Caption: iPhone with a white background and black text reading “ERROR.” There is a green and red light filter that reflects off the glossy table the phone sits on.

Because social media is considered a platform rather than a publishing entity, any regulation on the internet without the user and host’s consent is considered both an economic and free speech violation. However, neither the hosts nor the users have the incentives to support regulation, despite experiencing negative effects from the work of bad actors. A regulation-free internet allows the possibility of violent, pornographic, exploitative, and threatening content to exist and proliferate without moderation. All parties can agree that this type of content should be regulated, but it is difficult to draw the line between amoral expression and the assertion of human rights. Because the internet is considered a platform and not a publishing entity, traditional methods of regulation have been overturned in favor of the individual rights to freedom of speech and expression. However, free speech is not an absolutist term, and is also not mutually exclusive with values such as equality, safety, and democratic participation.

Americans may be more partisan than the past, but private companies are not as politically motivated in their censorship as conservative parties claim. Internet platforms are powerful economic stakeholders and have no incentives to address the problems inherent in the wild west of the internet. In…